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Sugar levels too high - help!?!

B

benunited

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Wonder if anyone has any idea what's happening.

I've been T1 diabetic long enough but still don't get it sometimes!

This week I've been managing my sugar levels well and eating well.

For example, yesterday morning my sugar levels were 6.0. I had a slice of toast, taking 3 units of novorapid insulin. My sugar levels were still 6.0 at lunchtime when I had ham and melon, taking 4 units.

Early evening I had another slice of toast before playing football for an hour and then walking my dogs for 30mins. Didn't take any insulin before exercise so I didn't hypo.

Later on I had soup and bread, taking 6 units. Obviously this was too much as I had a hypo overnight (2.5) and my level was 4.0 this morning. Normally I take 21 units of 24-hour insulin and this week I'd dropped it to 20 as I've been doing a lot of exercise.

So, this morning I had a slice of toast as usual. Yesterday I'd taken 3 units when my sugar had been 6.0. So today I took 2 units instead as my sugar level was 4.0, I'd exercised a lot the previous night and also had a hypo overnight.

I took my sugar level 5 mins ago and it was 10.6

I just don't understand that. Given my level was 4.0 when I had my one slice of toast and I only took 1 unit less than yesterday, I thought if anything I'd be risking another hypo - not a sugar level in double figures.

It's so depressing sometimes :-(

Any advice very much appreciated!

Ben
 
When you have a hypo, at some point in the next 24hours your liver will 'dump' its store of glucose and rebuild up its supply and that means your blood sugar level will rise - we're not supposed to give any correction doses of insulin in the 24hours following a hypo for this reason as it may not be a 'true' high sugar level but simply the dump from the liver. I know you didn't give a correction dose, I was just adding that snippet of info as it's all part of the same thing. The 'dump' can occur at any time in the 24 hours following the hypo so it's not something you can plan for, you just have to sort of work around it.

Diabetes is an unpredictable thing and sometimes I could swear it confuses me just because it can... try not to get too down-hearted. You can try to control most aspects of the condition but sometimes it just does whatever it wants to do - or that's what it seems like. :roll:

I'm still learning about this aspect (and many others!) of T1 after 20 years with the condition, so I'm sure someone much wiser than me will come along and correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I think that might explain your raised sugar level.
 
picklebean said:
When you have a hypo, at some point in the next 24hours your liver will 'dump' its store of glucose and rebuild up its supply and that means your blood sugar level will rise - we're not supposed to give any correction doses of insulin in the 24hours following a hypo for this reason as it may not be a 'true' high sugar level but simply the dump from the liver. I know you didn't give a correction dose, I was just adding that snippet of info as it's all part of the same thing. The 'dump' can occur at any time in the 24 hours following the hypo so it's not something you can plan for, you just have to sort of work around it.

Diabetes is an unpredictable thing and sometimes I could swear it confuses me just because it can... try not to get too down-hearted. You can try to control most aspects of the condition but sometimes it just does whatever it wants to do - or that's what it seems like. :roll:

I'm still learning about this aspect (and many others!) of T1 after 20 years with the condition, so I'm sure someone much wiser than me will come along and correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I think that might explain your raised sugar level.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for replying, makes sense and much appreciated :)
 
Ben - feel for you. It's a b*^*r of a thing to try and control sometimes as it is so unpredictable. I can go days with completely stable blood sugars and then for no reason it just goes haywire. There will be a reason no doubt but sometimes it's so obscure it's tough to work out what's happening. Agree good answer from picklebean. I do stress about these days but reading posts from others does help as you know it's nothing in particular that you're doing wrong.
 
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