Type 1 "Honeymoon Period"

[Daver]

Hi,

I'm a tad confused about the honeymoon period for Type 1's. I was diagnosed at the beginning of March this year and did have relatively good control straight away (luckily). I'm using Levemir and Novorapid. Recently, however, I've been getting some strange readings, occasionally very high (15 on two occasions) and randomly Hypo-ing. I used to wake up around a reading level of 4-5 which was great but now it varies and was 10 the other morning.

Diet and exercise has remained the same as before so it's a real head-scratcher! Is this the widely discussed Honeymoon Period or is it something more worrying. I hate not being in control.

Any info will be very gratefully received.

Best

Dave

 

[jopar]

There's not definate time scale to the honeymoon period but most will find that it ends with in its first year..

Generally one of the signs that it's heading towards the end is blood glucose can be more erratic and/or you start to need more insulin to maintain control..

Are you carb counting and adjusting your insulin dose to the foods you are eating? The only way if you are MDI regime?

Other factors which could make you hypo's, did you do any exercise before the hypo's? Sometime you can actually get a time lag between the exercise you've done, and when it really impacts on the blood glucose levels.. So you might find cycling in the morning you do fine, but in the afternoon you have an hypo!!

 

[yipster29]

Hi

I was diagnosed T1 Mar 2009 and as you control fairly easily, carb counting, regular exercise etc.

I had the same findings with readings over a yr after diagnosis in June this year with NO changes. Assumed it was end of honeymoon and as you nothappy as hate not knowing and not aving control!!

Slowly but surely have upped insulin (both Novorapid and Levirmir needed adjusting) and now on double the insulin but the control is back!!

Hey ho guess the honeymoon really is over!!

:roll:

 

[Daver]

Thanks guys - sets my mind at ease reading these. It's everso distracting all this so appreciate your thoughts.

Cheers

Dave

 

[moonstone]

Test more often and expect the unexpected, I think.... mine ended when I got a chest infection so I was high anyway and didn't really get lots of hypos at the time - just went up + up - by the time the infection was over I'd clicked that I should try having 1 unit for every 10g of carbs and 1 extra unit for every 4-5 points that I was above target. It did me fine for a really long time, perhaps it could be a good starting place if it's not too far outside what you're already injecting? It turned out to be basically what they teach you on DAFNE so by the time I got on the course a year later the carb counting bit was water off a duck's back. Since my HbA1c hit exactly 7% in the Spring I've become more sensitive to insulin so I now need only half to three-quarters of a unit for 10g of carbs.

 

[Daver]

Thanks moonstone - sounds like I can relax a bit more now and have started to adjust my insulin to accommodate the fluctuating readings.

Cheers