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Yikes - is this the end of the honeymoon period?

sololite

Active Member
Messages
37
Type of diabetes
Type 3
Treatment type
Insulin
I have been LADA for over a year now. My Diabetic Nurse has been pleased with my improving HBa1c scores along the way. I inject 8 units Levemir at 10.30pm and exercise, eat sensibly and maintained my 12stone body weight since I became a 'thin' diabetic.

My BS scores have always been the wrong side of 7 but are usually lowered by exercise.

This week I am seeing my BS scores increase dramatically to 14-16. I checked my BS through the night last night and they were constant around 11.

At night I am noticing my guts 'gurgling' and 'twinging' way more than they ever did. I increased the Levemir to 10 units last night but I am still very high today. I am eating fewer carbs during this period in an effort to bring things down.

I just had my bloods taken today and will get the results next week. I sense something is changing and wondered if anyone else experienced these symptoms before transitioning to Type 1?

Any views on whether I should increase the Levemir and if so by what?

Thanks for all your assistance and best wishes to the whole community.

regards,

Chris
 
Hi @sololite Yes and you have already noticed your honeymoon looks very much like it's over now, those high BG levels will need reigning back in, so getting onto a quick acting insulin for meal times and for correcting high BG levels is what you need to be aiming for. Your basal is purely for working as a background insulin and can't be used to correct high BG levels so even increasing it without using a quick acting insulin isn't going to be very effective.

I wouldn't wait until next week as running high will mean less energy and brain fog, also your levels may start to go higher so getting support now is important for you, can you get to see your diabetic nurse asap ? In the mean time just keep a log on your results to read back to them.
 
Hi. Be aware that any illness/infection can cause a big BS increase. I currently have a cold bug and have had to increase my insulins by around 20%. You don't mention any Bolus insulin? Are you just on Basal or Basal/Bolus? My DN started me on just Basal but within a month added a Bolus as my control wasn't good enough.
 

Thanks for this advice. I have a call with my DN and trying to get to see the doc tomorrow. Interestingly I am down to 7 after a carb free lunch and half an hour on the exercise bike, whereas yesterday I was very high after 30 mile cycle and similar lunch.
 
Thank you Daibell. I am just on Basal. I may have a small infection in my gums at the moment, I will try and find a link to my higher BS.
 
Hi sololite, this is really interesting! First thing to say is I hope this isn't the end of your honeymoon!
I'm currently a fellow honeymooner and have been managing my condition for about a year now too. Rather than have high basal I've been having fast acting insulin with every meal and only a small amount of long lasting. Not sure I quite get this LADA and 1.5 diabetes stuff. If at diagnosis you've got the dreaded antibodies it's just a matter of time until the beta cells are not destroyed. My c-peptide levels at diagnosis were at the bottom end of normal so I started insulin when in a daily food pancreas. My philosophy has been to maintain a good fasting BG, so basically in range when I wake up, and back in range 2 hrs after food - I always try and avoid peaking over 10 mmol/l. The ratio I work with is 1 unit for 25g carbs. So far so good with this philosophy. I have 2 units Levemir in the morning and 2 at night. Generally, depending on carbs at meal times, I end up having about 8 units fast acting. I do run quite a lot too, average ~ 20 miles a week.
Sorry for the waffle, I just find it fascinating that diabetic experts can give advice for one person to have only long lasting and for another person to work with both?!? You would think there would be text book answers. Prolonging the honeymoon is a funny thing too, nobody really provides guidance on how to do this, only advice I found is the Dr Bairnstain guy. I find his ideas great but I'm still not convinced about the long term effects of LCHF and fueling our bodies on fat as opposed to glucose...
Anyway best of luck with things, hope you get a bit longer from the honeymoon! I love it! My wife of 10 years is a T1Der, since 4yo, so I know exactly what's coming!
 

Few auto spell corrects in here, sorry!
 
Hi Andy, thanks for your advice and spelling corrections! Your control sounds excellent. I am nowhere near that but am not taking any mealtime insulin. At the moment it seems that any carbs are causing big increases in BS and then taking a long time to come back. I looked at the some of the dietary advice on LCHF but it would make me really miserable and not give me enough fuel to exercise so am just sticking to what I know - no processed food, cook everything from scratch, no sugar, no fruit juice, largely vegetarian etc. I agree it is strange to have different approaches to taking insulin given to us, I find the whole subject baffling. There is definitely something afoot with my condition at the moment, hopefully my blood tests due this week will reveal something. It sounds great that you and your wife can support each other with this - well done on finding each other

regards,

Chris
 
You have an infection and that might be enough to skew your results - my body knew I was catching a cold 24 hours before I did last week. I couldn't understand why I was hitting 15/17 on a 'normal' day with 'normal' food. I was going to change my novorapid pen in case it was a dud and then woke up the next morning feeling really rough. Yup - snotty nose time.

I'm also in the honeymoon period, but because I was diagnosed with a very high level of antibodies already then I was put on basal / bolus straight away. I am extremely insulin sensitive so have to be very careful when even a 1/2 unit correction can send me plummeting. Whether or not that is my pancreas helping out or just how my body adjusted to the tiny amounts of insulin I was still producing pre-diagnosis I don't know.

Might be time for you to get Novorapid to help manage the spikes around eating.
 
Thanks Circuspony. I have never plummeted, I imagine in might be quite scary. I am meeting my DN soon so will mention the infection aspect. regards, Chris
 

Hiya Chris
I was informed yesterday I could be insulin dependent within 2 years. You mentioned that your tummy has been gurgling etc is this a normal sign. Mine has been doing this a lot recently and not because I’m hungry either

I hope you get the answers you are looking for
 
sololite said:
Thank you Daibell. I am just on Basal. I may have a small infection in my gums at the moment, I will try and find a link to my higher BS.
Click to expand...
Hi again. Once your infection has passed and you feel you are out of the honeymoon period then I would ask to go on Basal/Bolus which is the NICE preferred insulin regime for T1s, and LADA is T1 when out of the honeymoon period
 
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