• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Struggling!

Ipodlistener

Well-Known Member
Messages
193
Location
Suffolk UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Idiots
Type 1 honeymoon phase.
Back at work on light duties as a postman walking 8-10 miles. When on full duty. I'm taking insulin at main meals. But snacking heavy just to keep BG levels up In-between. Should I be taking insulin with snacks too. BG levels just drops so quickly. Now set my Libre2 alarm to 5.6 so I can hopefully act before it drops below 5. As raising it from the 4's takes at least 15 mins of being stationery. Or should I lower my Abasaglar more. But taking this at night and already waking to BG's of 7's. If anyone has any suggestions please help.
 
Hi, have you considered lowering your basal dose of insulin? Lowering your basal dose would accommodate the prolonged exercise you are doing during the day and would likely mean you don't need to keep eating snacks to keep your BG up. I'd discuss this with your diabetes team first though.

It seems your body has an oversupply of insulin for the exercise you are doing. I used to take 4 units of background insulin per day, then I started playing 5 a side football once a week and went on a low carb diet, my background insulin need dropped to 0.5 per day. That stopped the persistent hypos for me.
 

Hi, as someone doing some physical work last summer including harrowing some heavy dig offs.
Basal would be my first port of call to look at.
Though I apreciate your honeymoon may not be doing any favours..

What bolus insulin are you using? Could you be "stacking" it with the snacks?? (On top of what may still be active for the meals?)
 
I'm taking 7 units of Abasaglar before bed. Then normally 3 units of Novorapid for meals. Though just lately I've only took 2 units for evening meal. As I like to go to bed around 9.0. I was getting to the point of snacking before bed to raise it. Normally low to mid 7's when waking. Getting up at 5am for breakfast will send my BG from 12-16. The exact same breakfast on a day off around 8-9am. Will peak at 12 tops.
Thank you for the replies
 
Are you in frequent touch with your diabetic team? I agree with the others that you may have too much insulin in your system to cope with your active daytime activities, you should be able to sort your insulin so that you don't need to snack all the time to keep your bgs up.

Maybe consider trialling a freestyle libre cgm from Abbott so that you can see what your night time levels are doing? (If you're in the UK they should give you a free trial of one 2 week sensor) . It's possible that you are running low all night and only going up in the morning because your liver pumps out sugar then (dawn phenomena).

Do you go hypo during the day when you're not so active? Long term, there are 12 hour basals that your team could put you on if your basal needs vary day and night, so you could inject less basal when your insulin needs are less, but that's up to your diabetic team. (Though don't hesitate to tell them about your hypo issues, as you really shouldn't be going hypo all the time.) Very long term, some people use insulin pumps if the need to vary their basal, but I get the impression that you have to be diabetic for longer before they'll consider that.

Good luck.
 
Only got diagnosed in November. Lowered my Abasaglar to 6 from 7 last night. Today was a lot better. Didn't go hypo as I set the alarm on my Libre2 to 5.6. So I could treat it before going hypo. Had to stop and eat twice. Hopefully the days ahead will be better. As before when I lowered it. It took 48hrs to give a true reading. Feeling I'll have to take more Novorapid at mealtimes to keep me down when not active. Thanks for the reply
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…