Hi all & thanks again for all your input. I have looked at my NHS app but don't see the numbers anywhere but will look again later. As you know I have the Freestyle fitted, the breakfast today was 1 Weetabix, 6 blueberries, 4 raspberries & a tea with semi milk. I understand that the body will process this & my numbers will rise, I assume this is normal & I don't need to do anything? My numbers went from 7 over night to 14 after my measly breakfast is this the norm ?
Hello again
@Oldandugly,
I am keeping in mind that you don't yet have any confirmation of your diabetes Type and you are currently only in abasaglar insulin which is a basal or background insulin (if you are also taking oral meds I have missed that detail and if so please update (remind) me). I am also assuming your original blood test which gave you an HbA1c reading was high (ish) to necessitate starting you on a basal straightaway. So my reply has to be read with the caveat there is still a lot not known about your D status.
One further unknown is whether you also were given a finger prick test kit as soon as you were prescribed the insulin? Again I assume you were, since that would be normal for anyone prescribed Insulin. If you were given this modest aid - were you given any guidance on when and how often you were expected to test? Similarly when you were prescribed the Libre 2 Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) were you asked to review the Freestyle tutorials? Even having been through those tutorials here are limitations about the use of CGM; have you been alerted to those? These might seem a small raft of questions rather than an answer to your very relevant question - but understanding what you are already aware of in terms of testing, will help explain more about those results you are seeing.
As I said previously our bodies release glucose from the liver store for a number of different reasons, pretty well automatically triggered by natural enzymes and hormones and certainly most people are unaware this is happening - unless we are frequently finger pricking or in your case now able to see regular CGM readings and look back at daily graphs etc.
In the mornings many people experience an increase in BG even before they have touched a morsel of food. This can be in the late small hours and formally recognised as something called the Dawn Phenomena (DP) or as soon as you get out of bed and is described as the Foot on the Floor syndrome (FOTF). For those people who are prescribed Insulin, this raised BG is normally managed by a short acting insulin (known as a bolus insulin - which is NOT the same as your basal Abasaglar). Otherwise its managed by reduced carb eating, plus possibly exercise and activity. If this is confusing, (eg why isn't managed by basal?) I'm afraid it is because the DP and FOTF don't occur in everyone, nor do they necessarily occur every day and their frequent but irregular appearance need managing on those days when necessary - but not absolutely every day which your Abasaglar is intended for.
DP and FOTF have had extensive research over more than 30 years, but its probably fair to say they ate still not fully understood. Diabetes is Complicated, Confusing and Contradictory. You are already on the edge of this world with your current uncertainty about your type of Diabetes.
Your question
I understand that the body will process this & my numbers will rise, I assume this is normal & I don't need to do anything?
is fair: without you having a quick acting bolus insulin you don't have a medical way of treating such rises. However reasonable exercise and activity can and often does help most of us to push our BG down.
breakfast today was 1 Weetabix, 6 blueberries, 4 raspberries & a tea with semi milk.
One other way is to look for a much lower choice of breakfast items. 1 Weetabix and milk are not extremely high, but there are far lower carb possibilities. Eggs, mushrooms and cheese immediately spring to mind - so an omelette will be effectively zero carbs, as will bacon and scrambled eggs (but without any toast or bread). There are many low carb breakfast options.
Right now, because you have no other way of managing tour diabetes low carb food choices, if possible also with exercise and activity are your only sensible way forward - until you get a quick-acting or bolus insulin prescribed. BUT a word of caution here:
Because you already have a basal insulin if you go into a too low carb eating regime you have a potential vulnerability of your BG going too low and getting into a hypoglycemic state (officially a hypo is 3.5, but 4.0 is considered the low point, giving a tiny margin of tolerance) ("4 is the floor"). However if your Libre is used to best effect then you can (and in my opinion should) set the LOW alarm on your libre to 5.6 - which is the top of thepossible low settings. Then Libre alarm is rather more a low "Alert", giving you warning that your BG is falling (but still a decent way from a real low =4.0). Whatever you set on your alarm / alert you should always carry a hypo response snack, such as Dextrose, a small carton of orange juice or full carb Coke, or a few jelly babies (or similar; 3x JBs =15gm carbs, the recommended initial hypo response). Hypos are frequently avoidable with the tech available to us today.
I did say Diabetes is Complicated, Confusing and Contradictory.! Whether you end up diagnosed as T2 or T1 you will end up doing some juggling in the early stages as you get your mind around the what and whys of managing your D. There is a wealth of experience on this forum that will readily step forward to offer gentle advice and share those experiences. Alas such advice is frequently not found from the NHS presumably because of their overload - rather than wilful neglect of patients! Good luck.
