Type 1s: What would you do?!

meg7024 · Nov 25, 2016

Hello everyone,

I'm pretty new to this...

I'm a type 1 diabetic, have been for 15 years now. I'm currently 22 years old.

Me and my boyfriend decided to travel the world as soon as we graduated. So far we have been to Amsterdam, Thailand and we have been in Australia for the past year.

My diabetes has never been perfect but I've always been independent and confident in managing myself. I didn't realise how much of a pain travelling with diabetes would be in terms of the cost, carrying supplies, travel itself and the unexplained high and low blood sugars day to day.

Now, I'm in in need of some advice. I'm currently dieting- well to be honest my eating disorder is currently 'peaking' but that's a different story all together. In other words my carbs are lower and my excersize has increased.

My current days are:
Work 5am-11am in cold conditions.
11.30am- have a small protein based lunch.
1pm- Aprox 60 minute continuous swimming in the heat.
2-3pm- sunbathe
4pm- dinner
8pm- sleep
3am- low blood sugar

I haven't been injecting for my evening meal as I know I've been dropping everyday for the past week. Sometimes I'll inject a small dose for the 11am snack depending what it is.

I've lowered my evening levimir so in a few days that should hopefully kick in but I'm confused as despite the swimming and having no carbs my blood sugar will be fairly high before I go to bed which makes the drop even worse.

Any ideas? I know if I lower my morning levimir surely the evening blood reading will be even higher?

Oh and my bloods tend to rise in the heat and cold rather than drop, unless that can change?! But surely the rise during my sunbathing would be capped due to my swimming.

Apologies for the dull post I'd just love some ideas.

Thanks in advance,

Megan

callyandy · Nov 25, 2016

Sorry I missed type 2 also... I will say there are no dull posts or silly questions. Just lots of clever generous peeps who'll help where they can. Good luck. Keep posting

steve_p6 · Nov 25, 2016

meg7024 said:
Hello everyone,

I'm pretty new to this...

I'm a type 1 diabetic, have been for 15 years now. I'm currently 22 years old.

Me and my boyfriend decided to travel the world as soon as we graduated. So far we have been to Amsterdam, Thailand and we have been in Australia for the past year.

My diabetes has never been perfect but I've always been independent and confident in managing myself. I didn't realise how much of a pain travelling with diabetes would be in terms of the cost, carrying supplies, travel itself and the unexplained high and low blood sugars day to day.

Now, I'm in in need of some advice. I'm currently dieting- well to be honest my eating disorder is currently 'peaking' but that's a different story all together. In other words my carbs are lower and my excersize has increased.

My current days are:
Work 5am-11am in cold conditions.
11.30am- have a small protein based lunch.
1pm- Aprox 60 minute continuous swimming in the heat.
2-3pm- sunbathe
4pm- dinner
8pm- sleep
3am- low blood sugar

I haven't been injecting for my evening meal as I know I've been dropping everyday for the past week. Sometimes I'll inject a small dose for the 11am snack depending what it is.

I've lowered my evening levimir so in a few days that should hopefully kick in but I'm confused as despite the swimming and having no carbs my blood sugar will be fairly high before I go to bed which makes the drop even worse.

Any ideas? I know if I lower my morning levimir surely the evening blood reading will be even higher?

Oh and my bloods tend to rise in the heat and cold rather than drop, unless that can change?! But surely the rise during my sunbathing would be capped due to my swimming.

Apologies for the dull post I'd just love some ideas.

Thanks in advance,

Megan

Hi Megan. Intensive exercise can raise BGs so part of answer is how hard are you swimming. Looking at the times you quote. You say you eat at 4PM but no bolus so no surprise you are high at 8PM. From 8PM to 3am you drop so that can only be due to your Levemir. You dont say how much Levemir you are on or if you are splitting it morning and evening? Need to know answers to that to advise.

meg7024 · Nov 25, 2016

steve_p6 said:
Hi Megan. Intensive exercise can raise BGs so part of answer is how hard are you swimming. Looking at the times you quote. You say you eat at 4PM but no bolus so no surprise you are high at 8PM. From 8PM to 3am you drop so that can only be due to your Levemir. You dont say how much Levemir you are on or if you are splitting it morning and evening? Need to know answers to that to advise.

Hey,

Thanks for the reply.

I wouldn't say my swimming is strenuous and I've always been pretty intense on excersize, perhaps a little less than I was at home.

I am on humalog short reacting and levimir long lasting. I do my levimir at 8.30 AM and PM or 7.30PM on work evenings. My levimir is now 15 units at night and 18 in the morning.

The high blood before bed is due to not injecting for evening food- I guess I'm nervous the drop in the morning would be worse than it is.

meg7024 · Nov 25, 2016

callyandy said:
Sorry I missed type 2 also... I will say there are no dull posts or silly questions. Just lots of clever generous peeps who'll help where they can. Good luck. Keep posting

You are right, this a great way to talk to others. Sometimes someone in the same boat is so much more reassuring than the doctors or nurses.

T1Dad · Nov 25, 2016

Hi @meg7024, I'm fairly new to managing Type 1 but what you could try without changing too much is to Bolus for the evening meal to enable your bloods to return to range before bedtime. At bedtime, take a small slow release carb snack to prevent the drop. We do this on most nights with my daughter and Belvita biscuits work very well. Not sure you can get them wherever you are though. Best of luck with it all...

steve_p6 · Nov 25, 2016

meg7024 said:
Hey,

Thanks for the reply.

I wouldn't say my swimming is strenuous and I've always been pretty intense on excersize, perhaps a little less than I was at home.

I am on humalog short reacting and levimir long lasting. I do my levimir at 8.30 AM and PM or 7.30PM on work evenings. My levimir is now 15 units at night and 18 in the morning.

The high blood before bed is due to not injecting for evening food- I guess I'm nervous the drop in the morning would be worse than it is.

Hi Meg. That keeps it fairly simple. Essentially need to reduce the evening Levemif so your BG stays level overnight then you can start bolusing again for dinner and keep to better levels overall. Because the Levemir doses are quite low you should get immediate results. For sake of argument if your BG drops 8 mmol overnight and you normally correct with 1u per 2mmol them that would imply reducing the overnight levemir by 4u and then adjust the next night based on how it goes.

meg7024 · Nov 25, 2016

steve_p6 said:
Hi Meg. That keeps it fairly simple. Essentially need to reduce the evening Levemif so your BG stays level overnight then you can start bolusing again for dinner and keep to better levels overall. Because the Levemir doses are quite low you should get immediate results. For sake of argument if your BG drops 8 mmol overnight and you normally correct with 1u per 2mmol them that would imply reducing the overnight levemir by 4u and then adjust the next night based on how it goes.

Thank you so much, I'm going to try that starting from this evening. That is a great help. You have restored my motivation!

meg7024 · Nov 25, 2016

T1Dad said:
Hi @meg7024, I'm fairly new to managing Type 1 but what you could try without changing too much is to Bolus for the evening meal to enable your bloods to return to range before bedtime. At bedtime, take a small slow release carb snack to prevent the drop. We do this on most nights with my daughter and Belvita biscuits work very well. Not sure you can get them wherever you are though. Best of luck with it all...

Hello,

Thankyou! That is a great suggestion.
With the diet/eating disorder I find it hard to have decent snacks or meals. Sometimes my body panics in starvation mode so my BG rises. It's a difficult scenario!

I am going to reduce my evening dose and make sure I inject for food hopefully that will prevent the rebound of high to low!

catapillar · Nov 25, 2016

You've detailed your day, but omitted any blood sugar readings. What is your blood sugar actually looking like through the day?

catapillar · Nov 25, 2016

Where are you based? How does your Ed present itself?

meg7024 · Nov 26, 2016

catapillar said:
You've detailed your day, but omitted any blood sugar readings. What is your blood sugar actually looking like through the day?

Hi,

My morning readings are between 3 and 8. At the moment usually 3, I wake up feeling hypo. My bedtime reading is between 9 to 20 at the moment.

At the moment I am in Australia, I leave for Bali in 4 weeks time

meg7024 · Nov 26, 2016

catapillar said:
Where are you based? How does your Ed present itself?

I was diagnosed with annorexia about a year ago. Now and again I'll peak and take my eating habits a little extreme.

callyandy · Nov 26, 2016

Well done for sharing. The more information the clever peeps have, the better they can help. Be safe out there!!

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