Diabetes can be soooo RANDOM!!

Debloubed

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Had one of those fabulous random episodes last night, came in from work, dinner was ready (my boyfriend is ace!) sat down, tested (5.9 - practically perfect!) ate dinner, as I ate I calculated carbs, injected novorapid after, said no to dessert (trying to be good!) and then settled down to watch some TV. Went to bed at 10pm, tested, 15.4 :evil: injected levemir and a teeny, tiny correction dose, went to sleep only to awaken at approx 1am twitching with my boyfriend handing me jelly beans. I was aware and cooperative so not toooooo bad but I am SO annoyed with myself for taking the correction dose and then not eating with it!!

NB - the random part of this story is the 15.4 before bed!! I have got a bit of a cold so prob didn't help but still, grrrrrrrrrr............ :roll:

Anyway, rant over! :lol:
 

hanadr

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Deb
that is the way it goes,
but I noted you said "5.9 practically perfect".
I would say that was on the high side.
I know it's within the range given by NICE, Diabetes Uk and everyone else for before meals, but it's still high. what was your last Hba1c?
What do you normally eat?
Eating less carb, by eating smaller portions or changing your choices can help keep your BG down on smaller doses of rapid insulin and it means that if you need to correct and it's less likely, the amount is smaller and hypos less common.
 

Debloubed

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Hi Hana, 5.9 is practically perfect as my target is 6, which was calculated for me by my Insight (DAFNE) team - I see you are Type 2, so ratios and targets tend to be a bit higher for Type 1's (sometimes!) :D my last HBa1C was 5.8 8)

As for eating, I eat whatever I like! well, not exactly :wink: but I don't have to eat low carbs all the time as I inject insulin to compensate for the carbs I eat, so if I eat 10g or 100g of carbs, I can calculate to cover it :D

But you are right, that is just the way it goes at times! Bummer :lol:
 

Alzibiff

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Debloubed,
I know exactly where you are coming from - just wonder what you had for your evening meal and how long it was between that and bedtime. Rice, pasta and pizza can take ages to get digested, which may explain the high at bedtime but the subsequent low - when the novorapid was - according to the book - spent - well! Can't fathom that one out. Wonder if the Levemir was to blame - do you take it all at once or split the dose between bedtime and getting up time?

Just goes to prove - this can be more of an art than a science despite what DAFNE says!

Alan
 

noblehead

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Debloubed,

I'll disagree with Hana on 5.9 being to high. This would be perfectly acceptable in my view; as a fellow type 1, I feel it is better to achieve pre-meal bg's of 5 plus, but below 6.5. Being type 1 and on insulin, means that it is easy to run into hypo territory between meal-times. Running hypo's frequently is not advised, as the body adapts to this level and you can loose warnings signs of going hypo. I know this to be true, as I have had this happen to myself.

Anyway, back to your bed time reading of 15.9. What time did you have your evening meal? My reasons for asking is, had it been around say 8pm, your novorapid would still be active, its profile is 4-5 hours before it is completely depleted, therefore your insulin from your evening meal would still be working. Also possible that you didn't quite match the correct amount of insulin to match the food that you ate.

Should this not be the case, and you had your meal at 6pm, you may have over corrected at bed-time, and give yourself to much insulin. I have just recently done the DAFNE course, but they advise not to correct between meals, however, what they say is that 1 unit of novorapid brings blood glucose down by 2-3 mmol/l , so no more than 3 units would be required at 15.9. DAFNE don't advise that you should correct before bed. I use correction doses before eating should I be outside my range.

Hope the above is helpful, often it is difficult to match insulin/carbs correctly, and the results are either being to high or to low, so if the 15.9 was a one-off, I wouldn't worry to much. At least your man recognised you were hypo, and got you back to normal !

Regards

Nigel
 

Debloubed

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thanks Alan and Nigel, sometimes it's just nice to know you're not the only one out there who understands, if that makes sense?! I know DAFNE doesn't recommend correcting between meals but then what do you do?! I actually only took x2 units of Novorapid (attempting to correct the BG down by 6) but perhaps I should have counted for a snack, eaten that and used the correction dose that way.

Here's hoping it was a random one off! Something tells me there will be more random-ness to come though :? :D :p
 

Celtic.Piskie

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It is random.

Personally, 5.9 would be fine for me. So don't worry about that at all.
Look at the timing of your meals as noblehead said. You m ight have overlapped some insulin, or you might have not corrected enough.

Either way, we all get occasional readings like this. You might be coming down with a cold, etc.

Do the best you can,. and enjoy yourself.
 

Fujifilm

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I would be happy with 5.9 as well :)

Did you inject both your correction dose and levemir in the same place? I found if I do that the rapid seems to work a lot quicker. I had an odd one the other night, bg was 20 :shock: no idea why it was so high, but injected correction dose which should have not been enough but three hours later it was 3.2

Think sometimes my body does these things just to keep me on my toes :lol:
 

shedges

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Hi Deb,

That does look like one to put down to the weird way our bodies work... experience.

A 5.9 before dinner is virtually perfect - well done on that. And I wish I had an HbA1c of 5.8!!! How do you do that!

I'm sure the insulin gets absorbed at different rates, depending on the injection site. So one place can give a nice predictable absorbtion one day and a site on a similar part of the body can get the insulin circulating faster or slower on a different day.

I am in the middle of reducing my carb intake but am not going straight for ultra-low. I have found that I'm still hitting post-prandial levels in the low teens, but not getting anything like the 15's - 20's that I usually get on my average carb-portion regime.

One thing I do know - as Type 1 diabetics, we never stop learning!

Sam.
 

Debloubed

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thanks for your support guys, good to know that we all face the same issues from time to time!

Sam, you are so right - we can never be complacent about all of this, you learn one thing and then have to re-learn something else the next day! All good fun though (most of the time :wink: )
 

Debloubed

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Fujifilm said:
I had an odd one the other night, bg was 20 :shock: no idea why it was so high, but injected correction dose which should have not been enough but three hours later it was 3.2

Think sometimes my body does these things just to keep me on my toes :lol:


I think that too! Would be an awful lot easier if we were all robots like some Docs and Nurses like to think we are :wink: :lol: :lol:

*Disclaimer* all my DN's are fab and even listen to me when I insist that there are no carbs in bananas!! :lol: :p
 

iHs

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*Disclaimer* all my DN's are fab and even listen to me when I insist that there are no carbs in bananas!!

Glad there is someone else like myself :lol:

I too can eat a banana with hardly any effect on my bg levels. Was a bit shocked when a pump rep told me how much carb was in one :!: Tinned pineapple is also the same.
 

Debloubed

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iHs said:
*Disclaimer* all my DN's are fab and even listen to me when I insist that there are no carbs in bananas!!

Glad there is someone else like myself :lol:

I too can eat a banana with hardly any effect on my bg levels. Was a bit shocked when a pump rep told me how much carb was in one :!: Tinned pineapple is also the same.

thank goodness I am not alone! :lol: when I first started carb counting I was using 2 or 3 units for bananas and going hypo all over the place! Now I just eat them as a snack and don't inject for them. Isn't that weird?! Couldn't do the same with pineapple though or grapes or cherries, I have to count for everyone of those :D
 

iHs

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Although they are nice and soft and can be eaten quickly, I could never trust a banana to lift me out of a low feeling. I just eat one now and again for the potassium. Gawd knows how tennis players get their energy :?: :lol:
 

africandoll

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5.9 oh I am so jealous I have not seen that kind of number for sometime now.
But your right diabetes can be random at times for me at the moment its so random cant figure out what that random things is for real.


That think about bananas :lol: so funny they do have carbs when I have a low I use a banana as my carb works a treat I tell you but I guess all our bodies are different. :D
 

Celtic.Piskie

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I eat them when i'm going out with the dogs, a good energy boost that lasts. But normally they send me sky high.
Plus very easy to eat on the move.

Hypo treatment is usually kendal mint cake... mmmmmm
 

noblehead

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Celtic Piskie,

Kendal Mint Cake!!!...you little devil :mrgreen:

As I live in the Lake District, I would eat this occasionally as a child. It was occasionaly, as it was quite expensive when I was a boy! I remember it is very sweet, but delicious, mostly sugar, and I would imagine that it brings you back from a hypo in no time! :)

Nigel
 

Celtic.Piskie

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Whole-wheat past and rice, tastes horrible. Cats, spiders, and people who think nick jonas is a musician.
Yup. It's the absolute only time i can eat it. Brings me out in no time.. and tastes so nice.

It's sugar, occasionally water/milk and peppermint oil. MMMMmmmm.......
 

Debloubed

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africandoll said:
That think about bananas :lol: so funny they do have carbs when I have a low I use a banana as my carb works a treat I tell you but I guess all our bodies are different. :D


That is so true and often ignored by the 'professionals'!