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Basal test and more

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Flo15

Flo15

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
So I did a basal test from midday yesterday until 5.30pm. I started off at 9.4mmol and ended up up 11.4mmol at 5.30pm, they stayed a steadyish at around 10-11 mmol all afternoon. I had nothing to eat after breakfast yesterday until 5.30pm.

I had my tea of a pork casserole and a bit of mashed potato, and then mixed berries, sugar free jelly and some squirty cream and had novorapid. At about 9pm my bloods gradually started rising a bit but I didnt correct as I wanted to see what happened over night. Now usually i am starving hungry in the evening and snack on slices of ham and cheese but last night i didn't.

I put in my usual amount of 40 units of levemire at 11pm. My blood sugar at this point was 12.4mmol. I woke at 1.11am and tested and i was 11.3mmol and then on my libre it looks like i started doing a steady drop from 3.30 am and woke up with a blood sugar of 6.8mmol at 7am.

Now I liked waking with a blood sugar of 6.8mmol but it slightly worries me now that i have too much levemir at night to have that much of a drop. All i did different was not snack in the evening on carb free food. Think I will be scared tonight if my blood sugars are lower when I go to bed and thinking i need to reduce my basal a bit. I am never going to get the hang of this!!
 
I'm no expert as I've not been at this game very long and even the ones who have will admit they are still learning
What was the basal test to investigate? Was it specifically a certain time frame? Like do you generally go to bed high and stay there? OR do you go to bed ok and rise during the night?
My thoughts and I may be COMPLETELY wrong would be that if its the going to bed with reasonable levels and waking up higher is that the fat and the protein in your meats and cheese are to blame?
xx
 
I have no rhyme of reason to my blood sugars. I can go to bed with a reasonable blood sugar and then be in the teens in the morning. I can stay the same or go lower or just be slightly higher but I am now thinking that it is what I eat in the evening and maybe I need to stop the cheese and ham. I thought as they were carb free then they wouldn't raise my blood sugar but now I know they can .

I don't think that I go low during the night as I wake a lot and always test if I wake but maybe I have sometimes which would explain going to bed with an 8mmol and waking to a 22mmol. I think i may reduce the basal tonight and see what happens.
 
The only comment I would make is that your levels through the day, if steady at 11ish, are a tad too high. That means there is an insuffiency of long acting insulin. And you aren’t taking too much Levemir if you wake with 6.8. That is the high end of the levels I wake with usually, I feel satisfied with 5.4. And I don’t like going to bed on 12, either.

I don’t know whether you split the dose of Levemir, but it is worth talking to your diabetes nurse about a morning dose of Levemir(don’t do this without advice).

Don’t worry, you’ll get there in the end, but I’ve been doing this for 20odd years, and still woke up with a rather disconcerting LO this morning. Sometimes you just can’t win, though happily that’s rare.🙂
 
I split my dose of levemir, 28 units morning and forty at night, 12 hours apart . I agree I was higher than should be yesterday , I was trying a few things out. I think what worries me is the before bed 12.4mmol at bedtime and then the big drop to 6.8 when I woke up. It worries me if i go to bed with 7mmol and then I have a big drop like that because I would end up low which would terrify me.
 
Flo15 said:
I split my dose of levemir, 28 units morning and forty at night, 12 hours apart . I agree I was higher than should be yesterday , I was trying a few things out. I think what worries me is the before bed 12.4mmol at bedtime and then the big drop to 6.8 when I woke up. It worries me if i go to bed with 7mmol and then I have a big drop like that because I would end up low which would terrify me.
Click to expand...
How long after eating/injecting for you evening meal are you testing before bed? I was baffled for ages by a very steep drop in levels after going to bed, sometimes waking to a hypo up to 7 hours after injecting the novorapid 😱 As I am a 'weird' Type 1 who doesn't need basal insulin, it could only have been the novorapid. I solved the problem by changing my injection site from my bum to my tum - the novorapid absorbs more quickly, so is 'spent' after about 4-5 hours 🙂
 
We have tea at 5.30pm and I test for bed at 11pm. I am sure the novorapid lasts for at least five hours with me. I am injecting novorapid for 15 minutes before I eat as I always go a bit high and then two or three hours later it comes down faster.

I always inject my rapid in my stomach and levemir in my legs. I cut my levemir by five units last night because I was worried., I inject levemir at 11pm. I went slightly low in the evening at 9pm and obviously had too much glucose as I was 11mmol at 11pm before bed which I didn't correct and woke with 8.5mmol this morning.

I actually set an alarm on the hour whilst sleeping and the results were 11.4 at 11pm, 12.1 at midnight, 9.2 at 2am, 9.1 at 3am, 8.1 at 4 am, 8.1 at 5am, 8.9 at 7am, all on the libre.
I have been in range all day until my lunch at 1pm where I went from 6.7 to 11.4, now the libre is showing a pointing down arrow and bloods are coming down which again is the two to three hour mark after injecting. I don't think novorapid is very rapid for me.
 
It is 'odd' - it gets going after about 10 minutes for me and lasts 4 and a half hours - does exactly what it says it does on the tin. Am I the weird one, being 'standard'? - I think I must be!

The only thing where I'm not is with Becton Dickinson needles stinging me like hell I think!
 
I usually inject half an hour before breakfast then the other times 15 minutes but probably needs more. I think i am eating better on the libre, I have lost 4lbs in ten days! I am also injecting a lot less for breakfast, I used to inject 15 units for 15 carbs but have found five units is too much now! I am also not so stressed the last couple of weeks either.

I do also realise my bloods are generally a bit higher than most people on here but I do also have very bad anxiety towards hypos and insulin etc. I am trying so hard to get them down and then I ruin it by over panicking about going low or an impending low.

My diabetes nurse was thinking about fiasp insulin. I already should have gone on toujeo but was too frightened of changing insulin so have stayed on the levemir for now
 
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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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