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honeymoon help

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ema_jane81

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7
hello all am hoping someone may be able to help me
I am 3 months post diagnosis of type 1 and thought I was getting there..however over last few days I have noticed a change in that I am experiencing Spikes of blood sugar. I have two questions: what are peoples experience of the honeymoon period ending (is it a gradual thing or a quick thing?)
also are we aiming for blood never to spike above 10 (for example) or is it more about how long it takes to come back in range? any advice would be helpful x
 
ema_jane81 said:
hello all am hoping someone may be able to help me
I am 3 months post diagnosis of type 1 and thought I was getting there..however over last few days I have noticed a change in that I am experiencing Spikes of blood sugar. I have two questions: what are peoples experience of the honeymoon period ending (is it a gradual thing or a quick thing?)
also are we aiming for blood never to spike above 10 (for example) or is it more about how long it takes to come back in range? any advice would be helpful x
Click to expand...

Hi there, it is different for everyone of course but I think either of the things you mention can be a sign. Also I think it's when you gradually start to use more units of insulin for the same amount of carbs/meals and when your own insulin production gets lower (hard to establish that as they rarely do a C Peptide test after diagnosis). I am 3 years into a type 1 diagnosis and think that I am still in my honeymoon because I use 6 units of basal which has been the same all through and am on the same insulin/carb rate.

If that amount was no longer keeping my fasting numbers in range and I had to up it as I went along, then again that *may* be a sign. The problem is it's all very unpredictable especially when you are at the start of it all, what spikes are you seeing and can you give us a typical days food & figures? That really helps us to tell you if we've experienced the same and what we did or didn't do. Overall a few days probably isn't a long enough pattern as you could easily be back to your current 'normal' next week!

Speaking for myself, aiming never to spike above 10 may be a good target but virtually impossible to achieve 100%. You made me smile with the term 'getting there' because honestly, it's a journey that you never get to the end of, glucose levels can be impacted by a multitude of things, exercise, weight, stress, doing the hoovering, argument with your partner, some woman at the bus stop being a pain, just about anything. x
 
ema_jane81 said:
hello all am hoping someone may be able to help me
I am 3 months post diagnosis of type 1 and thought I was getting there..however over last few days I have noticed a change in that I am experiencing Spikes of blood sugar. I have two questions: what are peoples experience of the honeymoon period ending (is it a gradual thing or a quick thing?)
also are we aiming for blood never to spike above 10 (for example) or is it more about how long it takes to come back in range? any advice would be helpful x
Click to expand...

Ideally long term you wouldn’t want bloods to go over 7.8 and not to rise more than2.8 after a meal.

However, you are in early days. To be honest it’s so long since I was diagnosed I can’t remember the honeymoon period!! To rarely spike above 10 is good when you first settle in with T1. Never, well that is really not an option with T1 as you will always get a hiccup come along at some point..

Hoping this will bump up your post to get some responses.
 
thank you both
just to give you a typical sense of a day, basal i am on 5 units and have been on a 1:30 ratio carbs wise..i tend to have a low carb diet..perhaps having 40g spread over the day...today i injected 1.5 units to cover 34g carbs and i went up to 11 (from 7) this came down 2 hours post eating..feel abit sad because i had been managing on little pr no insulin and had very low blood sugars
Emma
 
ema_jane81 said:
thank you both
just to give you a typical sense of a day, basal i am on 5 units and have been on a 1:30 ratio carbs wise..i tend to have a low carb diet..perhaps having 40g spread over the day...today i injected 1.5 units to cover 34g carbs and i went up to 11 (from 7) this came down 2 hours post eating..feel abit sad because i had been managing on little pr no insulin and had very low blood sugars
Emma
Click to expand...

Hi ema, what are you sad about exactly? What was your level around 2 hours after your meal, 'spiking' to 11 in and of itself is pretty common for a type 1 but if it has come down after 2 hours to an acceptable level then you're doing really well. Also, this '2 hour post meal' target is not written in stone, it's a guideline if you like for type 1s. This is because bolus insulin acts (roughly) over a 4/5 hour period so your post meal levels could take 3 or 4 hours before they go back to what they were pre meal. Much of the stuff you read on here is pertinent to type 2s who are dealing with a different set of challenges albeit we share some.

Try not to get hung up on every individual reading because you simply cannot replicate the job of a working pancreas and trying to will lead to failure. As already said there is this so called magical number of '7.8' which is touted as the holy grail, go over it and it's instant destruction apparently. I do not believe that is the case, we all go above 7.8 (even non diabetics) but if you are above this level for prolonged periods of time or most of the time, the consensus is this could cause long term damage. . To me, the aim is to keep your levels as steady as you can whilst accepting that you will spike above 7.8, you may go up into double figures after food but if you are mostly in the lower ranges and under 10 most of the time you can consider yourself a success. Please don't get disheartened, you have just started and you are doing fab. x
 
Thankyou kk123 I suppose I was getting used to low blood sugar readings so am surprised I think to see a change and higher readings.I am also slightly over controlled as a person and more of an anxious type.::I wasn't sure about the honeymoon phase or whether the aim is to stay at the 'magic number' or get back within range. Your response is helpful, thank you for taking the time to reply! still early days I know for me.
 
Hello @ema_jane81

Personally I don't get hung up on spikes at all - I can quite often see 11-14 on my Dexcom, and tbh if I was the person I was when I was diagnosed then I would be banging my head against the wall and falling deeper into a bottomless pit with my control.

Part of diagnosis for me was to let go of my 'perfectionist' state of mind and believing I could control this perfectly. What I have learned to become is someone who can deal with the daily grind by simply doing my best each day and not obsessing over the numbers, when you come to do the Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating course (DAFNE) they will educate you that as long as your levels are in range before your next meal then the bolus calculation worked. I also work on my Time in Range (TIR) as I use the Dexcom G6 which is a continuous monitor I can see weekly what my TIR is and on this basis I aim for 70% and I generally hit this. I also focus on keeping my levels in range during sleep, as this is the longest period we spend in a fasting state during the day, it also means better quality of sleep if in range too. So I avoid eating after 8pm to ensure I don't go high during the night and can correct before bed if necessary.

You are newly diagnosed so go easy on yourself, there's a heck of alot to get used to which improves in time with knowledge and building confidence, the honeymoon is unpredictable as your pancreas is literally working in fits and spurts, I found things became easier once this phase had passed and despite taking more insulin, working with smaller doses means you have time to get used to things but it does mean you have to be vigilant and watch things carefully too.
 
Hey,

I am very newly out of my honeymoon. The honeymoon sucked and I had a lot of fluctuations.. some days I needed barely any fast acting other days I would need more, I was having 6 hypos a day at one point for about 3 months where I eventually had to just go down to taking basal insulin unless I ate a very very high carb meal in which I would take 1 unit: 30gram carbs

it’s tough, I was told the honeymoon is brilliant and control is so easy, but I found it extremely hard. Especially managing the hypo’s. a blood sugar spike of 11 isn’t bad aslong as your blood sugar is back down in target 2 hours after your meal.

try not to be hard on yourself and take each day as it comes, maybe see if you would be eligible for a CGM if you don’t already have one so that you have a view of how your sugars are reacting during the hours after meals.
 
Hi, like Chloelox I found the honeymoon period really tricky - a spike of 11 really isn’t anything to worry about and I remember my carb ratios were all over the place which was really hard to manage some days. Hopefully you’ll have an easier time with it but try not to beat yourself up about it as it can be quite a weird and unpredictable disease xx
 
ema_jane81 said:
hello all am hoping someone may be able to help me
I am 3 months post diagnosis of type 1 and thought I was getting there..however over last few days I have noticed a change in that I am experiencing Spikes of blood sugar. I have two questions: what are peoples experience of the honeymoon period ending (is it a gradual thing or a quick thing?)
also are we aiming for blood never to spike above 10 (for example) or is it more about how long it takes to come back in range? any advice would be helpful x
Click to expand...

Hi,

A diabetes honeymoon period is sometimes described so phenomenally by some diabetics but it really differs from person to person. Some people are completely off insulin for months whilst others still use bolus and basal insulin. However the common thing between all diabetics is that you will notice when your honeymoon ends, your insulin demand will increase significantly. The period the honeymoon lasts can be from a few months to nearly a decade or more.

An important thing to note is that there are dozens and dozens of factors that can affect blood sugar levels, so I don’t think the honeymoon ending should be the number 1 blame. And the annoying thing is that every person is affected by these factors differently. Warm weather can increase or decrease sugars. Illness can increase or decrease sugars. Same applies for alcohol, stress etc
 
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