This is beyond abnormal, right?

[mentat]

I feel the need to write a blog post venting about how unusually screwed-up my diabetes is. But first I want to double-check that this is very unusual.

For quite a while, I was taking 6u NovoRapid with a particular meal, and it was working well. Then I kept having hypos until I reduced the dose to 3u (same meal, same time), which worked well for a week, I would even hypo sometimes.

Then I kept ending up very high and increased my dose to 6... still highs... 9... and it sat there for a week with good results. Then hypos again and I had to go back to 6. Worked for a week. Then more hypos and now I'm back at 3u. Went hypo after that this morning.

No major changes to routine, or diet, or exercise, or basal. This is breakfast, so no boluses in my system.

I'm not after troubleshooting, I know why this is going on. All I'm asking is, "Is it just me or does T1D hardly ever do this for anyone else?"


(nb. when I say "went hypo" I mean "treated to prevent a hypo thanks to my CGM" but not really important.)

 

[MeiChanski]

Hello, I’d say with diabetes no two days are the same. I’ve been having the same breakfast for the last 4 months and sometimes I’m high, low or stable.

 

[mentat]

Hello, I’d say with diabetes no two days are the same. I’ve been having the same breakfast for the last 4 months and sometimes I’m high, low or stable.

What are the minimum and maximum levels of insulin you take for that breakfast?

 

[EllieM]

How long have you been diabetic? Honeymoon effect?

And yes, it is weird but then everyone seems to have different weird aspects to their diabetes.

 

[mentat]

How long have you been diabetic? Honeymoon effect?

9 years, so no.

As I said, I know why it's happening. It's a comorbid condition. I'm just trying to gauge where "diabetes sucks" ends and "comorbid condition" begins.

 

[Practalyborndiabetic]

Stress does all kids of things to your glucose levels also

 

[EllieM]

Stress does all kids of things to your glucose levels also

And any kind of other illness....

 

[WuTwo]

Yep, I have full seizure epilepsy as well as diabetes and sometimes I do wonder if the stress from one affects the other. Also of course, there's the screwed up the carb count thing and often there is no reasonable explanation whatsoever for ups and downs of the blood than "it happens because diabetes" (better known in the T1 Stars R Us thread as the Sock Syndrome ie are you wearing any, wearing odd ones, wearing old ones, new ones, patterned, plain?)

And in the hot weather? Ha! I have been injecting insulin like it's water during this hot spell. I notice my ratios are headed back into their normal areas which is a big relief, but I'm just waiting for the next whatever to set them off again.

 

[ert]

Have you tried splitting your doses and playing with the timings? On Fiasp I start with the first one 30 minutes before the meal (until I've dropped 0.2 mmol/L) and another when my blood sugar rises 0.5 above my starting point, and the last two hours later. I find this prevents hypos.

 

[Marie 2]

It also depends what level you are starting out with before you eat breakfast I have DP, and that can really vary what number I wake up at. If I my back hurts more for the day, or my allergies flare up...............

Type 1 can just decide to do it's own thing sometimes. Somebody on this site said, sorry I don't remember who, but I loved it.
Type1 is predictable in it's unpredictability!

 

[WuTwo]

It is a sad fact that diabetes is affected by absolutely everything - heat, cold, stress, time of the month (femal obviously), DP, foot on the floor, as a first symptom of an as yet unknown infection/ailment - exercise (too much or too little. So many things. All you can do is test, treat, record and hope you record enough data so that your patterns in x or y situation become apparent.

 

[Deleted Account]

There are lots of things that affect our BG so it is common to need different doses for the same meal.
Have you been exercising the day before?
Have you been drinking?
How well did you sleep?
What was your starting bg?
Are you stressed?
Are you unwell?
How hot is it?
What time do you have the meal?
How long has the insulin been out of the fridge?
...

 

[becca59]

Sounds normal to me. My breakfast meal dose is different every day depending on all those different variables that @helensaramay lists.

 

[Robinredbreast]

How long have you been diabetic? Honeymoon effect?

And yes, it is weird but then everyone seems to have different weird aspects to their diabetes.

It's predictably, unpredictable

 

[Robinredbreast]

There are lots of things that affect our BG so it is common to need different doses for the same meal.
Have you been exercising the day before?
Have you been drinking?
How well did you sleep?
What was your starting bg?
Are you stressed?
Are you unwell?
How hot is it?
What time do you have the meal?
How long has the insulin been out of the fridge?
...

I concur with all, but then diabetes has a mind of it's own with 'To hell with it, lets shake things up'

 

[Robinredbreast]

I feel the need to write a blog post venting about how unusually screwed-up my diabetes is. But first I want to double-check that this is very unusual.

For quite a while, I was taking 6u NovoRapid with a particular meal, and it was working well. Then I kept having hypos until I reduced the dose to 3u (same meal, same time), which worked well for a week, I would even hypo sometimes.

Then I kept ending up very high and increased my dose to 6... still highs... 9... and it sat there for a week with good results. Then hypos again and I had to go back to 6. Worked for a week. Then more hypos and now I'm back at 3u. Went hypo after that this morning.

No major changes to routine, or diet, or exercise, or basal. This is breakfast, so no boluses in my system.

I'm not after troubleshooting, I know why this is going on. All I'm asking is, "Is it just me or does T1D hardly ever do this for anyone else?"


(nb. when I say "went hypo" I mean "treated to prevent a hypo thanks to my CGM" but not really important.)

Does the screwed up diabetes happen when your other condition has vented it's self, or does it happen anyway when all is relatively calm ?

 

[WuTwo]

A lot of us on here have additional conditions to deal with - I'm betting that we each find our various conditions act as stressors for each other at times. The problems come when stress is a trigger for one of the other conditions but for me, that stress would need to be combined with either hunger or great tiredness. Any two out of the three and I'm going to be concerned about the epilepsy. On the other hand, worrying about the epilepsy doesn't do the diabetes a great deal of good either lol

Best policy - just say to yourself "Oh bleep it" and live life to the full anyway. Stuff happens - I'll deal with it when it does. Until then it hasn't happened so I ain't going to worry myself about it.

 

[Fairygodmother]

Seems to me that if you’re able to see it and respond to it then you’re doing ok. It’s amazing how cgm, or the libre for those of us who can’t afford cgm, has revealed just how variable blood sugar responses can be.
I think the root of the distress the variability creates lies in our desire to make the human body conform to the kind of easy maths we learned when we were kids. An animal’s body is an amazing structure of complex interactive biology and we human animals are still trying to find out how it all works. But, and this is also amazing, there’s a way of keeping we T1s alive, even if we have to be careful what kind of socks we’re wearing.
Have you read ‘Sugar Surfing’ by Dr Stephen Ponder? It might help put your mind at rest and give you another way to respond to the fairground ride that’s T1.

 

[mentat]

And in the hot weather? Ha! I have been injecting insulin like it's water during this hot spell.

Interesting. Can you give me an idea of the actual numbers?

Sounds normal to me. My breakfast meal dose is different every day depending on all those different variables that @helensaramay lists.

How different? Give me a range.

 

[porl69]

They only thing predictable about type 1 diabetes is it un-predictability!!!