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cannot explain this reading!

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D

DanW81

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
usually i am good explaining when my levels have gone low or higher than expected. but last night was a weird one!

had played football at 8pm for 40 mins, got back and and at 9pm it was 9.5. Retested at 11 and it had gone down to 3.6 (as expected), so i had a nakd fruit bar (16g carbs). Retested at 1am and it was 7.7 (pretty much as expected), took same lantus. Woke in the morning and it was 16 😱

I had not had a hypo over night or anything, so i cannot explain this one!
 
Dan had you washed your hands, you say you played football so I assume your hands may have been abit grubby? Other then that I cant help with insulin doses etc etc.But sometimes we all get these unexplained readings from our freind the diabetic fairy
 
Any chance there might be a problem with your lantus? I had some unexplained highs in the mornings (though not as bad as yours!) and I changed the lantus cartridge which appeared to fix it as I returned to normal levels. I'd keep testing through the day, especially when you have no fast-acting insulin in play and see if it is persistently high when just relying on your lantus.
 
Personally we wouldn't use a fruit bar to treat the hypo. Always go for a jelly baby or 2.
You may have dropped further by the time the bar got into your system.

We have also had issues with fruit/cereal bars having used them as follow up treatments that basically just weren't needed & ended up 20+ later in the day!

Hence now always Jb's

Steffs suggestion of washing hands is also a great one .... Been there done that too 🙂

Sarah
 
i had a shower soon as i got home, so no chance of dirt messing the test.

Personally I find these fruit bars good for when i drop a bit low, plus they are healthy.
The lantus cartridge being dodgy did cross my mind, but its half gone & has been ok so far. Do you think it could be soemtyhing to do with the fact I eat before I play, ss i have experienced strange levels on a monday before? Because every other day i excercise I eat afterwards and this always gives me much lower levels throughout the night.
 
DanW81 said:
i had a shower soon as i got home, so no chance of dirt messing the test.

Personally I find these fruit bars good for when i drop a bit low, plus they are healthy.
The lantus cartridge being dodgy did cross my mind, but its half gone & has been ok so far. Do you think it could be soemtyhing to do with the fact I eat before I play, ss i have experienced strange levels on a monday before? Because every other day i excercise I eat afterwards and this always gives me much lower levels throughout the night.
Click to expand...

My problems with lantus were with a cartridge that was half used - by that point it's had a fair time to lose it's potency.

The other possibility is that the high is a rebound from a low in the night - you treated the hypo with the fruit bar, but that doesn't necessarily mean it kept your levels above hypo all night. Did you have a headache this morning?
 
Northerner said:
My problems with lantus were with a cartridge that was half used - by that point it's had a fair time to lose it's potency.

The other possibility is that the high is a rebound from a low in the night - you treated the hypo with the fruit bar, but that doesn't necessarily mean it kept your levels above hypo all night. Did you have a headache this morning?
Click to expand...

could well be the cartridge then.

no i was fine this morning, i have pretty good hypo sensors and always wake up if im low in the night. im playing again tonight, but this time im eating afterwards and i bet everything will be ok. i will keep the same cartridge for tonight & see what happens, if it works out fine then i think it must be something to do with the eating times, if not then could be the cartridge like you say...will update
 
DanW81 said:
Personally I find these fruit bars good for when i drop a bit low, plus they are healthy.
Click to expand...

I have a Nakd bar when I go hypo, they have the right amount of carbs in and they are pure fruit and nuts so fairly fast acting 🙂 And they are delicious!
 
Unfortunately, fruit and nuts won't act quickly. Nuts are a low GI snack and will slow down absorption of glucose.

For a hypo, it's advisable to go for lucozade, coke or a recognised food such as jelly babies or fruit pastilles. If a fast dropping hypo strikes, it can make a huge difference. I'm afraid healthy eating can't be a consideration in these situations.🙂

Rob
 
Lauren said:
I have a Nakd bar when I go hypo, they have the right amount of carbs in and they are pure fruit and nuts so fairly fast acting 🙂 And they are delicious!
Click to expand...

im with you lauren, they are lovely, my fave is the banana bread one!

if i was having a fast hypo then obviously i would go for the lucosade, but if its just dropped a tad low then nakd bar is perfect carbs for little boost.
 
Agree that they're good for that but keep in mind the possible late spike. 🙂

Rob
 
Well - was it a late spike from your pre-footie meal; how do you know you didn't go hypo in the night and have a liver dump? - you (nor anyone else) haven't a clue whether your liver is going to do that, it's sporadic!

OK - 3.3 of itself isn't an immediate sign to panic but nobody knows how fast it got there, do they? because we don't test every 15 minutes all day and night. Perhaps it was dropping faster than you thought at the time and the treatment wasn't timely enough to stop the liver dump? - cos no-one knows what time it will kick in either.

Just a few things to think about!
 
i know i didnt have a hypo in the night.

anyway, last night i eat after playing and everything worked out fine...so im putting it down to eating before the exercise has a knock on affect later on...
 
DanW81 said:
i know i didnt have a hypo in the night.

anyway, last night i eat after playing and everything worked out fine...so im putting it down to eating before the exercise has a knock on affect later on...
Click to expand...

mmmmm! HOW do you know you didn't sleep through a hypo? If you didn't wake up and test is no proof that you didn't. A CGM (fitted for a week whilst on MDI)confirmed that I could sleep through a hypo .....that previously I would have had no idea about! Maybe do a few 3am tests Dan.....hard work but worth it. 🙂
 
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