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Group 7-day waking average?

@Michael12421
I know you live in Spain so it can be hot I guess even at this time of year. Has there been any significant temperature change from day to day. Also do you rotate your injection sites and have any of them got lumpy? Variable absorption of insulin due to damaged injection sites could certainly cause major variation in results. Might be worth trying a different location if you tend to inject in the same area and perhaps reducing your basal dose again as it is much better to be too high as that low. ..... apologies if all this has been covered before but getting readings of 1.8 is really scary, particularly when you live in a remote area and since you are unable to access medical support we really need to cover every possible option to try to help you figure this out.
 
Actually it is very cold and wet and has been since before Christmas, my central heating and hot water boiler has packed up again - third time in 6 weeks. Plumber was supposed to be here at 12 noon to fix it but the manana complex is alive and well and he hasn't turned up. I only inject twice a day so the basal is in one upper arm and the bolus in the other. There are no lumps, a little bit of bruising on occasions but that is all and when it does happen I move the injection site a couple of inches. Thank you for your concern - it matches my own. There are no DSN's and the only consultant in diabetes is a 100 km round trip and the waiting time is 6 months. The rest of the NHS service in Spain is truly excellent.
 
@Michael12421
Is that a regime you were taught or something that you figured out for yourself and matches in with your lifestyle? ie you don't eat carbs (or maybe food in general) except on an evening? Even if I just have a mushroom omelette for breakfast(no carbs) I often still need some bolus insulin for Dawn Phenomenon.
Arms are probably the least common injection site, so quite surprised about you using them. Is there a reason for that?
Which basal insulin are you on? Depending upon which one it is, I wonder if splitting the dose would give you better night time control, so that you could take more in the morning and less at night.
I feel rather like I am prying (apologies if it feels like that to you) but in the absence of diabetes clinic support, I think you need to get some help from somewhere and whilst I am very much a novice still with diabetes and MDI, hopefully others will chip in once they know more details about your regime. I know most of the regulars on this thread worry about your erratic levels and particularly these really low hypos.
 
You are not prying, I am grateful for your interest. When I was first diagnosed the upper arms were the preferred sites for injection and this was drummed into me. I have sometimes injected into my stomach/belly but this is only on the extremely rare occasions that I am eating either in a restaurant or someone else's home.I understand that other sites include the buttocks and thighs but I can't remember ever using these places. I usually only eat once a day, in the early evening. I don't get hungry and don't have much of an appetite. I eat because I feel that I need to and not because I want to. Having said that I do like to cook and enjoy it when I eat the results. Many times however I fail to finish the meal because I get 'full' far too quickly, now this is after I have injected for the full meal and then leave half of it. I counter this by then eating something high in carbs - like a Magdalena - before retiring. There are always fast acting carbs of one sort or another on my bedside table - 'just in case'.
 
@Michael12421
So pleased you aren't offended by me asking all these questions. Everyone lives such different lifestyles, has different tastes and gets such different initial guidance, it is impossible to figure out what is going on without asking about exactly what they do and when.
Can I ask what you use to inject the insulin? Are they disposable pens and how long do you keep them in use before discarding and where do you keep them? If you are only using bolus insulin once a day, it might be getting out of date before you finish it, which might account for you being too high sometimes.
Only eating half the meal might also be part of the problem. I appreciate that you are eating something high carb to soak up the surplus insulin but estimating that brings in another potential error margin.
A lady on my DAFNE course was still using the old metal injector "gun" she had had since she was a child. She too just ate once a day and was hypoing badly almost every night. Part of the problem was that her injector "gun" thing was no longer accurate and she was not injecting precise amounts of basal insulin. She was persuaded to abandon it and start using a pen and change her basal insulin and her readings (both daytime and night time....she was also given Libre, so you could see her levels) have dramatically improved much to the relief of her family who had had to revive her on occasions and call paramedics. Such a simple thing, but having had it all her life it didn't occur to her that it could wear and lose it's calibration and because her HbA1c readings had always been good, the clinic never bothered to check and she was so used to the hypos, she just accepted them as part of her diabetes until her family pushed for her to get help.

When was your basal insulin level set ie the number of units and were you ever told that you might need to adjust it and how to do that. Basal requirements can change over the seasons and years. How many units do you currently use? If you use Levemir as a basal insulin (I am not sure if you mentioned which one you use) then you might be best to split the dose and take less than half at bedtime and more than half in the morning. I am not sure if other basal insulins can be split though.
Hopefully someone else will butt in with their thoughts.... @Northerner perhaps?

Oh and good luck getting the plumber. My brother lives in Tenerife and is very familiar with the manana mentality.
 
Thank you. The plumber was here half an hour ago and the boiler seems to be working again and I now have heating and hot water.

I use disposable pens for both the Novorapid and Toujeo. They are kept in the 'fridge. My NR units depends on what I am going to eat and also take into consideration what my pre-dinner reading is, it is usually only a few units and so they last quite a long time. My basal is Toujeo which is not allowed to be split. My basal, previously Lantus and was allowed to be split, was set at 18 and I was told to use the same units with Toujeo but was told not to split it. I have now reduced this to 15 units.
 
@Michael12421
Doing a very quick search on Toujeo it looks to be 3x more concentrated than Lantus. Did your problems start when you swapped and did they say why they were swapping you? How did you manage on Lantus?
 
Michael12421 said:
I just checked the expiry date on my NR and it is 4/2021
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Yes, but once a pen is in use it is only good for 4 weeks I believe and any surplus should be discarded. I would imagine the Toujeo is similar. Do you keep it in the fridge all the time, even once the pen is in use? Not sure if that would make any difference but most of us leave "in use" pens at room temperature as long as it is not excessively hot.
Pleased you got the boiler fixed. 🙂
 
I managed extremely well on Lantus, I was swapped because the manufacturers withdrew it here, It is the same manufacturer in both cases. I understood that their license was coming to an end and so Lantus was replaced with Toujeo in order for them to maintain their market. My pens are kept in the 'fridge at all times the only time they are out is the 5 minute walk from the pharmacy and of course the few seconds whilst I am injecting.
 
Flower said:
Morning all a lovely 5.2 House Spesh today. 🙂

View attachment 13101

Been feeling really down lately with a head full of worry- really not like me at all. At least the days are lengthening noticeably now.

Have a good stable bg kind of day if you can 🙂
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Worry is my middle name so I know where you're coming from Flower. You're carrying a heavy load hun but do try to keep your chin up ~ if you can🙂
Congrats on your House Special.
Love & gentle (((HUGS)
WL
Funny Animated Gif_ Great Job Animated Gifs.gif
 
Good morning folks. I hope all is well with everyone..
My Libre has decided to tell fibs again , it usually happens when it has 10 day left , this one has done much better and has 6 days left.
Woke up for a wee , scanned , it said 3.5 with a right hand arrow with several hours in the red zone , whilst on the throne I looked at my pot of glucose tabs sitting there on the shelf and thought no as I had no other symptoms , so glad I did as I can’t abide sweet stuff at this hour and more importantly my finger gave a reading of 5.3 🙂
 
Ljc said:
Good morning folks. I hope all is well with everyone..
My Libre has decided to tell fibs again , it usually happens when it has 10 day left , this one has done much better and has 6 days left.
Woke up for a wee , scanned , it said 3.5 with a right hand arrow with several hours in the red zone , whilst on the throne I looked at my pot of glucose tabs sitting there on the shelf and thought no as I had no other symptoms , so glad I did as I can’t abide sweet stuff at this hour and more importantly my finger gave a reading of 5.3 🙂
Click to expand...
Had you been sleeping on it, by any chance 🙂 It's annoying when it tells fibs like that, it makes your statistics look bad! :( Hope it behaves now for the duration, good call on not treating when you didn't need to 🙂
 
Morning all. A 4.4 this morning for me.
 
6.7 at this unearthly hour. Had an unexpected visitor last night, eldest granddaughter (13) came to visit with her parents and decided she wanted a sleepover at her old Grandma and Gaga’s, ( I suppose I should be pleased she still wants to hang out with us) so I drew the short straw and have to do the school run. Of course school is the opposite end of town and at that time of the morning will be at least an hour’s round trip. So need to set off at 8! It’s like being back at work! We’ve also got babysitting duties from 10 so no nana nap for me today. Have a fun Friday all. 🙂
 
Morning

Don’t think diabetes is a game I should be playing, yesterday I have no earthly idea what happened, woke to the 4.7 So took 2.5U as I usually would at that level hoping to bring me up 1.5mmol (or there abouts) 5.9 before dinner (1U:10g which generally still involves a small movement upwards) so 4U for dinner, 5.3 at teatime, was on 1U:10g for that until last week when that was producing a drop less than 2 hours after eating so have been doing 1U:12g carbs (2.5U) which brought me down 1.5mmol starting a couple of days ago and went from 7.9 to 5 in under 2 hours on that last night, couldn’t have that at 5.3 so went to 1U:15g last night and only got to 5.6 by bedtime! Dont know if it's the perindopril (lower bg is a side affect apparently) or just that my needs are changing, I see others have had it for the first week of BP meds so I'll have to leave as is and guess what to do every meal time until next week! :(

Anyways a digestive biscuit induced 5.4 for me this morning

Hope you all have a great day
Xx
 
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