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Delay In Glucose Coming Up

kc261505

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hey everyone! I'd love to pick everyone's brain for a minute. I'm on pens (Lantus and Novolog) and have been diabetic for about 11 years.
For maybe the last month or so I've noticed that it's taking an extremely long time for my low blood sugars to respond to treatment.
For example (and this is just the most recent experience, definitely not the only one), last night I was at 63 (meter) and 53 (Libre), this was 20 minutes after a dinner of pizza, a small piece of cake. I then had some glucose gel and some pretzels. I waited another 20 minutes and my Libre was reading the same and my meter had come up to only 70. I started feeling better and took the dog for a walk (I had sugar tabs and my boyfriend was with me) and by the time I got back I was at 114 on my meter. Fast forward about 2 hours (and falling asleep on the couch) and I'm 467.
This happens for any type meal I have or even between meals when I haven't had food for hours. There is no specific time of day that it trends at either.
Anyone else have this happen? Any one figure out what may have triggered this change? What did you use to treat yourself?

Thanks everyone!
 
Last edited:
I guess it was the fatty pizza that was still in your stomach delaying the absorbtion of your glucose gel this time. And don't trust your Libre to see how fast you come out of a hypo. Apart from the normal 15 minutes delay I find it's slow in going up after a hypo. Maybe the glucose goes to the more important parts of our bodies first, leaving the back of our arms for last or something like that.

This doesn't answer why this happens when you've not just eaten of course.
 
Thank you!
It's been happening consistently over other meals though and even between meals. Last night's pizza was just the most recent example. But I'll definitely keep that possibility in mind for further meals.
Oh I definitely don't use the Libre for that! It's just ready for my boyfriend to scan me, so he likes to use it to keep track. I was definitely tracking with my meter!
 
Hi @kc261505 I tend to avoid pizza, reason being is you can bolus for it then the fat delays the carb absorption and you're left going low, then fast forward 3-4 hours later and your going high. I have found in the past that my bg levels have played nicely but have gone to bed and then woken high in the morning, it's a tricky meal to have for insulin dependent diabetics. If I do have some I do a split bolus so taking 50% now and 50% about an hour later which helps me avoid the low and can help avoid the high later on, it's not an easy one to do as takes a bit of effort. Also applies to other meals such as curries which can be loaded in fat.
 
Hi @kc261505 and welcome to the forum
Ah Pizza the type 1s enemy!. As has been previously said its a very fatty meal and will slow the carb absorption into your body. I, as do most type 1s, do a split dose.....1/2 before food then the other half between and hour and 2 hours after eating.
Maybe worth bolusing a bit before you eat your meals? Half hour maybe, depending on what you are eating. It's different for everybody, thankfully we are all not the same. GOOD LUCK
 
Thanks guys! I've heard people talk about the split bolusing for things like pizza so I will definitely try it in the future.

This experience has happened multiple times over a few weeks, not just the single event last night with pizza.
I thought maybe I was coming down with something and that was affecting things, but it has remained a consistent thing now for about a month.
 
Hi @kc261505

It’s normal to spike after eating - it can take up to 3-4 hours for bg levels to come back into range, as @porl69 has said a pre-bolus shot can help manage the spike, I tend to do it 20 mins before eating
 
Sorry I didn’t manage to reply properly before posting
 
To be honest I have sometimes the exact same problem!! But I think that it is mostly caused by this: 6PM taking a correction, dinner at 8PM, slowly rising where it take more than one hour and it would even be the same!! (My dinner is full of carbs). However, the reason I found out to be the correction dose still working thus keeping my BG steady. This applies for larger doses than 4 units of bolus.
 
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