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Type 1 Desk Job to Physical Job Blood Sugars Rising Dramatically

K

kgbow

Member
Messages
7
Location
Cornwall UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi all,

I'm a 55 year old T1 only been diabetic for 4 years now. The whole time I have had a desk job but recently changed to a physical job and am finding it difficult to control my sugars. They rise dramatically, go from 6-7 before work and end up 17+ after only a couple of hours! I eat before work but just can't seem to get it right. What am I doing wrong. Should I inject fast acting perhaps? Seems odd.
 
I would suggest you might need to do some basal testing during a work day to find out if it's a basal issue - https://mysugr.com/basal-rate-testing/

You say you eat before work, do you bolus for it? Is the rise from 6 to 17 related to your pre work meal?

What sort of physical work are you doing? If it's intense than that might be releasing adrenaline and pushing blood sugar up. Some people will bolus or increase temporary basal rates for things like weight lifting.
 
Thanks for the reply. I eat an apple and a kit kit and no I don't inject for it. I figured it would be enough to cover the exercise. It's only dog walking, a number of dogs, each dog gets a walk round a field. There's also cleaning of the dog pens. I'm afraid to eat more but maybe that's exactly what I should do! Maybe my liver is dumping glucose into my system?
 
kgbow said:
Thanks for the reply. I eat an apple and a kit kit and no I don't inject for it. I figured it would be enough to cover the exercise. It's only dog walking, a number of dogs, each dog gets a walk round a field. There's also cleaning of the dog pens. I'm afraid to eat more but maybe that's exactly what I should do! Maybe my liver is dumping glucose into my system?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't have thought the raise to 17 is caused by your liver doing anything. Why would your liver need to dump glucose into your system when you have ~25g of unbolused for carbs right there. Eating more isn't going to correct high blood sugar when the high blood sugar is caused by unbolused for carbs, you might want to reduce your bolus a bit to accommodate the exercise, but no bolus at all is obviously not necessary for gentle exercise like walking.
 
kgbow said:
I eat an apple and a kit kit and no I don't inject for it.
Click to expand...
I'd make an apple to be 20g of carbs (depending on size obviously) and the kitkat (if it's a two finger one) about 13g; so we have nearly 35g of carbs with no bolus. 10g of carbs will raise you somewhere between 2-3mmol/l - so you could be going from 6mmol/l to 13mmol/l on the food alone... If you're eating a 4 finger kitkat, that will explain your rise to 17mmol/l almost exclusively.

I'd go with @catapillar's suggestion wrt the basal rate test, and probably not have the snacks before you go out, or if you do - bolus accordingly.
 
See this is what I cannot understand. The KitKat and the apple routine work perfectly well for the two hour shopping trip. When I get home i'm still on the 6-7 mark!

@catapillar I read that your liver dumps glucose in because there is not enough in your blood for your muscles to cope with the exercise at the time.
 
There's clearly plenty of glucose in your blood to cope with a walk if you are starting off at 6-7 with >25g unbolused for carbs in. If anything, there is too much in your blood. Remember, your muscles can't use the glucose in your blood to power exercise unless there is insulin to get the glucose into the cells.
 
Thanks for the advice @catapillar and @GrantGam. I tried both ways. For the morning shift I ate and injected for it. By the end of the shift I was 4.8 so not bad. For the afternoon shift I was already on 9 before I started (no idea why I was 9, I hadn't eaten anything and only had one cup of tea) so I didn't have anything to eat. I ended the shift with a hypo, 3.2 Today I ate and injected for both shifts and all was good, 5.2 at end of morning shift and 4.8 by end of afternoon shift. Had to have a couple of polo's along the way in the afternoon as I felt like I was going to go low.

Hopefully getting to grips with it now.
 
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