Does this suggest a hypo at night?

[zoombapup]

Hi all,

Got a curious one today, I went to bed at 4.8 last night. This morning I woke up and I'm 6.8 and then tested about an hour-ish later and I'm 7.0 still.

My usual levels are averaging 5.5 so this is strangely high for me. Having said that, I'm at the end of my basal insulin dose, so I'm wondering if it might be that the insulin is out of date and no longer being effective?

Another question I wanted to ask, if you go hypo during the night as a type 2, is it likely that somehow your system will pump out your own insulin and raise BG levels?

Trying to understand this quite weird test result, because afaik I slept well enough. Did wake up at around 5am, but other than that I can't think of anything that would spike me like that from a low reading before.

I'll be checking myself a few more times today to see if this weirdness is persisting, but I'd like to understand what gives? 🙂

Ta.

 

[Docb]

Hi zoombapup. Quite clearly the diabetes fairy is round at your place. In the dim and distant past it was decided to account for the variations in blood glucose that happen for no obvious reason by attributing them to mischievous doings of this wandering imp. Most get a visit at some time and some get more visits than others.

Nah, reality is that there is a hell of a lot going on when it comes to blood glucose regulation in the human body and if tomorrow things go back to the way they were then you will never get to the bottom of it.

 

[Robin]

Hi. Just c+ping my reply to your post on the morning reading thread, for the sake of completeness here.
You might be brewing up a cold, or something, The first sign I get is that my blood glucose rises, 24hrs in advance of the first sniffle. Or, if you’re about to have a stressful day, or you are worried about something, that can make your body rev you up for the day by pumping out extra glucose from the liver. Insulin can get compromised, but it’s unlikely if it’s been in a fridge, and the cartridge has proved OK so far. They normally have quite long use by dates on, provided thy are kept refrigerated, and then last 4-6 weeks (depending on which type, It’ll be in the patient information leaflet) out of the fridge.

A couple more questions.
Do you normally wake around 5am? If not, it may be that as you did wake, your liver thought, OK, time to start gearing up for the day, and released some glucose.
Were you a little bit more on edge this morning because you knew you’d got to sort out your insulin with your GP/pharmacy?

I’d expect, if you were going low overnight, that you’d have woken up with some hypo symptoms, but sometimes it’s difficult to spot if you’re lying in bed, I normally feel it more if I get up and go to the bathroom. It might be an idea if you wake in the night, to do a test at the time, so you know if you’ve woken because you’re hypo. (the answer to your question above is, yes, if you were hypo, your liver might well have kicked out some glucose to raise your levels)

Otherwise, as @Docb says, BG figures can be fickle, and you’ll probably never pin down the reason!

 

[zoombapup]

Thanks Docb and Robin, I'm back to 5.5 now, so I guess it was some weird blip. Maybe going back to work did it for me. I suppose I just have to get used to the fact that there's a bunch of noise in the signal and that really the hba1c is there for a reason (because relying on such whacky test numbers would be impossible). Can't imagine how I'd freak out if I was type 1 and having to deal with this all the time. Maybe then I'd be a bit more fatalistic and just live with the farie 🙂

 

[leonS]

Hi all,

... is it likely that somehow your system will pump out your own insulin and raise BG levels?
...

I must point out that insulin will LOWER BG. I only point this out as a friend (new type 2) insisted that if she had a high BG she needed MORE carbs.

But yes, a low BG tends to trigger a release of glucose into the blood to raise BG level.

 

[zoombapup]

I must point out that insulin will LOWER BG. I only point this out as a friend (new type 2) insisted that if she had a high BG she needed MORE carbs.

But yes, a low BG tends to trigger a release of glucose into the blood to raise BG level.

I was thinking more that the body's reaction to hypo "stress" might be to dump BG from the liver and then pump out some insulin to provide energy from it? Not that I know how that all works yet.

 

[Robin]

I was thinking more that the body's reaction to hypo "stress" might be to dump BG from the liver and then pump out some insulin to provide energy from it? Not that I know how that all works yet.

It’s baffling at first, isn’t it, but:-
If your liver pumps out glucose, your blood glucose will go up. In the absence of insulin, it will stay in your bloodstream, and your blood glucose measurement will be high.
If your pancreas then releases insulin, the insulin will deal with the glucose in the blood by sending it to muscle or stashing it away in fat cells. So after insulin release, the glucose from the liver is now in a muscle or a fat cell, and not circulating in your blood any more. Hence, your blood glucose level falls.