Hi there, I am a newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic, diagnosed early. Had hypos during the first few nights of starting on insulin on starting doses, then my sugar levels stabilised and were perfectly stable at night for 3-4 nights. From what I've read so far, this means the basal dose is perfect at the moment (on tresiba 4 units morning, novorapid 1 unit TDS With meals). I tried carbohydrate counting Friday with novorapid to experiment with the diabetic nurses advice, but this was a mistake as I am still early diagnosed in hooneymoon period and caused 5 x hypos in 24 hours so I went back to the starting doses as above. Since I have been better, but only get one or two hypos in the night which isn't too bad to say its only my second week of insulin. I think maybe the high dose novorapid day shook my sugar balance and I'm only just stabilizing back maybe? My sugar control is usually pretty good during the day.
My questions are;
1) Is there anything I'm doing which may be causing nighttime hypos that I don't know about? I have tried to exercise early in the day, always have a big evening meal, avoid alcohol (not drunk for 6+ months), I do check BM levels at 10-11pm before bed and not been sleeping great due to anxiety around it dropping. Sometimes I'll try to have a long-acting carbohydrate before bed (crackers, corn flakes, toast etc.) so that I don't have to worry until morning. I can try to eat a bigger evening meal but my sugars will go above 12+ and I cannot increase my novorapid dose yet due to the big hypo risk and I'm extremely sensitive to insulin right now.
2) I honestly can't imagine how type 1 diabetics used to manage without Libre 2 and CGM's (finger pricking only!?), in terms of safety whilst sleeping. What used to happen if say, you had not eaten enough, or misjudged the insulin requirements for the day and had a severe hypo? I'm talking about someone who lives alone, would this have been extremely unsafe? At the moment I live alone and do not have the glucagon injection, which I am a bit concerned about. I've thought about telling my partner (lives 5 mins away) to make an agreement, such as if I ring 2-3x in the night then I need them to come over. I keep loads of snacks in my bedside drawer which is a really good idea, just in case there is an issue with the monitor sensor (have a sensor alarm), or somehow it has failed and I wake up with a BM of <4, unable to get to the fridge.
Any info/advice would be really appreciated, as couldn't find any info from searching forums. Thanks in advance
My questions are;
1) Is there anything I'm doing which may be causing nighttime hypos that I don't know about? I have tried to exercise early in the day, always have a big evening meal, avoid alcohol (not drunk for 6+ months), I do check BM levels at 10-11pm before bed and not been sleeping great due to anxiety around it dropping. Sometimes I'll try to have a long-acting carbohydrate before bed (crackers, corn flakes, toast etc.) so that I don't have to worry until morning. I can try to eat a bigger evening meal but my sugars will go above 12+ and I cannot increase my novorapid dose yet due to the big hypo risk and I'm extremely sensitive to insulin right now.
2) I honestly can't imagine how type 1 diabetics used to manage without Libre 2 and CGM's (finger pricking only!?), in terms of safety whilst sleeping. What used to happen if say, you had not eaten enough, or misjudged the insulin requirements for the day and had a severe hypo? I'm talking about someone who lives alone, would this have been extremely unsafe? At the moment I live alone and do not have the glucagon injection, which I am a bit concerned about. I've thought about telling my partner (lives 5 mins away) to make an agreement, such as if I ring 2-3x in the night then I need them to come over. I keep loads of snacks in my bedside drawer which is a really good idea, just in case there is an issue with the monitor sensor (have a sensor alarm), or somehow it has failed and I wake up with a BM of <4, unable to get to the fridge.
Any info/advice would be really appreciated, as couldn't find any info from searching forums. Thanks in advance