How long were you on fixed doses for?

[jlarsson]

I get up, have a dump, a shower, get dressed, feed the cats then test and inject before heading to the office.
I presume you are referring to this morning glory thing where the liver produces more glucose? I never considered that. But it did use to be OK.

Unless I'm missing something here, you're referring to **** Syndrome and not morning glory? That means something completely different.

 

[Bertyboy]

Unless I'm missing something here, you're referring to **** Syndrome and not morning glory? That means something completely different.

That's the thing I was thinking of (dawn syndrome). I'm still getting to grips with the diabetic lingo.

 

[jlarsson]

That's the thing I was thinking of (dawn syndrome). I'm still getting to grips with the diabetic lingo.

Actually it's a new thing for me too, and I evidently effed it up myself as it's phenomenon, not syndrome. But yeah, that's the thing that releases stuff and wrecks your sleep etc.

 

[mountaintom]

Unless I'm missing something here, you're referring to **** Syndrome and not morning glory? That means something completely different.

 

[Antje77]

That's the thing I was thinking of (dawn syndrome). I'm still getting to grips with the diabetic lingo.

I would look into feet on the floor effect as well. Easy to find out. Wake up, test before you get out of bed, do all the things you normally do before testing and test again.
Notice any difference? Feet on the floor, easily remedied with a dollop of insulin before getting out of bed (be careful experimenting and ask your DN when you are not confident adjusting doses)
High from the moment of waking up? Dawn effect, not enough basal or a funny meal yesterday night.

 

[Brunneria]

Hi All,

Just a request to keep the innuendo within reasonable limits.
We are a forum for everyone, not just over 18s.
So just assume that if you wouldn’t want your schoolage daughter to read it, then don’t post it.

Thanks in advance...

 

[mountaintom]

Hi All,

Just a request to keep the innuendo within reasonable limits.
We are a forum for everyone, not just over 18s.
So just assume that if you wouldn’t want your schoolage daughter to read it, then don’t post it.

Thanks in advance...

Apologies.

 

[Brunneria]

Apologies.

No worries!
Just thought I had better put a brake on things before they got REALLY frisky.

 

[LooperCat]

Does anyone else get awoken by the morning liver dump? Since I started getting it, I wake up with a start and increased heart rate. When I scan my Libre, the graph shows sugars just beginning to rise. If I don’t inject a unit of Novorapid straight away, it goes up from within range to 9 or 10mmol. I get woken by this any time between 6 and 9am, so don’t need to set an alarm for a foot on the floor jab. Weird.

 

[jlarsson]

Does anyone else get awoken by the morning liver dump? Since I started getting it, I wake up with a start and increased heart rate. When I scan my Libre, the graph shows sugars just beginning to rise. If I don’t inject a unit of Novorapid straight away, it goes up from within range to 9 or 10mmol. I get woken by this any time between 6 and 9am, so don’t need to set an alarm for a foot on the floor jab. Weird.

I have a few times, but most of the time when I wake up in the middle of the night with a heart rate that of a marathon runner it's because of a hypo.

 

[Scott-C]

Do you test before getting out of bed or only after getting dressed, washing hands, go to the toilet, making coffe or whatever? Makes a big difference to me, my bg shoots up as soon as I get out of bed (so I test and inject before doing so). A fasting sugar and a waking up sugar are often not the same.

You've made some extremely good points about that danged "foot on floor" stuff, @Antje77 .

It's underestimated by T1s, and some docs query whether it exists, but it does.

Before libre/cgm, one of two things would happen when I was on strips alone:

I'd wake up, test, let's say it was 5.5, I'd think ok, fine, head off to work, and then wonder why I was at 9 going in to lunch (I don't do breakfast - that's another story).

Or, I'd not bother testing on getting up (yeah, I know we should, but we don't always, do we?), find myself at 9 going into lunch, and then sit there thinking about two things: 1. the lunch correction, and 2. how the hell long was I at 9 anyway? All night, a few hours? Without doing that morning test, I didn't know.

Anyway, getting to the point. That was how it was with strips alone. A whole stack of 3 or 4 tests within a few hours to resolve it or just say that's the way it works?

With libre, though, after using it for the first week or two for obvious things like hypos, I started paying more attention to the subtler things it can be used for.

And one of those was watching just how hard that rapid 'foot on floor" spike can kick in taking me from 5 to 9 in the hour between getting up and getting to work.

I wouldn't have seen this on strips alone, but **** well saw it with libre: a definite 5 to 9 spike on getting up, so decided I'd deal with it by taking a 2, 3 or sometimes 4u pin to stop that rise, so I'm walking into lunch at 5 instead of 9.

What a difference in terms of my day to day life, and I didn't have much difficulty explaining that to docs at review, but the puzzling thing is that they didn't seem to understand that this "foot on floor" thing even existed. They just saw the number on my meter without seeing the movement in the hours around it and why I decided to take a different approach.

 

[SamElliott1997]

I started carb counting within a week or so of being diagnosed. Being on fixed doses made no sense to me, especially because I have a very carb heavy diet, and it varies from meal to meal. At first I upped my own fixed doses a little after having very high blood sugars. After a few more days I was fed up, so I started carb counting. Still haven't been on a carb counting course just yet, but I don't feel there is that much more for me to learn. Just eager to get it out of the way so I can get a pump ASAP.

As for basal, at first I adjusted it in accordance with my total daily insulin, and had a fixed percentage. But when I started self funding the Freestyle Libre, I felt responsible for setting my own basal dose. With MDI it's as simple as keeping your line striaght overnight, so I adjust accordingly to any drift overnight.

My DSN is happy with me adjusting my ratios, sensitivity factor and basal dose, and she just notes these values down, and more often than not she's happy with what I've chosen.

 

[Arrybo]

I was diagnosed back in Nov 17 over the course of a weekend in and out of hospital, and all I was given was a pack of novorapid, told to take 2u 4 times a day before food and also Lantus, 4 units of and that was it, the thing that gets me is the lack of info that you are armed with, I mean I could have been a vulnerable person with mental or learning needs,and no one even attempted to check if I lacked capacity. insulin is dangerous and shouldn’t just be given out without proper instruction, in relation to adjusting my dose, I was doing this 3 weeks after my diagnoses as it was thanks to this forum and the likeminded people on here that offer life changing support, it was a further month before I seen my nutritionalist and was taught how to carb count and correct

 

[NoKindOfSusie]

I started carb counting within a week or so of being diagnosed. Being on fixed doses made no sense to me, especially because I have a very carb heavy diet, and it varies from meal to meal. At first I upped my own fixed doses a little after having very high blood sugars. After a few more days I was fed up, so I started carb counting. Still haven't been on a carb counting course just yet, but I don't feel there is that much more for me to learn. Just eager to get it out of the way so I can get a pump ASAP.

As for basal, at first I adjusted it in accordance with my total daily insulin, and had a fixed percentage. But when I started self funding the Freestyle Libre, I felt responsible for setting my own basal dose. With MDI it's as simple as keeping your line striaght overnight, so I adjust accordingly to any drift overnight.

My DSN is happy with me adjusting my ratios, sensitivity factor and basal dose, and she just notes these values down, and more often than not she's happy with what I've chosen.

can I have your DSN please... I'm left feeling like I need permission to breathe and pee.

[Edited by moderator.]

 

[SamElliott1997]

can I have your DSN please... I'm left feeling like I need permission to breathe and pee.

[Edited by moderator.]

If you know what you're doing and the effect it has, your DSN really shouldn't stop you. Just do what you feel is right and the results should prove that to your DSN.

 

[Lisa Hallett]

I was diagnosed in 1982 when I was 12.
My doctor just said, Lisa you poor poor girl, you have type 1 diabetes.
I was so excited as I’d got something new I’d never even heard of lol and loving the attention totally unbeknown to what this diabetics was.
I was in a fixed dose of insulatard and
Actrapid until I was 30ish. Problems hit me when I was about 21
I had many horrific hypos especially through pregnancy even though I had a very successful pregnancy and my son is now 25 (not a diabetic)
Anyway changing to lantus and novorapid was a massive change for Me but defiantly a change for the better.
I do still have the occasional hypo some aweful, others copeable.
I’m now considering the insulin pump due to great reviews from my sons friend who’s also on he pump however he is only 25.
I have not attended a Dafne course as yet however it is available in my area.
I have an appointment on17th April at local hospital to discuss the pump
I’d like people’s comments to advise me if this is a good idea at my age 47
Also people that have recently had the pump fitted
And how much it’s changed their lives for the better or even the worse
Lisa

 

[DCUKMod]

I was diagnosed in 1982 when I was 12.
My doctor just said, Lisa you poor poor girl, you have type 1 diabetes.
I was so excited as I’d got something new I’d never even heard of lol and loving the attention totally unbeknown to what this diabetics was.
I was in a fixed dose of insulatard and
Actrapid until I was 30ish. Problems hit me when I was about 21
I had many horrific hypos especially through pregnancy even though I had a very successful pregnancy and my son is now 25 (not a diabetic)
Anyway changing to lantus and novorapid was a massive change for Me but defiantly a change for the better.
I do still have the occasional hypo some aweful, others copeable.
I’m now considering the insulin pump due to great reviews from my sons friend who’s also on he pump however he is only 25.
I have not attended a Dafne course as yet however it is available in my area.
I have an appointment on17th April at local hospital to discuss the pump
I’d like people’s comments to advise me if this is a good idea at my age 47
Also people that have recently had the pump fitted
And how much it’s changed their lives for the better or even the worse
Lisa

Hi Lisa - I appreciate your post is relevant to this thread, but I'd encourage you to either copy it and starrt a thread of your own, for feedback on pump choices, or I can move it for you to create the thread. The latter would mean your post disappearing from this thread.

You would definitely get more responses on your pump query on a new thread.

If you want to hail me, just type the @ symbol directly before my user name, like @Lisa Hallett <<< that.

 

[Doubting_Diabetic]

I am from Nebraska in the US. They give the same kind of advice here. I simply got tired of testing and injecting. I changed to a full on Keto diet. The physician asked me how I drastically reduced my HBA1c. I told him that I test every food that I introduce 1, 2, and 4 hours after eating it. If it adds more than 20 mg/dl to my blood glucose, I never eat that food again. Therefore, I eat about 95% of my diet of animal origin. The small amount of other stuff I eat such as veggies, are very low carb. My daily carb intake is around 5-8 grams. I have lost 140 pounds (American) and no longer take any oral medicine or insulin. I used to take 3 different oral meds as well as over 700iu of insulin per week. Basically I told him, "If it makes blood glucose go up, I just don't eat it". I know that this is extreme for some but like I said when the doctor told me about trying what I felt was best, "What do you have too lose" and I replied, " my sight, my limbs, my kidneys, my liver and eventually my life". He told me to go for it.