Diabetes.. routine

[Jon-Manchester]

I am learning that diabetes is an unpredictable business.
Every morning I have the same routine, I take 3 units Novorapid prebolous for my porridge and 2 units against dawn ph.
Normally I struggle to lower my bs in the morning, no matter how long I leave the porridge after my prebolous.
This morning , I realised while eating my porridge that I had a hypo only 30 minutes after pb. ( normally I can leave it for an hour and nothing has happened)

Routine certainly helps but even when you think you got it to a good routine , diabetes seems to want to tell you that it is in control.

 

[Sally71]

Yup, that's diabetes for you! My daughter had a day a few months back when she spent more time in the medical room than in class due to constant hypos. I had an event on at the school where I work at the end of the day, and the plan had been that daughter would make her own way home and wait for me there, after having several texts from her about being low though I decided that no way was she walking home on her own under those circumstances so I went to pick her up and brought her to my school where I could keep an eye on her. It was a summer fair, she was in the low 4s when we got there, she had a look round the stalls and found herself a bag of sweets and an enormous slice of cake which she ate with no insulin at all - normally this would shoot her blood sugars into the stratosphere, but she just about struggled up to 6! The next day I reduced her basal by 30% in the hope that it might prevent or at least reduce the hypos, but by 10am she'd had to set it back to the normal rate because she'd gone high! We have absolutely no idea what caused that random day of hypos and why it went back to normal as suddenly as it started, we didn't do anything differently from any other day 🙄😡

 

[leonS]

Yup, that's diabetes for you! My daughter had a day a few months back when she spent more time in the medical room than in class due to constant hypos. I had an event on at the school where I work at the end of the day, and the plan had been that daughter would make her own way home and wait for me there, after having several texts from her about being low though I decided that no way was she walking home on her own under those circumstances so I went to pick her up and brought her to my school where I could keep an eye on her. It was a summer fair, she was in the low 4s when we got there, she had a look round the stalls and found herself a bag of sweets and an enormous slice of cake which she ate with no insulin at all - normally this would shoot her blood sugars into the stratosphere, but she just about struggled up to 6! The next day I reduced her basal by 30% in the hope that it might prevent or at least reduce the hypos, but by 10am she'd had to set it back to the normal rate because she'd gone high! We have absolutely no idea what caused that random day of hypos and why it went back to normal as suddenly as it started, we didn't do anything differently from any other day 🙄😡

Exactly this happened to me some time ago. I wondered if I had managed to give a double dose of base insulin.

As low BG lasted for hours (up and down) I was accused of not knowing how to treat a hypo by SDN - I thought that after 47 years on insulin I might just have got the hang of it by now.

 

[trophywench]

LOL @leonS 's SDN!

Serious Question to anyone having utterly stupid unexplainable hypos that won't stop - have you ever used Lantus?

 

[Sally71]

We can’t have got the basal wrong, we're on a pump! And yes you have to tweak it from time to time, but not by that much!!
Anyone can get it wrong from time to time even when they've been dealing with D for years; equally it might also have been nothing at all to do with anything you did 🙄
I must admit I do prefer it if we can see a reason for highs and lows, none of them are nice but the unexplained ones are even more annoying 😡
@trophywench - yes we used Lantus for all of about a week before we got the pump, daughter was so newly diagnosed that the DSN had probably put her on a fairly conservative dose and she was still high a lot of the time, so that probably doesn’t answer your question!

 

[trophywench]

Ah, but it does. All/any insulin can form a hidden 'reservoir' in the body and nobody notices partic cos when your BG doesn't reduce again after you ate that sandwich a fortnight last Tuesday week, you just go Bugger and have a correction dose. Just one of those unexplainable things occasionally in the course of your life.

These pockets of insulin - which can last for up to 11 years so they say - will eventually 'let go' with no warning and be nearly as effective as it was all those years ago. Because Lantus forms crystals after it gets under our skin and it is/was commonly used, I have often thought maybe it's a prime suspect?

 

[leonS]

Yes I was using lantus for a while, at the time (and now) I was using tresiba.

 

[Sally71]

Ah, but it does. All/any insulin can form a hidden 'reservoir' in the body and nobody notices partic cos when your BG doesn't reduce again after you ate that sandwich a fortnight last Tuesday week, you just go Bugger and have a correction dose. Just one of those unexplainable things occasionally in the course of your life.

These pockets of insulin - which can last for up to 11 years so they say - will eventually 'let go' with no warning and be nearly as effective as it was all those years ago. Because Lantus forms crystals after it gets under our skin and it is/was commonly used, I have often thought maybe it's a prime suspect?

😱😱😱 Goodness me I didn't know that, 11 years?! So one of the doses we gave my daughter a few days after she was diagnosed might have caused all that palaver 7 years later?! Good grief...

 

[DaveB]

Hi. I'm afraid I can't help with unexplained hypos but I had one this week for no good reason. BTW having porridge is not the best breakfast for us but you may know that. The high level of carb will cause BS swings so I assume you don't have a bowl full!

 

[Jon-Manchester]

Hi. I'm afraid I can't help with unexplained hypos but I had one this week for no good reason. BTW having porridge is not the best breakfast for us but you may know that. The high level of carb will cause BS swings so I assume you don't have a bowl full!

well normally porridge is absolutely fine, though not this morning clearly

EDIT: sorry that was a bit abrupt of me. I do know that porridge isn’t the best from a carb perspective, But I think it has other health benefits as a breakfast so as long as I can manage the BS to stay within a reasonable range I want to try to eat it. I realise that may change in the future if it gets too hard to do

 

[Jon-Manchester]

Yup, that's diabetes for you! My daughter had a day a few months back when she spent more time in the medical room than in class due to constant hypos. I had an event on at the school where I work at the end of the day, and the plan had been that daughter would make her own way home and wait for me there, after having several texts from her about being low though I decided that no way was she walking home on her own under those circumstances so I went to pick her up and brought her to my school where I could keep an eye on her. It was a summer fair, she was in the low 4s when we got there, she had a look round the stalls and found herself a bag of sweets and an enormous slice of cake which she ate with no insulin at all - normally this would shoot her blood sugars into the stratosphere, but she just about struggled up to 6! The next day I reduced her basal by 30% in the hope that it might prevent or at least reduce the hypos, but by 10am she'd had to set it back to the normal rate because she'd gone high! We have absolutely no idea what caused that random day of hypos and why it went back to normal as suddenly as it started, we didn't do anything differently from any other day 🙄😡

yep sounds like diabetes, for sure. i have so much respect for you parents that have child it is one thing to have diabetes yourself but it must be a worry at another level to have to look after you child with diabetes.i know a lot of you on this forum have children with diabetes but it must be so stressful! respect!

 

[Jon-Manchester]

These pockets of insulin - which can last for up to 11 years so they say - will eventually 'let go' with no warning and be nearly as effective as it was all those years ago. Because Lantus forms crystals after it gets under our skin and it is/was commonly used, I have often thought maybe it's a prime suspect?

Wow!!! 11 years !? Does this only apply to Lantus, if it does, then that sounds like a very strong reason to not use it?

 

[trophywench]

No, it's possible with every single insulin that's ever been manufactured and used by humans. You only suspect that's what caused it, if you have one 'let go'. Because it simply doesn't happen every 5 minutes, you could just as likely never have one, as have one.

 

[Jon-Manchester]

No, it's possible with every single insulin that's ever been manufactured and used by humans. You only suspect that's what caused it, if you have one 'let go'. Because it simply doesn't happen every 5 minutes, you could just as likely never have one, as have one.

Interesting, as if diabetes wasn’t unpredictable enough as it was on its own 🙂 but I guess if it is very rare then it is nothing to think about just a possible explanation if it were to happen

 

[nonethewiser]

Diabetes doesn't do routine, learnt that long time ago, it can & does act in spontaneous manner when you least expect it, just so many variables at play.

Tried many brekkie over many years, only one keeps my bg steady with no big spikes no big lows happens to be porridge, requires good prebolus of 30mins when in range, more outside less below range, so been breakfast of choice for 10 years.

These pockets of insulin - which can last for up to 11 years so they say - will eventually 'let go' with no warning and be nearly as effective as it was all those years ago. Because Lantus forms crystals after it gets under our skin and it is/was commonly used, I have often thought maybe it's a prime suspect?

Where did you get this info from, body heat would surely destroy insulin so no chance it could be effective. Don't believe that at all.

 

[Jon-Manchester]

Tried many brekkie over many years, only one keeps my bg steady with no big spikes no big lows happens to be porridge, requires good prebolus of 30mins when in range, more outside less below range, so been breakfast of choice for 10

That really pleases me to hear!
I do have to prebolus at least 30 min before but apart from the odd blip has it worked out pretty good with porridge so far. Given that you have had the breakfast for champs for 10 years, I will also continue with it 🙂

 

[nonethewiser]

That really pleases me to hear!
I do have to prebolus at least 30 min before but apart from the odd blip has it worked out pretty good with porridge so far. Given that you have had the breakfast for champs for 10 years, I will also continue with it 🙂

Only good old tradition porridge, not pulverised c**p.

 

[Jon-Manchester]

Only good old tradition porridge, not pulverised c**p.

Couldn’t agree more 🙂

 

[SB2015]

Ah, but it does. All/any insulin can form a hidden 'reservoir' in the body and nobody notices partic cos when your BG doesn't reduce again after you ate that sandwich a fortnight last Tuesday week, you just go Bugger and have a correction dose. Just one of those unexplainable things occasionally in the course of your life.

These pockets of insulin - which can last for up to 11 years so they say - will eventually 'let go' with no warning and be nearly as effective as it was all those years ago. Because Lantus forms crystals after it gets under our skin and it is/was commonly used, I have often thought maybe it's a prime suspect?

I had no idea it could last that long!! That could now become the explanaToon for the unexplainable.
Like @Sally71 i like to have a reason for the wobbles, but sometimes there are no obvious ones.

Just Deirdre doing her prodding to make sure I notice her.

 

[trophywench]

Where did you get this info from, body heat would surely destroy insulin so no chance it could be effective. Don't believe that at all.

Direct from the mouth of a Diabetes consultant at UHCW during my carb counting/dose adjustment adjustment course there along with the other dozen 'students' and the two DSNs/one Dietician delivering it. Why would I disbelieve him when he's been absolutely straight, to the point and spot on with everything about my diabetes ever since the day I first met him?

Ask your consultant if it's true why don't you?