Northie, as you may remember I was scared stiff of going onto insulin and have so far staved it off but realise it's not for long. Where I was frightened of the injections (OK - don't go on at me that they are not THAT bad, in my head they still are !) but reading the posts of others on the Forum I now know that getting the levels OK and under control with insulin is tricky (to say the least) and you seem to be forever correcting. How much guidance do you get with these corrections from your team or is it something you get to adjust yourself ? How soon do you get to be good at it ?
Hi Faith, as you have probably gathered the 'penalty' for getting good, tight control is that it may result in more hypos. I do think though, that those who have not experienced them have a fear of them that is largely unfounded, as with needles and injections. Technically, 3.9 is a hypo, but wouldn't be considered so in a non-diabetic, who could function quite happlily at this level - even down to 3.3 which is supposed to be the lower limit for non-D's. The danger with us, of course, is that it can go lower, so we have a lower limit of 4.0 below which we have to act. I have had about 5 hypos that rally disturbed me, which is a tiny fraction of the total number of hypos I've had over the past year.
As you may also have realised, hypos are a disparate breed and you can have all sorts of reactions (or non-reactions) to them. A slow-falling hypo will only register with you slowly - which is probably why I didn't really notice the 2.7. The 3.2 I had, however, was falling faster and generated the responses to make me feel it more keenly. For a parent or a partner seeing those levels can be frightening, because you can't know what 'type' the hypo is. Some people, it seems, experience the fast-dropping ones much more than me.
I probably give the wrong impression, because I tend to post only when there is something unusual about my levels - how my insulin requirements have taken a dip, for example. Most of the time I get it about right and my levels are between about 4.5 and 6.5. I hade some rudimentary advice when first diagnosed, but mostly it has been trial and error. I think the fact that I have been a distance runner for ovr 25 years also helps me to 'know' my body and this helps in some undefinable way when it comes to estimating increased or decreased insulin doses.
I realise that my situation is very different from many others, and that I am more than likely benefitting from some residual beta cell function which helps keep the upper limits in check. We are, indeed, all different!
😱🙂
p.s. feeling fine this morning - woke to 4.1. I tested again before bd and had gone up to 7.5, so was happy enough to slep on that.
