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Please explain this...

barrym

Well-Known Member
Messages
830
Location
North Wiltshire
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi

T1 LADA with reasonable control.

Sometimes, for what ever reason I wake with a higher than desirable BG level, like this morning it was 9.3. I had my normal breakfast and took the correct dose of insulin, and by lunch time it was down to 4.4. But if I get up with a reading say in the 5.x's I still have the same breakfast, with the same dose, and I don't drop by 5 points by lunch time, or else I wouldn't be posting this

So, the DNs tell me that 5g carbs raise you 1 mmol, hence the hypo recommendations of 2-4 jelly babies (10-20g), and bolus adjustment dose is 1 unit to drop 5 mmol, but when it comes to normal (if any of what we do is normal) daily routine, the reduction in BG doesn't seem to be a straight line at all.

This is not a single observation, but quite a common occurrence for me. What is going on?
 
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I wonder whether you are sometimes having an overnight liver dump which is a 'one-off' for that day and that caused the 9.3 reading?
 
That's not the question. What I am trying to ask, is why the downward movement of BG is no where near a straight line when compared to bolus dose.

I shouldn't have said it was morning, it happens at any time of day, albeit infrequently, and the cause of the higher starting point is not the question.

Hope that doesn't sound too abrupt - not intended to.
 
Because your body is not releasing enough insulin at infrequent times (typocal of ladas) you are going higher at times from your liver releasing glucose. You are not needing extra insulin at times such as the morning to cover the extra sugar, and if lower not having any less. Part of this is due to the fact that the sugar is already in your blood (does not need breaking down by digestion). This will mean that the injected insulin will work very rapidly in bringing that part of your higher levels down, and why correction dises do not always work. A bit like insulating qa for a glass of lucozade, the lucozade will send your bloods up very quickly, but, when the insulin peaks (as it lasts 4 hours) will crash right down rapidly.
I too had raised morning levels, but, need very little qa to get back to normal levels, often, just needing qa to cover what I ate, not the extra rise I already had in my blood. Solved this by pumping different basal rates per hour so not to get the rise in the first place.

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Brett

Whilst I understand the words you say, I'm being a bit thick on the principles here.

We take on 20g carbs, and inject say 1 unit of QA. Now I understand that that can stay in the blood active for up to 4 hours, but I assume it gets 'used' by the carbs/BG. If this was fast absorbed carbs, the QA would do its stuff in say the first 2 hours and there wouldn't be any left. So how does it continue to reduce the 'high' BG for which I haven't allowed any QA?

Am I over thinking this?
 
Lol, no its good to think.
Could also be when your high, eat and infect qa, currently, your body is able to produce the extra bit of insulin needed to cover the high. In lada, this is a pita. Could be I was early lada but, was put down ro honeymoon period. I no longer get these erratic levels without a proper cause.

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