Insulin seems to not be doing anything

[Quinapril]

Hello,

I am a T1D of a few years now.

Lately it seems like my insulin is doing absolutely nothing unless I combine it with physical activity.

I had some issues with alcohol abuse in the past and I am currently fighting with that and I sometimes relapse and start drinking for a few days until I stop again. I am not sure whether some sort of withdrawals could be causing this.

But it really is very weird. For example right now. I had a bg of around 12 mmol. I injected 6 whole units. Checked around 1.5 hours later its 11 mmol. Injected 4 more. Hour later its around 12 again..

Maybe my sedentary lifestyle would be to blame? However, I cannot really change this since I have an office job which requires me to be at a computer, and I dont feel like a person who has a sedentary lifestyle would necesarily have constantly bad blood glucose.

Another thing I noticed is, when I am with my girlfriend its like my blood sugar instantly gets better. I am not saying it is 100% good. But when Im with her insulin always seems to work. Maybe sometimes not as well but always works.

I truly have no idea what could be causing this and I am kind of desperate at this point...

 

[EmmaK_2907]

I’d reach out to your local diabetes team - sure they’d have some things you could try.

Are you eating when you inject - or is it just a correction dose?

Do you know what your levels have been doing before the reading of 12? If you have a CGM, for example, can you see that they’ve been climbing rapidly?

Things like stress can affect your sugars. Could it be that you feel more anxious when you’re not with your GF?

As for being an office job, I can relate. Not to do with the diabetes - more just to get more steps in! - but I recently invested in a stand-sit desk which has really helped. Sometimes I just stand and work, other times I’ll step on the spot. Just an idea

 

[Quinapril]

I’d reach out to your local diabetes team - sure they’d have some things you could try.

Are you eating when you inject - or is it just a correction dose?

Do you know what your levels have been doing before the reading of 12? If you have a CGM, for example, can you see that they’ve been climbing rapidly?

Things like stress can affect your sugars. Could it be that you feel more anxious when you’re not with your GF?

As for being an office job, I can relate. Not to do with the diabetes - more just to get more steps in! - but I recently invested in a stand-sit desk which has really helped. Sometimes I just stand and work, other times I’ll step on the spot. Just an idea

Not with a CGM atm but I do use them. Usually the bg doesn't climb rapidly. Usually its high in the morning I get it down but it climbs back up with lunch and stays that way until late evening when I can get it down again.

The injections I mentioned are just correction doses.

I would assume that I do feel less anxious with her. I generally am a very stressed person with anxiety and sometimes even panic attacks (rarely tho)

 

[Quinapril]

Just a little thing I noticed.

Was checking my step counter on the phone.

It seems that the past 2 - 3 months I am taking way less steps than I used too. This timeframe is approx when these issues have arisen. Definitely might be my physical activity levels I guess?

I do wonder about my fasting glucose levels and basal. Since my sugar tends to rise during the night (without having a low) I assume that I might need more basal?

The issue with taking more basal is that it scares me that I might have a low while sleeping. You see on some days the night time blood glucose aint bad and only rises up because of dawn phenomenon and feet on ground (or whats it called) phenomenon but sometimes it does rise by itself

 

[becca59]

@Quinapril is there any reason why you are not wearing a CGM all the time. This would alert you to lows in the night, so taking that concern away.

 

[Juicyj]

Hi @Quinapril

Some great suggestions already.

Stress does have a massive impact on our BG levels, so when you are not drinking you are stressing about it and the insulin resistance kicks in, the stuff we can't see going on like hormones all play a part in our ability to process insulin, that's why exercise is great in so many ways for t1d's, it helps produce endorphins which is why you feel so good when you've done a workout, it helps process insulin and in fact can reduce the amount of insulin we need to take but we do have to tread carefully too that we don't run low, but getting your step count up would help greatly with control.

Yes it does sound like your GF has a calming effect on you too.

Try keeping that CGM on at all times, knowledge is power with t1d so the more you know the better you can manage it.

Can you seek help with your drinking, binge drinking is a vicious circle and it's difficult to break the circle without support, so you do need some help there, https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services/where-to-access-support-and-treatment

 

[EllieM]

@Quinapril is there any reason why you are not wearing a CGM all the time. This would alert you to lows in the night, so taking that concern away.

Not everyone lives in a location where cgms are state funded?

I do wonder about my fasting glucose levels and basal. Since my sugar tends to rise during the night (without having a low) I assume that I might need more basal?

I find that if my basal is wrong then it's very very difficult to manage my bolus amounts. I would suggest that you do some basal testing and check out whether you need to modify the basal. There are a few ways I can think of that might help to manage your fear of going low in the night

1) Make your alterations during a period where you are wearing a cgm
2) Could you stay overnight with your girlfriend while altering your doses? In pre-cgm days I never feared night time lows if my husband was home, as I knew he could rescue me if I went low at night and didn't wake.
3) If you are really worried you could set an alarm and do some blood tests at night....
4) Make any changes small

Good luck

 

[SugarBuzz]

Hello,

I am a T1D of a few years now.

Lately it seems like my insulin is doing absolutely nothing unless I combine it with physical activity.

I had some issues with alcohol abuse in the past and I am currently fighting with that and I sometimes relapse and start drinking for a few days until I stop again. I am not sure whether some sort of withdrawals could be causing this.

But it really is very weird. For example right now. I had a bg of around 12 mmol. I injected 6 whole units. Checked around 1.5 hours later its 11 mmol. Injected 4 more. Hour later its around 12 again..

Just a quick query. Whereabouts in the body are you injecting? Do you change the sites regularly?