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Rising high

PG1759

Well-Known Member
Messages
128
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on this. I'm in my first 6 months of being diagnosed with type 1.
I'm up to speed with carb counting and still honeymooning although I think that's slowing down a bit.

Anyway, my question is this. I seem to be going to bed high even though I'm injecting a 1:10 bolus. As a result I wake up around 8 mmol and then eat breakfast within an hour so I'm starting the day high. My bloods rise by 3 units after 2 hours (which I don't think is too bad) and 5 hours later at dinnertime they have gone back to around 7 to 8 mmol ......so in theory if I started the day at 5 or 6 I could have gone in to dinner lower.

The issue I'm having is when I have dinner, my bloods rise to 14 or 15 after 2 hours but again return to the same figures 5 hours later when I eat again. I want to know how I stop myself rising so high in the afternoon ? Admittedly if I was going in to dinner at 5 or 6 then they might only rise to 12 but even still this to me seems to high and too much of a spike.
Any ideas ? ... Sorry for the long winded post !
Paul
 
Hey PG,

Well done I getting up to speed so quickly.

Firstly testing after 2 hours will still show a spike in your BG so try and wait as it can take 4 hours for the quick acting to work its way out of your system, it's tempting to test but try and hang on until you eat your next meal, testing before eating means you can correct then if you need to as well as taking required insulin for your meal.

If you want to stop rising so high then consider a low carb route. It something alot of us do as it reduces the spikes that can occur post meal, read up on Dr Bernstein as he is a type 1 and recommends this.

Hope this helps
 
Hi thanks for the response. I had read somewhere (think it might have been on the diabetes uk site) about your 32 hour post being under 9mmol. I have obviously found out first hand that this is hard to achieve unless you are crashing all the time. The low carb thing is something I'm going to consider trying. I think other than the spike I am actually fairly stable just need to be a bit lower ! Thanks
 
Sorry the above should read 2 hour post ! Not 32 !! Bloody iPhones !
 
Hey I wouldn't get too obsessed with the numbers they look good to me, it's quite easy to get fixated and I did too, only been type 1 about 3 years now. Your HbA1c is a good guide to judge your performance by.

I went low carb as I couldn't handle the highs and lows, so now more balanced and less room for error, also it's easy to get your head round as I just avoid bread, rice, sugar, pasta, eat lots of nuts, cheese, protein, certain veges like courgettes, cauliflower, salads etc, it's worth a look if you want to avoid possible complications too.

Exercise is also a great way to bring down your readings too a good half hour burn can do wonders too !!
 
32 hours, I was going to say

The post-meal spikes are also dependant on the food eaten and when you take your bolus dose, foods that have a high on the gi will spike bg more quickly than food that is low-medium on the glycemic index (Google for more info). If you read the book Think like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner he discusses preventing postprandial spikes by injecting ahead of your food, he says food takes around 10 mins to hit your bg so if you inject your insulin 15 mins before food this will mean your insulin is active to cope with the spikes, I was always weary of doing this until I read his book but have to say it's one of the best things I've learnt.

Do try the above, but also lower your carb intake (as Juicy suggests) if your on a high-carb diet.
 
Thanks guys. I think the low carb thing would work for me on some days but not every day. Sometimes you need a bit of pasta or a spuds !
I was actually told to be inject 15 mins before and for some reason I've fallen in to the habit of injecting after meals. I will certainly give it a go !
 
On a separate note - anyone know how I get my hands on the Abbott libre scanner thingy ? My fingers are pretty sore !
 

The only time that I inject after food is when my bg is in the low 4's or when the meal is high in fat, it's no wonder you are getting postprandial highs if you do this all the time. The idea that you can inject after food is totally wrong as most QA insulins take around 15 mins to work, do buy the Scheiner book if you want to get on top of your diabetes.
 
Yes I will thanks. Will go back to basics I think. I got in to the habit through a stupid fear of having a hypo if for some reason I wasn't able to eat on time- like when I'm at work. Like I said I will go back to basics !
 
Hi Paul,
Do you use a back ground insulin like lantus ? I had this trouble and I was told to increase my long acting insulin a unit at a time to get the right balance, I inject humolog 3 times daily and lantus (long acting) at night ? its a difficult path ive been t1 for 33 years and still struggle lol ! good luck
 
Hi Laura, yeah I use Lantus myself. I was dropping left right and centre a few weeks back so I dropped it (with advice) to 7 units. There has been the assumption that I'm honeymooning. The thing is I seem to drop when it's higher so not sure what the answer is ?! I've had enough already after 6 months - God knows how you must feel ! Lol
 
Hi Pg1759
Did dropping lantus seem to help
I'm only on 8 units before bed but today have had 1 hypo and very nearly another, just caught it at 4.1
Might drop to 7 tonight I think
 
Hello!
I'm in first six months too and currently on the DAFNE course.
Have you spoken to your diabetes team? They might be able to adjust you, I would suggest keeping a diary of all food, insulin units and carbs consumed so that they can analyse it.

I'm honeymooning myself and my carb ratios literally change every day where I'm still kicking out insulin here and there. I did try low carb for a while and it was really helpful under these circumstances, unfortunately my will power let me down! But I definitely plan to go back to it.
 
Emmotha how many carbs a day do you consider low carbing? ?
 
Ooh, well I'm definitely no expert, but I was taking about 15 - 20 with each meal, which I think may be technically a medium carb diet - I'm not really sure :-/ I thought it's probably best to make gradual changes though so not to shock the body.
 
PG1759 said:
On a separate note - anyone know how I get my hands on the Abbott libre scanner thingy ? My fingers are pretty sore !
Click to expand...


On a laughing note.. Don't take me serious...sore??!! Woozy man!! How do you think it feels after 30 years+!!
Your fingers do harden up!!! Honest. Bit like playing guitar.. Initially fingers do have to get used to the frets and strings!
 
Consider asking for 1/2 unit pens to get a finer tune to adjustments...
 
Good advice, I've got my new 1/2 unit pen, just waiting for my new prescription for the cartridges.

The food / insulin / carb diary is key for me
 
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