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Basal Testing?

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newbs

newbs

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Probably a daft question seeing as I?ve had diabetes for so long but I have to test my basal and plan on doing so this weekend. I have read the links on doing so before but basically, when are the best times during the night to wake myself to test, how many times ? and what should my levels be? I know anything within ?normal? range would be ok but should it stay pretty similar to the level I went to bed on throughout the night?

I take my Levemir (19 units atm) around 10.15pm every night and do not split the dose.
 
You can either just wake at 3am, or (for more detail) test at midnight, 2am and 4am - so approx 2-hourly.

Ideally your BG should remain relatively stable all night. Changes of more than 1.7mmol/L indicate you need to run the test again to see if they are a pattern, and if so, think of making some sort of change.

You should not test if you have had a hypo during the previous day and should aim to have a relatively early relatively 'predictable' eve meal whereby the dose and carbs are likely to be out of your system by midnight.

Hope it gives you useful information!
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
You can either just wake at 3am, or (for more detail) test at midnight, 2am and 4am - so approx 2-hourly.

Ideally your BG should remain relatively stable all night. Changes of more than 1.7mmol/L indicate you need to run the test again to see if they are a pattern, and if so, think of making some sort of change.

You should not test if you have had a hypo during the previous day and should aim to have a relatively early relatively 'predictable' eve meal whereby the dose and carbs are likely to be out of your system by midnight.

Hope it gives you useful information!
Click to expand...

Ok, great, thanks for the info. Will give it a go! 🙂
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Sounds like you've read up on it before... but this link is very helpful 🙂

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=120
Click to expand...

I had read info before but your link was much better than anything else I have read. It also states that Levemir does not last 24 hours - something I argued with my consultant at the last review as I asked to try Lantus, he said it was nonsense and that they were both pretty much the same and told me to continue with Levemir. I may try again at my review next month.
 
newbs said:
I had read info before but your link was much better than anything else I have read. It also states that Levemir does not last 24 hours - something I argued with my consultant at the last review as I asked to try Lantus, he said it was nonsense and that they were both pretty much the same and told me to continue with Levemir. I may try again at my review next month.
Click to expand...

One of the benefits of Levemir is precisely that for many people it *doesn't* last 24 hours. (for that matter neither will Lantus necessarily)

Your basal needs are unlikely to be completely flat through 24 hours, and 2 flat(ish) doses of Lev gives you the opportunity to have less active during the day/night as suits you best.

Lev also seems to be more 'open to change' than Lantus, which seems to take several days to fully 'settle' into a dose adjustment. If I'd stayed on MDI I would have been tempted to switch to Lev for these reasons.

Ths graph is quite interesting in terms of Levemirs duration/peakiness - again all data is averaged so it may not work this way for you...

http://www.diabetesdaily.com/wiki/Levemir_Speed_Versus_Dose
 
Hi Newbs,
what ever you do do not basal test this week end.
The clocks change and many people find their blood sugars don't always play ball.
 
Your consultant's a complete ( insert swear word of choice) if he insists either lantus or levemir always last 24 hours
It just makes me cross the way some HCPs are so obstructive- appears they are deliberately blocking patients attemps at getting decent control- if they insist on only 4 injections per day do they expect you to pack in work if you sometimes finnish late and don;t get back to inject rapid acting/ have meal at the time the basal is running out?
I wonder if they are being bribed by the pharmaceutical companies to say they always give complete 24 hour coverage- if they don't like people injecting more than 4 times per day why don't they just put everyone on a pump?
 
PS I wan;t critiscising your control- 6.6% is excellent.
But if you think your levemir is fading off before 24 hours and this is causing problems I would consider splitting it regardless of what consultant says.
Some people find lantus longer lasting and get on better with it but some people find it is less consistent from day to day and also if you need to make a change to dose it can take several days to settle down so you can observe the full effect. If you are 6.6% without loads of hypos I would stick with the same insulin
 
Pumper_Sue said:
Hi Newbs,
what ever you do do not basal test this week end.
The clocks change and many people find their blood sugars don't always play ball.
Click to expand...

Ah, good point! I hadn't thought about that. I can't do it this evening as I'm currently 3.3 so may have to wait until the early part of next week. Thanks for reminding me. 🙂
 
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