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Pregnant: 18weeks and struggling

Julie.reid1906

Active Member
Messages
38
Location
Dunfermline
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Does anyone else suffer from dramatic rises after eating? I find after food my blood sugar shoots up to above 10 even if I was low before eating. My nurse told me to take my insulin 20 mins before food, I am on a pump, but I still find that my sugars increase to a very high level. I have increased my insulin to carb ratio and upped my basal but it doesn't seem to make any difference. It's making me scared to eat! After lunch today which was only about 50g of carb, my blood sugar went from 2.3 to 13.8. It comes back down eventually but it's horrible. Any suggestions? Thanks
 
Hi Julie,
I feel your frustration! I don't have a pump yet but due to get one in the new year.
I can never seem to get the balance with insulin timing and eating.
I have slowly been increased my long acting insulin at night as advised by my consultant, but the only way I have found to keep my sugars down is to avoid any carbs above 40grams at once, I only go above 20 grams if I'm feeling daring! The peaks whilst waiting for my rapid insulin get me down as it happens every day.
I will be interested to read others opinions on this. Sorry I don't have any advice but I just wanted to let you know that you're not the only one feeling scared to eat. I eat very little but quite often, and normally just wait for my sugars to drop a bit then have food. Xx
 

You may need to bolus earlier. I had to bolus 30-40 mins in advance for some meals when I was pregnant. It may also be that your carb to insulin ratio needs a further adjustment too, but go very carefully and cautiously and test lots.

I can't remember exactly when my insulin resistance kicked in, but the pregnancy hypos eased off at about 16-18 weeks and I gradually became more resistant (totally normal,in pregnancy) with it quite noticeable around 22-25 weeks.
 
I'm 18 weeks. I've got a dexcom CGM sensor so can see what my blood glucose is doing all the time. Sometimes feel that this makes it harder as I get a bit obsessed with it. I find my blood sugar drops to under 4 before I eat so I'm a bit scared to take my bolus too early
 

Great that you have a Dexcom!

You're wise to be cautious about going too low. Perhaps consider a slight increase to,your ratio then?

Again - I don't remember the timing exactly, but by the end of pregnancy my ratios had changed hugely. Eg for my breakfast, I went from 7 units to 19 units for the same breakfast! I increased my ratios very cautiously if I found that I was consistently going high.

I found eating the same meal a few times in a row (that is, same evening meal for 3 days,,etc) helped get my boluses right. I increased them in tiny amounts because I didn't want to go low, and keeping to the same meal helped remove one variable and made me more confident in making adjustments because I could see how my changes worked the day before.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'm just finding it all a bit frustrating as my control was so good before I got pregnant and it's hard to loose it. Don't think the Christmas holidays are helping either!!
 
I got the dexcom because I had a sever hypo when I was early in my pregnancy. My husband was out and I slipped into a coma. It's great now because he gets alerts too when my blood sugar is low.
 
Julie.reid1906 said:
Thanks for the advice. I'm just finding it all a bit frustrating as my control was so good before I got pregnant and it's hard to loose it. Don't think the Christmas holidays are helping either!!
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Don't be hard on yourself. It's impossible to get perfect sugars all the time in pregnancy. In the final trimester you'll find you'll probably be doing quite a few corrections.

One thing I did was have enough bolus to get me in range and then have a small snack if I continued to drop. If that makes sense?
 
Julie.reid1906 said:
I got the dexcom because I had a sever hypo when I was early in my pregnancy. My husband was out and I slipped into a coma. It's great now because he gets alerts too when my blood sugar is low.
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How awful! Well, in that case I absolutely emphasis my advice to go very, very carefully. With your pump you can do tiny increments and that makes it so much easier.

Don't panic about the odd high. I had some 11s and 12s and my children are all ok You can only do,your best, and it sounds like you're very focussed and working really hard at control
 
As others have said sadly it's a common issue I'm 15 weeks 3 days pregnant and have found my sugars creeping up more now too , I find for me eating whilst I'm low sends me twice as high unless I inject before my food which seems counter productive but it seems to work I end up with a nice 4-6 blood sugar after eating ...if it creeps a little low I just find it easier to have a snack ...id rather be a bit too low than a bit too high but that's just personal preference I'm happy to be a 3.5-9 as I can cope with that and know which snacks to send it up to the right levels ....I'm not advising you too do this I'm only telling you my experience as everyone is different how are u finding pregnancy apart from this ? It's so nice to be able to talk to other diabetic mums or mums to be does make s change xx
 
Rebounding from
Low levels?

How are you treating lows?

Also, if possible leave some time between the low and treating to then bolusing for a meal. I know it can't be helped sometimes as the two just coincide together!!
 
I use glucose tablets to correct lows but I find I need more and it takes longer to work than before. I'm enjoying being pregnant but I feel like I'm missing out on things normal pregnant ladies get like meeting your midwife! When I go to the clinic it's all about my diabetes
 
Have you considered the possibility your basal is slightly too high at times? That might help explain your hard to treat lows and your lows before meals.

Just something to consider. It might not be relevant at all, but it did occur to me as a possibility maybe.
 
They upped my basals the on Wednesday because things were running higher but maybe it was too much. I feel like I'm constantly changing them.
 
Julie.reid1906 said:
They upped my basals the on Wednesday because things were running higher but maybe it was too much. I feel like I'm constantly changing them.
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I had to change mine a lot. My basal pattern was quite different to when I wasn't pregnant. I carefully upped my basal only for the hours I needed it. I did tiny increments at a time so upped it gradually, especially at the stage you're at.

If the lows are happening more at certain times, you could think about lowering the basal slightly just to cover those low times. If that helped, then you'd be more confident bolusing in advance/upping ratios to deal with the spikes.
 
Are your night levels stable?
 
Sometimes they are perfect all night, sometime low all night and sometime high all night. But they don't go up and down.
 
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