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High sugar

Chloelox

Chloelox

Well-Known Member
Messages
133
Location
North Wales
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi guys,

my sugar is currently 16, 0.4ketones.
I have injected one unit as a correction dose 20 minutes ago and my sugar is still rising,
How long will it take for my correction to start working?

Thanks!
 
Hi @Chloelox, is it novorapid you took or a different insulin?
Did you eat recently? Is that why you are high? Is it less than 2 hours since you ate?
I use novorapid and if I'm still digesting a meal it can be a good hour or more before my blood sugars start coming down.
If I haven't eaten recently but am high for a different reason, it can be quicker before it starts coming down.
Do you use a libre/other CGM that you can keep an eye on?
 
sleepster said:
Hi @Chloelox, is it novorapid you took or a different insulin?
Did you eat recently? Is that why you are high? Is it less than 2 hours since you ate?
I use novorapid and if I'm still digesting a meal it can be a good hour or more before my blood sugars start coming down.
If I haven't eaten recently but am high for a different reason, it can be quicker before it starts coming down.
Do you use a libre/other CGM that you can keep an eye on?
Click to expand...
I use libre, my last meal was 3.5 hours ago. Novarapid is the insulin, I gave a 1 unit correction and my blood sugar is now declining.. currently sat at 11.6 :) x
 
I'm glad it's going in the right direction, sometimes mine takes blinking ages to go down.
I didn't want to make assumptions and give incorrect advice so apologies if it seemed like I was asking a lot of questions and not giving a lot of answers.
 
MarkMunday said:
High blood glucose with ketones usually means lack of insulin. Have you tested your basal?
Click to expand...
Yeah I’ve done basal test, currently eating low carb but I let myself down and had a high carb meal for teatime, I injected for the meal but obviously not enough. I usually have between 0.1-0.5 ketones present. I’m never ketone free it seems.
 
Chloelox said:
Hi guys,

my sugar is currently 16, 0.4ketones.
I have injected one unit as a correction dose 20 minutes ago and my sugar is still rising,
How long will it take for my correction to start working?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

What’s your correction factor? 1 unit doesn’t seem enough (in my opinion) unless you’re very very sensitive to insulin.

Libre is said to be up to 15 minutes behind actual blood glucose readings from a meter. Depending on the time of the day NovoRapid has a different onset of action, once I had to wait 1.5 hours for my blood sugar to come down before I could eat my breakfast.

However usually if I have eaten something then my blood sugar would start going down 1-1.5 hours after injecting (around the time when most if not all of the glucose from the food is released).

Without food, 20-30 minutes should start causing a drop in blood glucose.

I have realised something on Libre but I’m not sure if it’s 100% applicable to everyone, whenever I inject NovoRapid without food I can see that my blood sugar rises a little 0-1mmol before falling
 
becca59 said:
@TypeZero interesting on the rise after an injection. I am on Fiasp and have noticed a similar reaction.
Click to expand...

I can see a similar small rise with my breakfast Humalog just before it appears to start working, never more than 1mmol and I think for me it's the 'feet on the floor' rise starting with the insulin stopping it in its tracks.
 
Chloelox said:
Yeah I’ve done basal test, currently eating low carb but I let myself down and had a high carb meal for teatime, I injected for the meal but obviously not enough. I usually have between 0.1-0.5 ketones present. I’m never ketone free it seems.
Click to expand...

Don't see it as letting yourself down @Chloelox , at least it gives you an idea of why your levels increased :) It's also great to learn from so it gives you a better idea how much insulin to have for the next time you decide to have a high carb meal!
 
TypeZero. said:
What’s your correction factor? 1 unit doesn’t seem enough (in my opinion) unless you’re very very sensitive to insulin.

Libre is said to be up to 15 minutes behind actual blood glucose readings from a meter. Depending on the time of the day NovoRapid has a different onset of action, once I had to wait 1.5 hours for my blood sugar to come down before I could eat my breakfast.

However usually if I have eaten something then my blood sugar would start going down 1-1.5 hours after injecting (around the time when most if not all of the glucose from the food is released).

Without food, 20-30 minutes should start causing a drop in blood glucose.

I have realised something on Libre but I’m not sure if it’s 100% applicable to everyone, whenever I inject NovoRapid without food I can see that my blood sugar rises a little 0-1mmol before falling
Click to expand...
I am very sensitive, 1 unit dropped me from 16.3 (checked with finger stick) to 4.6 4 hours later with no food. I usually eat with correction but felt it wasn’t necessary and my sugars came down.

I get the 1mmol night time insulin injections rise with my humulin I strangely and have had times where novorapid has increased my sugar before dropping prior to eating food.
 
Matt_Harman said:
Don't see it as letting yourself down @Chloelox , at least it gives you an idea of why your levels increased :) It's also great to learn from so it gives you a better idea how much insulin to have for the next time you decide to have a high carb meal!
Click to expand...

It’s all trial and error isn’t it, I guess it’ll teach me not to try and mess with my diet again or inject more insulin if I do
 
Chloelox said:
I am very sensitive, 1 unit dropped me from 16.3 (checked with finger stick) to 4.6 4 hours later with no food. I usually eat with correction but felt it wasn’t necessary and my sugars came down.

I get the 1mmol night time insulin injections rise with my humulin I strangely and have had times where novorapid has increased my sugar before dropping prior to eating food.
Click to expand...

Wow you seem very very sensitive to insulin. I know it’s not the right time and place but have you considered pumping if you haven’t already? Pumping will allow you to give microdoses in 0.1 unit increments so you wouldn’t have to use a whole unit which would otherwise put you low.

We look for explanations for our blood glucose but sometimes there isn’t an explanation. I’m literally keeping my fingers crossed that my insulin needs and blood glucose doesn’t change. I’m 3.5 months since my diagnosis but started losing weight since June 2019 so I went a year with sky high blood sugars and my pancreas is nearly completely dead, my latest C peptide was 90 pmol/L but my pancreas doesn’t help me for meals at all and I have a perfect simple 1:10 ratio for all three meals of the day so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that only my basal increases and my carb ratios stay the same
 
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