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Spikes after eating

K

keeer

Member
Hello. I'm fairly new to this forum but have decided to dedicate myself to my diabetes a little more and monitor it more closely. Anyway I've got my background insulin sorted - if i fast my blood sugar dips slightly but stays at around 6 or 7 throughout the day. I just have one question. If I have lunch and give myself a shot of insulin, there's a HUGE spike - levels in excess of 10, have been as high as 17! Then my blood sugar goes back to normality within about an hour of my evening meal. Is this normal? Am I doing the wrong ratio of carb:insulin? Perhaps the background insulin is wrong? Perhaps this is an effect of levemir's 18 hour effect or something??

So take your pick with regards to what seems right and offer me some advice. What I usually stupidly do is see it hugely high and do a correction dose and just before my next meal my blood sugars low.

Tanks
 
Several things could be happening here, but this will depend on the type of insulin you're on and when you're injecting, and your choice of food:

Unfortunately nothing's as good as a pancreas for keeping bg levels in check, so you have to make allowances for this in whatever you do. A non-diabetic's body has mechanisms for anticipating insulin needs, and you have to try to mimic them as best as you can, but this is the holy grail for many! You may need to inject some time before you eat - maybe 20-30 minutes - but this is down to the reaction time/profile of the insulin you're using, and they're all different.

There are other ways too - you could reduce your insulin needs by reducing the amount of carbohydrate you eat, or mitigate the impact of those you do eat by choosing carbs with a lower glycemic index/load such as pasta or pulses. But care is required here too, as you may have to stagger your insulin doses with such foods to avoid going hypo.

17 is way too high but while a correction dose may seem required (and urgent) at this level, you're then in danger of "stacking" insulin doses which can cause rapid drop-offs as you've discovered. So better to not let it get there in the first place. It is possible to do, but only some trial and error, and lots of practice (and testing) will get the results you're after.
 
Hi Keeer, you don't say what your ratios are? Perhaps they need some adjustment? I take 1mml for every 10g carbs but that was calulated for me and needed some tweaking in the early days! in fact, if memory serves, I remember being panic stricken when I checked 1 hour after eating lunch on my first day of 'carb counting' and found it to be 17! But I was assured it would drop and settle and sure enough, it has. As Kegstore said, you need to find out how soon your fast acting insluin 'peaks' as maybe the timing needs to be adjusted, which could be reliltively simple - here's hoping! :D
 
The only way I have found to stop this happening is to exercise after a meal - a ten minute walk (I know it's not always possible!) will stop you from spiking.

This is what the doctor told me when I was pregnant, I had a healthy baby and it really really works. If you do this for a few weeks, then have a meal and just sit around, you will feel quite anxious and very aware of your sugars rising.
 
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