I woke up this morning not feeling great and when i tested found i was 3.9. Treated this, tested again, had breakfast, got ready for work, tested again before i got into the car and it was 8.9. Two hours after getting to work it had dropped to 2.8! Again, i treated it and when it was back up to 5.2 had a snack carried on working. By lunchtime it was back down to 4.9. I had a couple of glucose tablets, waited for it to go back up, tested again then had lunch. Two and a half hours later i tested again before leaving and it had dropped again to 4.1!! I'm really fed up. My DSN discharged me back in August as my HbA1C was 6.2, telling me if i needed any help i needed to go back to the GP to get rereferred...she could speak to me on the phone but shouldn't necessarily advise as i'm no longer her patient. Ok, i thought, i can give this a go. It was mostly ok until about a month ago when i started getting constant high readings (in the 9-10s high for me). Correcting wasn't bringing it down so i rang her. She said that i needed to recall the BERTIE course i had done and a ratio needed changing. Ok i thought, so i upped my Lantus by 1u. Things started to steady and i thought i'd cracked it but then i started having low readings about 3-3.30pm when i tested before leaving work (high 3s to low 4s). I changed the lunchtime ratio which seemed to work. Until this week. Today i've felt really down and emotional about diabetes. I just want to sit down and cry. I know there are people worse off than me but i feel really alone at the moment. I've made an appointment at the GPs to get rereferred..i can't do this by myself. Work have been really good so far and have said anything they can do to help just ask. Sorry for the long post but i just needed to get it out.
-
Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Bad day today
- Thread starter freesia
- Start date
- Status
I’m the same as you. As soon as I take my insulin and have my food after it I drop realy bad. A few times I’ve been in the twos but I’m mainly in the threes or very low fours. I’m constantly checking like I’m mad. I get scared upset angry. I use 150 strips a week. You/we are not alone. You can message me anytime. My blood sugars rarely go up. Sometimes I wonder have I realy got type 1 diabetes. Because when I wake in the morning and before I take my insulin my bloods are good and steady.
Kaylz
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
presumably (and I'm sure you have mentioned it in previous posts) you are on a long acting insulin as well as a fast acting for meals, that's what keeps you right and steady when you aren't eating x
Thanks for replying. I'm usually in the 5s to 8.0 so its unusual for me to be like this, especially for a whole day. For the past few weeks i've worried in the morning just in case i'm too low to drive to work, worried when i get a hypo at work, worried about levels through the day, worried about whether i can drive home or will i have to stay at work for another hour after i've finished because its too low to drive again, worried that i can't do anything spontaneously because i have to consider whether i'm too low or whether i need a snack first, worried about my weight going up because i'm needing to snack, worried about my bedtime level being high enough so i don't have a hypo overnight, worried about the amount of test strips i get through and whether i would end up having a limit on them, worried about my family and friends thinking i'm just being negative because they don't understand what this is like to live with, worried that i am struggling to cope with it myself. Then there is the worry about older family members. Someone said to me today that i always seem to be smiling but i don't feel like that inside. I'm just like a duck, paddling frantically underwater.
Hi. Yes. I'm on Lantus and Apidra.
Oopps sorry! I replied to you when you were talking to Imstillme.
Kaylz
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
@freesia we all have had times where we think like that, I still do, my mum and OH still don't realise that I can be VERY moody because of my blood sugars being high, I can feel utterly dreadful after a hypo and just want to sleep (I suffer terrible hypo hangovers) and yes I too put a brave face on when inside I'm crying, I find it good to write down everything going on inside my head, nobody has to see it if you don't want them to, it can be very tough and some deal with it better than others, I'm almost 3 years in and have always had a diabetic team available to me so I'd definitely get to your GP and get referred back to them as we aren't allowed or trained to give you advice regarding dosing etc xx
Kaylz
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Woah, hold fire, do you know that the advice is to only give half the correction after having a low? its because it may happen again you don't want to give a full correction dose xx
KARNAK
Much Missed Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hello @freesia a correction dose at 11.4 doesn't always need to happen, test yourself every hour for the next two hours. Diabetics have only themselves to control their BGL`s levels other than testing and adjust, keep going as you are we all get it wrong but we all get it right too. That balance is difficult for all of us but experience teaches us how too cope, don`t panic if you are low or high I bet most of your readings are well within parameters, take care my dear friend.xx
I think we’re twins trust me we are the same I’m scared of what the day may bring
Tomorrow is another day. It will be better than today and we will get through the bad days with the help and support of people on this forum. We will manage this..not let it manage us. I need to think positive after a day like today. Let me know how you get on.
Do you have a DSN you can speak to on Monday? It is hard managing it on your own. I was diagnosed 20 months ago and until August this year saw my DSN every 4-6wks then every 3 months. I'm asking to be rereferred as its hard to manage alone.
TheClockworkDodo
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I spend a lot of time hypo too - I quite often have 2 or 3 in a day, and sometimes they last for ages. I'm not having the emotional struggle with it you both are though, and I think it's a really good idea to talk to your DSN or GP (whoever is likely to be most helpful and sympathetic) about the psychological as well as the physical side of things. Swinging blood sugars can effect your mood as well as making you feel rubbish physically, and it's not good to try to struggle with that alone.
Are you both on Lantus? I found that Lantus really didn't help when it came to having hypos - it's supposed to give you a level basal, but I'm not the only one who found it actually gave me a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs. Apparently it's not so stable in low doses, and I was only on 4 units. I switched to Tresiba, which has been a bit better for me, but (until I manage to get a pump) I'm actually thinking of asking to switch to Levemir next time I see a DSN or consultant as I suspect that may be better still, as I still swing up and down a lot. It would mean an extra injection, but is supposed to make blood sugar more manageable as it lasts for a much shorter amount of time in your system, so it might be something for you to discuss with your DSNs.
Do either of you have a Libre? If you don't and you're testing more than 8 times a day (I know @Imstillme is, and it sounds as though you might be too @freesia ) you may qualify for one, so ask your DSNs about it. Although they're not completely reliable, and you still have to do some testing with them, they do cut down on a lot of the extra testing you do when you think you might be hypo, or you don't know whether you've got over the hypo yet, or whatever - and the arrows showing the direction your blood sugar is going help to head some of the hypos off at the pass. It may also show you when you're over-treating the hypos or over-correcting the spikes, which is easy to do, and just causes more swinging from hypo to spike to hypo again.
I hardly ever do a correction dose - my blood sugar would have to be about 15 for me to correct - because I know that no matter what I do my blood sugar goes up after meals and then comes down again with a crash. There is a rare condition called Reactive Hypoglycaemia which causes blood sugar to do this (I know about it because my partner has it) - it's not something you'd expect a type 1 to have normally but I wonder whether I might because I've been having this spike and plummet pattern for a really long time. For you two though, it's more likely to be that you're still in the "honeymoon period" and that your pancreas is still putting out a spurt of insulin from time to time - in which case, it should resolve itself after the first few months of being diabetic, so this constant yo-yo-ing and hypo-ing shouldn't last. I mention RH because the treatment for it is to eat like a type 2 (ie as low carb as you can); to always combine carbs with fat/protein, never eat them on their own; to eat lots of small meals rather than three big ones; to get plenty of fibre; and to always eat something fatty (like a yogurt or cheese and biscuits) before bed to stop overnight lows - and eating like this might help you both to stabilise your blood sugar a bit more. I think this is more or less what @rebrascora did when she was diagnosed, so she may have other ideas.
@freesia - the changes you've seen in your blood sugar lately may also be related to the weather, most of us find we need to change our doses every time the weather changes, so you wouldn't be alone in that.
And you are not alone, either of you - everyone on the forum has been through problems with diabetes, and we're all here to support you.
Are you both on Lantus? I found that Lantus really didn't help when it came to having hypos - it's supposed to give you a level basal, but I'm not the only one who found it actually gave me a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs. Apparently it's not so stable in low doses, and I was only on 4 units. I switched to Tresiba, which has been a bit better for me, but (until I manage to get a pump) I'm actually thinking of asking to switch to Levemir next time I see a DSN or consultant as I suspect that may be better still, as I still swing up and down a lot. It would mean an extra injection, but is supposed to make blood sugar more manageable as it lasts for a much shorter amount of time in your system, so it might be something for you to discuss with your DSNs.
Do either of you have a Libre? If you don't and you're testing more than 8 times a day (I know @Imstillme is, and it sounds as though you might be too @freesia ) you may qualify for one, so ask your DSNs about it. Although they're not completely reliable, and you still have to do some testing with them, they do cut down on a lot of the extra testing you do when you think you might be hypo, or you don't know whether you've got over the hypo yet, or whatever - and the arrows showing the direction your blood sugar is going help to head some of the hypos off at the pass. It may also show you when you're over-treating the hypos or over-correcting the spikes, which is easy to do, and just causes more swinging from hypo to spike to hypo again.
I hardly ever do a correction dose - my blood sugar would have to be about 15 for me to correct - because I know that no matter what I do my blood sugar goes up after meals and then comes down again with a crash. There is a rare condition called Reactive Hypoglycaemia which causes blood sugar to do this (I know about it because my partner has it) - it's not something you'd expect a type 1 to have normally but I wonder whether I might because I've been having this spike and plummet pattern for a really long time. For you two though, it's more likely to be that you're still in the "honeymoon period" and that your pancreas is still putting out a spurt of insulin from time to time - in which case, it should resolve itself after the first few months of being diabetic, so this constant yo-yo-ing and hypo-ing shouldn't last. I mention RH because the treatment for it is to eat like a type 2 (ie as low carb as you can); to always combine carbs with fat/protein, never eat them on their own; to eat lots of small meals rather than three big ones; to get plenty of fibre; and to always eat something fatty (like a yogurt or cheese and biscuits) before bed to stop overnight lows - and eating like this might help you both to stabilise your blood sugar a bit more. I think this is more or less what @rebrascora did when she was diagnosed, so she may have other ideas.
@freesia - the changes you've seen in your blood sugar lately may also be related to the weather, most of us find we need to change our doses every time the weather changes, so you wouldn't be alone in that.
And you are not alone, either of you - everyone on the forum has been through problems with diabetes, and we're all here to support you.
Its nice to know someone is there to offer advice or sympathise knowing they have been in the same position at one time or another. Thank you. I was given a Libre by the DSN when first diagnosed but was told to use the test strips as i was not eligible for the sensors at that time. I know some people self fund but i can't really afford that atm. If things carry on the way they have been i will be asking again when i get rereferred. I am on Lantus 9 units so will ask about that as well. Thank you for the support.
- Status