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Type 1 URGENT HELP

alphabeta

alphabeta

Well-Known Member
Messages
615
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello everyone, I'm writing this in tremendous disappointment and sadness... here's the thing that happens with me... first I'm a 17 years-old teenager who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2009. I take 24 units mixtard in the morning; 12 units actrapid at lunch; 22 units mixtard at night. But my dinner insulin is driving me crazy because it acts very fast and erases all of my sugar at once in an hour or so.. I have to eat nothing less than 12 spoons of table sugar to get it higher again! This is crazy but it only happens at night! I changed my insulin and I started takimg 16 units NPH plus 2 units actrapid today.. it was 272 before dinner and in 2 hours it went down to 151 and 2 minutes later 120. I ate 7 spoons of sugar and it stayed at 116!!!! Most devastating feeling on earth!! It kept falling uncontrollably so i kept eating sugar unitil just before I installed this app it became 175. My doctor told me that i have slow absorption of food at night.. I'm afraid to ask for help from my parents because they think that I'm just overreacting.. I know it might seem like this but every diabetic is different than the other and what applies to you doesn't apply to you necessarily. My question is why does this happen to me? Please help :( thank you for reading my question

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Hey. I had a time when I got hypos 1 hour after eating dinner, it just started suddenly. What helped me was to reduce my bolus insulin before dinner and I had some extra snacks before going to bed. It needed some time until it got back to normal, testing a lot and figuring out. Try to get ur balance, and dont be afraid to talk to ur parents !! XX
 
alphabeta said:
Hello everyone, I'm writing this in tremendous disappointment and sadness... here's the thing that happens with me... first I'm a 17 years-old teenager who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2009. I take 24 units mixtard in the morning; 12 units actrapid at lunch; 22 units mixtard at night. But my dinner insulin is driving me crazy because it acts very fast and erases all of my sugar at once in an hour or so.. I have to eat nothing less than 12 spoons of table sugar to get it higher again! This is crazy but it only happens at night! I changed my insulin and I started takimg 16 units NPH plus 2 units actrapid today.. it was 272 before dinner and in 2 hours it went down to 151 and 2 minutes later 120. I ate 7 spoons of sugar and it stayed at 116!!!! Most devastating feeling on earth!! It kept falling uncontrollably so i kept eating sugar unitil just before I installed this app it became 175. My doctor told me that i have slow absorption of food at night.. I'm afraid to ask for help from my parents because they think that I'm just overreacting.. I know it might seem like this but every diabetic is different than the other and what applies to you doesn't apply to you necessarily. My question is why does this happen to me? Please help :( thank you for reading my question

Sent from my SM-G920F using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
Click to expand...

Hi @alphabeta ,

Sorry to hear your problems. Lows can take the wind out of one's sails...

Did your bloods drop any lower than "116" during treatment..?
 
Jaylee said:
Hi @alphabeta ,

Sorry to hear your problems. Lows can take the wind out of one's sails...

Did your bloods drop any lower than "116" during treatment..?
Click to expand...
The thing is it drops very quickly but I caught it before it dropped any further.. It was 155 just 2 minutes before 116!! Using the blood from the same finger though.. I start getting hot flashes and sweating.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
 
alphabeta said:
Hello everyone, I'm writing this in tremendous disappointment and sadness... here's the thing that happens with me... first I'm a 17 years-old teenager who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2009. I take 24 units mixtard in the morning; 12 units actrapid at lunch; 22 units mixtard at night. But my dinner insulin is driving me crazy because it acts very fast and erases all of my sugar at once in an hour or so.. I have to eat nothing less than 12 spoons of table sugar to get it higher again! This is crazy but it only happens at night! I changed my insulin and I started takimg 16 units NPH plus 2 units actrapid today.. it was 272 before dinner and in 2 hours it went down to 151 and 2 minutes later 120. I ate 7 spoons of sugar and it stayed at 116!!!! Most devastating feeling on earth!! It kept falling uncontrollably so i kept eating sugar unitil just before I installed this app it became 175. My doctor told me that i have slow absorption of food at night.. I'm afraid to ask for help from my parents because they think that I'm just overreacting.. I know it might seem like this but every diabetic is different than the other and what applies to you doesn't apply to you necessarily. My question is why does this happen to me? Please help :( thank you for reading my question

Sent from my SM-G920F using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
Click to expand...
Is there any specific reason why you're not on a MDI basal/bolus insulin regime?

The insulin regime you're on offers very few benefits over MDI and tends to only work well if your routine is absolutely regimented and seldom varies.
 
272, where you started off, is about 15mmol/l. That is very high. The point of taking insulin when you are at levels that high is to bring the level down. The insulin you took did its job and brought your blood sugar down to 151 (8.3) so still high, then 120 (6.6) which is more the sort of level you should be targeting for , and then 116 (6.4) again a lovely euglycaemic number.

None of these numbers are hypo or low, they are a million miles away from that.

While you weren't hypo, eating table sugar isn't recommended as an ideal hypo treatment because it isn't the fastest acting carb. Something like a dextrose tablet or glucojuice will act quicker to raise blood sugar. But even when eating something like that, the recommendation is to eat it and then wait 10-15 minutes for it to work before testing your blood sugar to see whether anymore hypo treatment is needed to realise blood sugar. So it would be a very expected response not to raise immediately after eating teaspoons of table sugar - it just doesn't work instantly.

So you had an expected drop from insulin taking you from hyper to normal blood sugar level and you had a normal response to eating sugar in that it didn't instantaneously raise you like magic.

I don't really understand why you would be trying to get a blood sugar of 6.4 higher? What happens if you don't eat 12 spoons of sugar? What carb value is your meal and how many carbs is your mixtard designed to deal with for dinner?
 
catapillar said:
272, where you started off, is about 15mmol/l. That is very high. The point of taking insulin when you are at levels that high is to bring the level down. The insulin you took did its job and brought your blood sugar down to 151 (8.3) so still high, then 120 (6.6) which is more the sort of level you should be targeting for , and then 116 (6.4) again a lovely euglycaemic number.

None of these numbers are hypo or low, they are a million miles away from that.

While you weren't hypo, eating table sugar isn't recommended as an ideal hypo treatment because it isn't the fastest acting carb. Something like a dextrose tablet or glucojuice will act quicker to raise blood sugar. But even when eating something like that, the recommendation is to eat it and then wait 10-15 minutes for it to work before testing your blood sugar to see whether anymore hypo treatment is needed to realise blood sugar. So it would be a very expected response not to raise immediately after eating teaspoons of table sugar - it just doesn't work instantly.

So you had an expected drop from insulin taking you from hyper to normal blood sugar level and you had a normal response to eating sugar in that it didn't instantaneously raise you like magic.

I don't really understand why you would be trying to get a blood sugar of 6.4 higher? What happens if you don't eat 12 spoons of sugar? What carb value is your meal and how many carbs is your mixtard designed to deal with for dinner?
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I completely understand but I was able to feel that it was going down and it shouldn't get down that fast! I was sweating like mad and shaking it was going to be a hypo for sure

Sent from my SM-G920F using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
 
If you're going too low you need to adjust your intake of insulin, sounds like you're using too much, it is trial and error, the Doc can only give a guideline but non of them will know your bodies own absorption rate of insulin, it does take a bit of math, carb and insulin ratio is important to work out, sugar is a bit harsh and will make you feel unwell, try orange juice or lucozade keep plenty in until you can get an equilibrium. Hope you get it sorted.
 
alphabeta said:
I completely understand but I was able to feel that it was going down and it shouldn't get down that fast! I was sweating like mad and shaking it was going to be a hypo for sure

Sent from my SM-G920F using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
Click to expand...

If you are getting symptom like that in the 6s that does suggest a false hypo. Do you normally run at a higher level so that you body would incorrectly think a normal level is too low? If that's the case, you need to think about slowly stepping down your targets and avoiding treating false hypos.
 
catapillar said:
If you are getting symptom like that in the 6s that does suggest a false hypo. Do you normally run at a higher level so that you body would incorrectly think a normal level is too low? If that's the case, you need to think about slowly stepping down your targets and avoiding treating false hypos.
Click to expand...
It was not a false hypo because I realize what levels and readings I should expect after 2 hours 4 hours and so on...

Sent from my SM-G920F using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
 
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