Libre - day 4

I have what I think is called extended Dawn Phenomenon where more or less whatever I do my BG levels rise from about 06:00 to 12:00.
After that they seem to drop again, and react as expected to food etc.
Exercise in the morning often makes this worse.
Especially strenuous exercise.

I do have Bullet Resistant coffee in the morning - that is coffee, butter and double cream.

It does look as though you are getting useful information from your Libre which you wouldn't get from finger prick testing.
So try having a small snack at the start of the day and see if that helps.
Perhaps vary it from fats and protein to a small amount of carbs.
One biscuit might even be enough.
Experiment!

Rocinante said:

Thanks - this is very interesting. It does seem that my BS rise in the morning and recently I did a long morning cycle which actually resulted in high blood sugar levels (7-9mmol) and then only came down an hour after I'd stopped (but then were much lower the next day, was 4.8 when I woke up (which was remarkable).

Do you find that the timing of exercise makes any difference?

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Yes.
Morning cycling is what pushed my BG through the roof.
Cycling in the afternoon takes my BG down.
Weird or what?

I have also been using the Freestyle Libre recently. I have similar findings. My blood sugar starts to rise at about 5am and continues to rise until noon. It happens regardless of what I do the day before. It sometimes starts to fall if I eat a low carb snack. I often go out for an early morning cycle and this pushes my blood up drastically too. Evening cycling or swimming seems to lower it considerably .

@Rocinante I've now started a Libre (after some months coasting through pandemic times) and the first couple of nights were as expected - start low and climb gradually through until mid-day then drop dramatically.
This in the past has been independent of what I eat or drink.
Yesterday I just drank water until early afternoon and my BG still went up the same way.

Today I was going to experiment by eating something with a high carb content first thing to see if it would provoke a peak followed by an insulin response, but for some reason I had a much lower rise so had to abandon the test.

My initial theory is that I am producing too much glucagon which inhibits insulin production until I hit a point when insulin production kicks in anyway.
High carb first thing in the morning to provoke an insulin response may prove or disprove the theory - or at least give me a working solution.

However fitting a Libre has made me much more strict about my diet in the short term (and I have 5 more to use before the end of December) so I won't really have more idea for a few weeks,

Dietary testing is very disruptive because you can't do anything on impulse and you have to severely limit the foods that you eat, and what you drink, to be able to connect food/drink with BG trends.
Having to also limit certain foods to certain specific times is also a disruption.

I just fancy a.................{hard stare from Libre sensor}

LittleGreyCat said:

Dietary testing is very disruptive because you can't do anything on impulse and you have to severely limit the foods that you eat, and what you drink, to be able to connect food/drink with BG trends.

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Know your pain. I was diagnosed on lockdown day and at first was really down about it all, but then realised it was easier to do with deliveries and restricting what I bought. Its much harder now i can go to the shops again

Another day, another slightly different result.

A bit of a ragged rise, not a smooth line, but still rising from 06:00 to 12:00 then a steep drop.

This morning I had my normal coffee+butter+cream.
As it is very low in carbohydrates I didn't see a BG kick.

Also checked the Libre against a finger prick.
My finger says 7.7 and the Libre says 7.1.
BG still dropping.
So my LIbre is reading around 0.5 low when below around 8.0.

My first check was when I had just activated the Libre.
Well, day after.
Finger and Libre agreed on 12.8 (oops!).
I know that the Libre is less accurate for lower reading so I think I may have to wait for a high reading then check that against a finger prick.

I think tomorrow may be the day for an early carb snack.
Can you say "Parkin", children?