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Inexplicable blood sugars

annapanna93

annapanna93

Well-Known Member
Messages
54
Location
Lancashire
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all,

The last few days has been a rollercoaster in terms of my numbers.

Monday & today, I woke up with BG in the 6s. Both days I had the same breakfast, I took 1 unit to cover it on Monday, and ended up in the 9s. So today, I took 2, and still ended up in the 9s.

Based on my I:C ratio, 2 units should have gotten me into the 4s.

I don't understand why I'm waking up in the 6s when normally I'm much lower than that, and why my breakfast is sending me so high. Both days I've eaten before injecting my basal. Could this be the reason?

I can't figure out what the problem is.
Any help would be SO appreciated.

Sorry for the convoluted post,
Anna.
 
There are many things which affect BG readings: time of day, ... year, ....month, stress, exercise, illness, drugs, something on your fingers, ...

Eating before injecting will delay the affect of the insulin so you may see more of a spike but your BG should come down to the same level.

How long ago were you diagnosed? 1 unit is quite low (although it depends on what you are eating) which make me wonder if you have been diagnosed recently and are coming to the end of your honeymoon period if you none of the other reasons make sense about reasons for higher BG than normal.
 
Welcome to my world.

Seriously I will be interested to see what folks have to say. Perhaps there is a secret way of doing it. I've been T1 for nearly 6 years now and have never found anything regularly repeatable. Eat something today, possibly same results tomorrow, then no where close the next.

I spent my whole working life in IT where repeatable tests under identical conditions was what we did. But this disease and our picky bodies are something else. I watch on in awe we people post about their postprandial lack of spikes etc. I just want to cry.
 
Agree with @helensaramay - wanted to add that dawn phenomenon is also a contributing factor to rising blood glucose levels in the morning. You may need to review your carb/insulin bolus ratio if this patterns continues to repeat, if you are not confident in adjusting then speak to your DSN to review this with them. It doesn't matter if you do eat before taking your basal - however if you are pre-bolusing for breakfast say 10-20 minutes before you eat then this can help combat the BG rise, however it does depend on how your BG levels are before lunch that's the key indicator on whether this needs to be reviewed.

Sadly there isn't rhyme or reason sometimes, it can be change in hormones, heat, seasons, exercise etc, a rise at 6 mmol/l really isn't bad at all, I am lucky if I am below this 1-2 days a week upon rising.
 
barrym said:
Welcome to my world.

Seriously I will be interested to see what folks have to say. Perhaps there is a secret way of doing it. I've been T1 for nearly 6 years now and have never found anything regularly repeatable. Eat something today, possibly same results tomorrow, then no where close the next.

I spent my whole working life in IT where repeatable tests under identical conditions was what we did. But this disease and our picky bodies are something else. I watch on in awe we people post about their postprandial lack of spikes etc. I just want to cry.
Click to expand...
I have always assumed the different values I see after apparently repeating the same meal is because my life is not the same day in day out. I may eat the same meal but I don't do the same exercise, I don't attend the same meetings, I don't drink the same amount of alcohol the night before, I don't have the same amount of hayfever, the day may be warmer or colder, ...

In IT, I can repeat exactly the same test on two servers running exactly the same version of the operating system and database, with the same amount of memory, same number of CPUs, even built on the same day ... servers don't care if what the weather's like or get stressed when you give it 20 high priority things to do at the same time, they don't have to think about what food is in the freezer for the family when they get home or deal with an ill parent, ...

I blame my variable BG on living a full and varied life. And to me, it's about balance - I could do the same day in day out, eat the same day in day out, walk the same distance day in day out , ... and my BG may be more stable. But I would be bored and unhappy - it's not worth it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
helensaramay said:
I have always assumed the different values I see after apparently repeating the same meal is because my life is not the same day in day out. I may eat the same meal but I don't do the same exercise, I don't attend the same meetings, I don't drink the same amount of alcohol the night before, I don't have the same amount of hayfever, the day may be warmer or colder, ...

In IT, I can repeat exactly the same test on two servers running exactly the same version of the operating system and database, with the same amount of memory, same number of CPUs, even built on the same day ... servers don't care if what the weather's like or get stressed when you give it 20 high priority things to do at the same time, they don't have to think about what food is in the freezer for the family when they get home or deal with an ill parent, ...

I blame my variable BG on living a full and varied life. And to me, it's about balance - I could do the same day in day out, eat the same day in day out, walk the same distance day in day out , ... and my BG may be more stable. But I would be unhappy - it's not worth it.
Click to expand...
I agree totally. I was just trying to point out (unsuccessfully it seems) how many variables there are at play. But being a little OCD'ish I want to see consistency or at least predictability, and when I don't get it I cry!
 
barrym said:
Welcome to my world.

Seriously I will be interested to see what folks have to say. Perhaps there is a secret way of doing it. I've been T1 for nearly 6 years now and have never found anything regularly repeatable. Eat something today, possibly same results tomorrow, then no where close the next.

I spent my whole working life in IT where repeatable tests under identical conditions was what we did. But this disease and our picky bodies are something else. I watch on in awe we people post about their postprandial lack of spikes etc. I just want to cry.
Click to expand...

My world too 4 years in!
 
Two hours after lunch and I'm at 10! After three units of insulin. I have no idea at all what's going on but it's beyond frustrating.
 
So sorry to hear you're having a mare! I can only echo what everyone else is saying, what works one day doesn't the next. It's f'ing infuriating. All I would say is that if you are consistently high after meals you may want to think about changing your I:C ratio. For me, I start to worry if my carb counting skills are not good enough so it may be worth eating things with known carbs in like 'processed' food just to see if your ratio is correct. I struggle a lot with guess work. I hope you feel better soon
 
annapanna93 said:
I don't understand why I'm waking up in the 6s when normally I'm much lower than that, and why my breakfast is sending me so high. Both days I've eaten before injecting my basal. Could this be the reason?
Click to expand...

What is your basal? Really this is unlikely to be making any difference.

Waking in the 6s is perfectly in target. DAFNE target is to be 5.5-7.5 before breakfast. If you usually wake "much lower" than 6 have you confirmed you weren't having hypos overnight?

How long after breakfast are you testing to see 9 after breakfast?
 
catapillar said:
What is your basal? Really this is unlikely to be making any difference.

Waking in the 6s is perfectly in target. DAFNE target is to be 5.5-7.5 before breakfast. If you usually wake "much lower" than 6 have you confirmed you weren't having hypos overnight?

How long after breakfast are you testing to see 9 after breakfast?
Click to expand...
I take 18 units of Lantus in a morning and usually wake up in the 5s. I check my blood sugar before meals and two hours afterwards. I'm in Brazil at the minute but eating exactly the same as I did at home (I brought food with me). The only difference is getting up earlier, but I don't know how much this woild affect things.
 
catapillar said:
What is your basal? Really this is unlikely to be making any difference.

Waking in the 6s is perfectly in target. DAFNE target is to be 5.5-7.5 before breakfast. If you usually wake "much lower" than 6 have you confirmed you weren't having hypos overnight?

How long after breakfast are you testing to see 9 after breakfast?
Click to expand...
I take 18 units of Lantus in a morning and usually wake up in the 5s. I check my blood sugar before meals and two hours afterwards. I'm in Brazil at the minute but eating exactly the same as I did at home (I brought food with me). The only difference is getting up earlier, but I don't know how much this woild affect things.
 
annapanna93 said:
I take 18 units of Lantus in a morning and usually wake up in the 5s. I check my blood sugar before meals and two hours afterwards. I'm in Brazil at the minute but eating exactly the same as I did at home (I brought food with me). The only difference is getting up earlier, but I don't know how much this woild affect things.
Click to expand...

If it's lantus then basal timing might be making a small difference. Lantus lasts about 18 hours, so if you only take it am it is possible that it runs out in the morning at breakfast time. You might want to consider basal testing to think about whether splitting you lantus might be worth considering. Or you might want to think about testing 4 hours after breakfast to see if you need a morning I:c increase to take account of any fade of the basal at this time.
 
catapillar said:
If it's lantus then basal timing might be making a small difference. Lantus lasts about 18 hours, so if you only take it am it is possible that it runs out in the morning at breakfast time. You might want to consider basal testing to think about whether splitting you lantus might be worth considering. Or you might want to think about testing 4 hours after breakfast to see if you need a morning I:c increase to take account of any fade of the basal at this time.
Click to expand...
This is the frustrating thing, there's always so many variables that it seems impossible to pin point the problem. I think I've been using my Apidra pen for more than a month, I always inject in my stomach, I have a bit of a cold, my routine has changed - I feel like it could be any of these
 
annapanna93 said:
This is the frustrating thing, there's always so many variables that it seems impossible to pin point the problem. I think I've been using my Apidra pen for more than a month, I always inject in my stomach, I have a bit of a cold, my routine has changed - I feel like it could be any of these
Click to expand...

Well Aprida that is in use should be disposed of after 28 days - https://www.apidra.com/faqs.aspx - so I'd definitely suggest binning that and starting a fresh pen. Then see how things look when you recover from your cold.
 
helensaramay said:
I have always assumed the different values I see after apparently repeating the same meal is because my life is not the same day in day out. I may eat the same meal but I don't do the same exercise, I don't attend the same meetings, I don't drink the same amount of alcohol the night before, I don't have the same amount of hayfever, the day may be warmer or colder, ...

In IT, I can repeat exactly the same test on two servers running exactly the same version of the operating system and database, with the same amount of memory, same number of CPUs, even built on the same day ... servers don't care if what the weather's like or get stressed when you give it 20 high priority things to do at the same time, they don't have to think about what food is in the freezer for the family when they get home or deal with an ill parent, ...

I blame my variable BG on living a full and varied life. And to me, it's about balance - I could do the same day in day out, eat the same day in day out, walk the same distance day in day out , ... and my BG may be more stable. But I would be bored and unhappy - it's not worth it.
Click to expand...

I'm just learning about this. I'm newly diagnosed within the past three weeks. I've been trying to eat the same basic meals, but I find that my numbers still fluctuate from day to day, and there may be no obvious reason for this. For example I had a turkey dinner last Sunday for Thanksgiving, and I was fully prepared to see my numbers up the following day, but I wound-up with my lowest reading to date, and it stayed relatively low through the day. I decided to not let my numbers get to me to much, be mindful of them, but don't let there's, or diabetes control me.
 
Great advice already covered. The only thing I'd add is try not to stress about it... the more you stress likely the higher your BS. I rarely get the same readings with the same food due to the variables, you are a human not a robot.
Sorry to be super personal but for me time of the month makes a big difference too
 
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