I've viewed this forum for a long time but only just joined. I'm very frustrated and hope someone can help with advice.
As a bit of background, I've been a type 1 diabetic for 33 years (since I was 8). Luckily, I've always had good control and generally found it quite easy. I'm also fortunate that I've had no complications to date. My bloods have always been good. The last test was 41 and I haven't been above 47 for as long as I can remember. I'm 5'11 and just under 15 stone, so I am a bit over weight although my weight hasn't changed up or down for the last 10 years. I live quite a healthy lifestyle and exercise 3 to 4 times per week including gym, 5-aside football and spin classes. I use Lantus long acting and Humolog quick acting.
I also use a Libre full-time so can see bloods at all times of the day.
Until very recently, good control has been quite easy. I've never eaten much sweet stuff but I do enjoy eating most other things and will normally choose whatever I fancy if we're out for a meal or just eat what the family are eating at home. I also have a drink 3 or 4 nights per week (mostly a glass of white wine but sometimes a lager if I'm out). This isn't binge drinking maybe 15 to 20 units per week. I've always been able to adjust my bolus dose accordingly for my food and drink and it always seems to have worked.
However, things have changed and my results are terrible and I can't explain why. I went on holiday to America with my family 6 weeks ago and as always ate pretty much what I wanted and adjusted my dose accordingly. For the first week of the holiday my results were normal/good. At the start of the second week, everything changed. My results went through the roof despite my food, drink and insulin not changing. I was running as high as 15 to 18 and even having correction doses was not bringing the results down. I reduced the amount of food and tried eating healthily but still the highs continued.
At first I thought it might be the heat or my insulin not working due to not being kept cool enough so I decided to relax and not worry about it until I got home. When at home I changed all my insulin for new in case the heat had damaged it. I also went back to my old routine and same levels of insulin. However, running high and high spikes continued.
I then decided to go very healthy and cut out most carbs. This helps for part of the time but the moment I have even a small amount of food containing carbs, I immediately spike high (up to 15) and then its really difficult to get it back down. I just seems to stick well above 10.
I then decided to go back to eating normally but increasing my dose for the amount of food. Again this has not helped.
At the moment I'm eating healthily but can't eat any sort of carbs without spiking high and then struggling to get it down. For example, today I limited my breakfast to two boiled eggs and a coffee and was 5.9 by lunch. For lunch I decided to have a wholemeal bread sandwich with ham. I had my normal bolus dose about 15 minutes before I ate. Within an hour of eating the sandwich my blood has increased to 15.5 and is still rising. This has been happening consistently now for about 5 weeks. If I had eaten this meal in the past with the same level of insulin I would only have gone to 8 or 9 maximum.
I'm not doing anything different than I used to. It seems like I've lost the ability to eat anything containing carbs and my insulin has just stopped working how it used to. As I said I can pinpoint it starting to the second week of my holiday. Its so frustrating because my bloods and control for the last 33 years have always been good and I've never experienced anything like it.
I really hope someone can offer an explanation for what is happening or some advice on how to improve things.
Sorry for the long post and any help is really appreciated.
As a bit of background, I've been a type 1 diabetic for 33 years (since I was 8). Luckily, I've always had good control and generally found it quite easy. I'm also fortunate that I've had no complications to date. My bloods have always been good. The last test was 41 and I haven't been above 47 for as long as I can remember. I'm 5'11 and just under 15 stone, so I am a bit over weight although my weight hasn't changed up or down for the last 10 years. I live quite a healthy lifestyle and exercise 3 to 4 times per week including gym, 5-aside football and spin classes. I use Lantus long acting and Humolog quick acting.
I also use a Libre full-time so can see bloods at all times of the day.
Until very recently, good control has been quite easy. I've never eaten much sweet stuff but I do enjoy eating most other things and will normally choose whatever I fancy if we're out for a meal or just eat what the family are eating at home. I also have a drink 3 or 4 nights per week (mostly a glass of white wine but sometimes a lager if I'm out). This isn't binge drinking maybe 15 to 20 units per week. I've always been able to adjust my bolus dose accordingly for my food and drink and it always seems to have worked.
However, things have changed and my results are terrible and I can't explain why. I went on holiday to America with my family 6 weeks ago and as always ate pretty much what I wanted and adjusted my dose accordingly. For the first week of the holiday my results were normal/good. At the start of the second week, everything changed. My results went through the roof despite my food, drink and insulin not changing. I was running as high as 15 to 18 and even having correction doses was not bringing the results down. I reduced the amount of food and tried eating healthily but still the highs continued.
At first I thought it might be the heat or my insulin not working due to not being kept cool enough so I decided to relax and not worry about it until I got home. When at home I changed all my insulin for new in case the heat had damaged it. I also went back to my old routine and same levels of insulin. However, running high and high spikes continued.
I then decided to go very healthy and cut out most carbs. This helps for part of the time but the moment I have even a small amount of food containing carbs, I immediately spike high (up to 15) and then its really difficult to get it back down. I just seems to stick well above 10.
I then decided to go back to eating normally but increasing my dose for the amount of food. Again this has not helped.
At the moment I'm eating healthily but can't eat any sort of carbs without spiking high and then struggling to get it down. For example, today I limited my breakfast to two boiled eggs and a coffee and was 5.9 by lunch. For lunch I decided to have a wholemeal bread sandwich with ham. I had my normal bolus dose about 15 minutes before I ate. Within an hour of eating the sandwich my blood has increased to 15.5 and is still rising. This has been happening consistently now for about 5 weeks. If I had eaten this meal in the past with the same level of insulin I would only have gone to 8 or 9 maximum.
I'm not doing anything different than I used to. It seems like I've lost the ability to eat anything containing carbs and my insulin has just stopped working how it used to. As I said I can pinpoint it starting to the second week of my holiday. Its so frustrating because my bloods and control for the last 33 years have always been good and I've never experienced anything like it.
I really hope someone can offer an explanation for what is happening or some advice on how to improve things.
Sorry for the long post and any help is really appreciated.