Unexpected high sugar hours after eating PLEASE HELP

[bethhchapman]

Hi,
This is my first time using this so I apologise if this isn’t how I get advice. I was diagnosed with diabetes in December and so I am still learning how to manage it. Today I had an unexpected high blood sugar which I really can’t understand why it would happen so I wondered if someone could help me. I must say that I have a special form of diabetes which means I do produce some insulin just not enough so sometimes I don’t have to inject for everything. Anyway today I injected and had my lunch as usual and then 2 hours later it was at 5 and going down, I had a meeting so wanted to curb it before I went into it I had a very small chocolate bar to ensure I didn’t drop into a hypo at 3pm. After my meeting at 5pm I checked my sugars and they were at 7 and I could see the little peak that the chocolate had made. An hour later I checked my sugars ready to inject for dinner and was alarmed to see that it had risen to 14. I wondered if anyone knew why this may be as this was three hours after eating anything and it wasn’t until the 3rd hour that it actually started to rise like that. I am extremely confused as on my freestyle libre graph I could see a visible small peak where I had eaten the chocolate and at the two hour point it was normal.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

Well the sugar came from somewhere and if you hadn't eaten a proper meal then I suspect it was a liver dump. Everyone is used to fasting tests in the morning where the sugar level could be high due to not eating at night but liver dumps can happen at other times too. Eating regular small amounts may prevent it. Yours was a high number and I can only assume that since you hadn't taken your insulin that it looked bad.

 

[bethhchapman]

Thank you for replying! I had a full on meal for lunch though I only had the chocolate as a kind of top up could a liver dump still be the explanation?

 

[catinahat]

Welcome to the forum @bethhchapman
It could have been your liver releasing some stored glucose, as already mentioned it can happen at any time. Was it a particularly stressful meeting ? What was your meal because some foods can be quite slow getting into your blood. Pizza is a notorious one for example, the fat will delay the absorption of the carbs leading to a spike much later than expected. hopefully someone with experience of using insulin will be along soon with more ideas

 

[CrazycatYork]

Hiya, a few thoughts come to mind.
As previously mentioned, it might be that your liver released extra glucose (eg if you were stressed about your forthcoming meeting and your blood sugar was dropping so your liver caused a 'rebound' effect).
Also, it could be that the insulin is out of sync with your carb - some carbs are absorbed much more quickly than others which can result in a dip in blood sugar levels and a spike later, especially if you've consumed something carby to deal with a hypo.
Maybe the chocolate had a lot more carb than you realised/needed?

Being diagnosed with T1 presents us with a steep learning curve - I'm still learning after 40 years! Your chocolate bar was a good move - better to have high blood sugar later than to lose your marbles in a work meeting! Over time, you'll get to know your diabetes better and patterns will become noticeable - keep testing and you'll build up your knowledge bank about how stress, different types of carb, different activities etc affect you personally - for example, I always have a 'shopping hypo' unless I lower my basal insulin (on my insulin pump) before supermarket shopping, it must be the stress on top of the exercise.

 

[bethhchapman]

Welcome to the forum @bethhchapman
It could have been your liver releasing some stored glucose, as already mentioned it can happen at any time. Was it a particularly stressful meeting ? What was your meal because some foods can be quite slow getting into your blood. Pizza is a notorious one for example, the fat will delay the absorption of the carbs leading to a spike much later than expected. hopefully someone with experience of using insulin will be along soon with more ideas

Thank you for such a warm welcome. I had considered what you said about food being slow getting into my blood. For lunch I had tuna pasta bake which I injected for an obvsiously is carby. But what confused me is that on my graph I can see a peak that went up and back down for both the lunch meal and the chocolate so was confused how so many hours later it could shoot back up again. Can this happen it appear to be going down and change its mind?

 

[bethhchapman]

Hiya, a few thoughts come to mind.
As previously mentioned, it might be that your liver released extra glucose (eg if you were stressed about your forthcoming meeting and your blood sugar was dropping so your liver caused a 'rebound' effect).
Also, it could be that the insulin is out of sync with your carb - some carbs are absorbed much more quickly than others which can result in a dip in blood sugar levels and a spike later, especially if you've consumed something carby to deal with a hypo.
Maybe the chocolate had a lot more carb than you realised/needed?

Being diagnosed with T1 presents us with a steep learning curve - I'm still learning after 40 years! Your chocolate bar was a good move - better to have high blood sugar later than to lose your marbles in a work meeting! Over time, you'll get to know your diabetes better and patterns will become noticeable - keep testing and you'll build up your knowledge bank about how stress, different types of carb, different activities etc affect you personally - for example, I always have a 'shopping hypo' unless I lower my basal insulin (on my insulin pump) before supermarket shopping, it must be the stress on top of the exercise.

Thank you yes it is definitely difficult learning how to manage it all and just when I think I have the hang of it I will get a curve ball like this which makes little sense to me. It was a an emotionally stressful meeting which I never considered could have effected my sugars this drastically but it’s definitely a possibility. I was only confused by the fact my graph showed a clear peak for my pasta lunch and then the chocolate which went up and then came back down and then hours later shot back up again. Can this happen can your sugar start to go back down after a food and then change it’s mind again and do you know why that may be?

 

[CrazycatYork]

I can't say for sure, but maybe your pasta and insulin might have been absorbed and peaked at different rates, giving a yo-yo-ing effect. Experience will help you assess which foods spike when.
When you have brain space, you might find it useful to look up these terms:
- glycaemic index - which means the speed at which carbs tend to be absorbed
- glycaemic load - which means the total amount of carb in foodstuffs.
So, for example pizza, curry (with all the trimmings), wholewheat pasta, fish and chips are all very high in carbs. BUT they tend to be absorbed more slowly than eg a pack of jelly-tots. The glycaemic index of carbs high in fat, fibre, or other 'complex carbs' is lower than pure sugar, glucose etc, therefore absorbed more slowly (fish and chips affects my blood sugar for hours after eating it so I have to spread out my insulin dose so I don't go hypo then hyper after eating and bolus-ing). Different types of fruit have different glycaemic indexes and adding cheese to your meal can slow down the absorbtion rate of carbs in your meal by lowering the overall glycaemic index (because cheese is digested slowly). It changed my life when I started to get my head around this! CGM devices were a big help too!
Don't beat yourself up if your blood sugar isn't perfect all the time and sometimes blood sugar spikes and dips are just a mystery. Other times you'll see a pattern, but it's good that you're noticing and questioning because you might notice that meetings, pasta ,,, and the rest (different types of booze, stress, weight gain/loss) are all impacting you differently.

 

[sleepster]

Hi @bethhchapman, how was your BG after your dinner? If you were still high it could be a problem with your insulin. If you were back to normal after your dinner were you stressed or anxious about your meeting?
Have you seen the list of 42 things that can affect your blood sugar? Even with 42 possibilities sometimes it can be difficult to find the reasoning for a high BG
https://diatribe.org/sites/default/files/42FactorsPDF - October 28, 2018.pdf

 

[bethhchapman]

I can't say for sure, but maybe your pasta and insulin might have been absorbed and peaked at different rates, giving a yo-yo-ing effect. Experience will help you assess which foods spike when.
When you have brain space, you might find it useful to look up these terms:
- glycaemic index - which means the speed at which carbs tend to be absorbed
- glycaemic load - which means the total amount of carb in foodstuffs.
So, for example pizza, curry (with all the trimmings), wholewheat pasta, fish and chips are all very high in carbs. BUT they tend to be absorbed more slowly than eg a pack of jelly-tots. The glycaemic index of carbs high in fat, fibre, or other 'complex carbs' is lower than pure sugar, glucose etc, therefore absorbed more slowly (fish and chips affects my blood sugar for hours after eating it so I have to spread out my insulin dose so I don't go hypo then hyper after eating and bolus-ing). Different types of fruit have different glycaemic indexes and adding cheese to your meal can slow down the absorbtion rate of carbs in your meal by lowering the overall glycaemic index (because cheese is digested slowly). It changed my life when I started to get my head around this! CGM devices were a big help too!
Don't beat yourself up if your blood sugar isn't perfect all the time and sometimes blood sugar spikes and dips are just a mystery. Other times you'll see a pattern, but it's good that you're noticing and questioning because you might notice that meetings, pasta ,,, and the rest (different types of booze, stress, weight gain/loss) are all impacting you differently.

Thank you there really is a lot to learn and to remember!

 

[bethhchapman]

Hi @bethhchapman, how was your BG after your dinner? If you were still high it could be a problem with your insulin. If you were back to normal after your dinner were you stressed or anxious about your meeting?
Have you seen the list of 42 things that can affect your blood sugar? Even with 42 possibilities sometimes it can be difficult to find the reasoning for a high BG
https://diatribe.org/sites/default/files/42FactorsPDF - October 28, 2018.pdf

It went up to 13 again but before I ate dinner it never really got low enough it was at 8 before dinner so that kind of makes sense. Oh that’s really interesting and helpful will have a read over that thank you. So many factors it really is all very complicated.