How do you deal with the BG randomness?

[zoombapup]

Hi all,

So, I'm testing before and after meals, usually on waking up and before going to bed too. But I'm getting this weird thing where I've got weird spikes I can't account for in terms of food etc.

So I've been waking around 5.3-5.7 every day for the last few weeks (I get up for work around 6am), then yesterday it was just randomly at 6.3!

Then twice in the last few days I've been at 6.3 for no discernable reason. I'm down at 4.9 just before midday, have some lunch and I'm about 5.3, and then at 5pm I'm back up to 6.3 without having eaten anything more 🙂

You think it could be something as dumb as stress effecting my levels?

Do you guys get unexpected random spikes every once in a while? I'm only 4 weeks into my diagnosis and it annoys me that my graph doesn't show a nice straight line down 😉

I know I know, I'm overthinking it. I should relax a bit more. But call me competitive, I want to lower my scores and keep them at a level around 5 and these random blips are effecting my score card 🙂

Just frustrating is all. Thanks for reading.

 

[AJLang]

Hi Zoombapup please don’t worry. 6.3 is absolutely fine and would probably be the same for the majority of non-diabetics. There is also an margin of error with blood testing machine. In my opinion your results are absolutely excellent.

 

[Drummer]

Why do you think you should have numbers so low, and a straight line?
All the time you are asleep, awake, moving, eating, drinking, your body is doing its own thing, dealing with stuff - steady state is not how it goes.
Glucose is released from your liver in response to things happening - you might bump your elbow and respond with a glucose rise, just getting out of bed can to the same thing - in case we need to run away or rum after something, presumably - in the deep past it saved us from being breakfast or helped us find breakfast, so it happens now, just in case.

 

[Kaylz]

Nobody is ever going to achieve a straight line 24 hours of the day not even a muggle (non diabetic) it's just not natural, as AJ has said the 6.3 is perfectly acceptable and also as AJ said meters are allowed up to 15% error margin so you could have been in the 5's, you can test exactly the same drop of blood seconds apart and achieve a different reading, meters aren't 100% accurate however much we wish they were lol

Yes stress can affect your levels, I woke up Sunday morning to a 6.9, took exactly the same insulin and had exactly the same breakfast as I do everyday but by lunch when I'd expect to be near where I was before breakfast I was 10.4, why? because I'd had a call to say my grandad wasn't very well and took off out the door stressed to the max and worrying 45 minutes before dinner, I use a Libre so can see that my levels were coming down until the exact time I received that call and they started rising

Anything can affect levels, stress, illness, cold weather, hot weather, sleep etc so it isn't all just about food, just take it easy and don't stress as that doesn't help them either 🙄
xx

 

[Sally71]

I wish we could have numbers that good every day!!

Today she woke up on a good one, 6.5, but since then has varied between 3.3 and 11.3 😱
She was out shopping though, not a normal activity for her, so I can't be bothered to stretch my brain cells trying to work out why! Back to normal next week and we'll see whether any insulin adjustments are needed.
(Inset day today, in case anyone was wondering why she wasn’t at school!)

 

[Flower]

Your results reflect the natural fluctuations of blood glucose throughout the 24 hour cycle and are all good results. Relax and see how well you're doing, diabetes doesn't do straight lines 🙂

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

When I read the title I was thinking "I was wondering that" - but that's because my blood sugar went from 6ish before breakfast to 13.8 mid-morning, hypo'd before lunch, went up to about 13 again mid afternoon, dropped to 4.9, and was then 7.9 before dinner. For no apparent reason.

I would be delighted if I had random readings between 4.9-6.3 - believe me, 6.3 is not a spike.

 

[Jodee]

All seem very good readings to me, before and after food.

 

[zoombapup]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I *do* realize I'm probably being a bit daft worrying about it. I really should look and see if there's any correlation to any raises and my stress levels, because my job involves a lot of responsibility for stuff that's essentially out of my control. So I stress a lot about dumb things whilst trying to ignore managers 🙂 I wonder if those raises are just my mind being active and requiring my system to power it a bit more than usual?

I'll see if doing a bit more activity and a bit of meditation or something has the inverse effect. Maybe I can counter that with a bit of chanting when the managers want me to do something more dumb than usual 😉

Appreciate the feedback though, I'm still very new to this. I guess that's part of the test test test thing that isn't obvious. Knowing isn't always a positive if you are perceiving something negative, even if it isn't really that way.

 

[Eddy Edson]

I definitely notice stress raising my BG - not a huge amount, usually, but certainly consistent with what you're seeing. But I'd also echo what everybody else said - the kind of rises you're seeing are just fine, could just be normal random noise & are nothing themselves to stress about 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Appreciate the feedback though, I'm still very new to this. I guess that's part of the test test test thing that isn't obvious. Knowing isn't always a positive if you are perceiving something negative, even if it isn't really that way

i think part of the problem is the illusion of decimal point precision that blood glucose meters provide. While they are much more reliable and accurate than they once were, they can only still really offer ‘ish’ readings - so from one perspective most of your readings are more or less the same.

hope you can put your mind at rest and stop worrying about these sorts of small variations.

 

[Docb]

To come back to the original question...

My method is to put all the data in a spreadsheet and then plot a graph of BG against time. I work on trying to keep a range of 5-10 and overall average of around 6 and only really think about results outside the range. Numbers in the range wander about for all the reasons suggested by others and can be labelled satisfactory. I find that those that are outside generally can be explained by some specific carbohydrate intake and can be used to recognise what foods to avoid. A couple of us have posted graphs elsewhere on the forum which show what we have got from this approach.

Another way of delving deeper is to do some jiggery pokery with the numbers (easy if you are good with spreadsheets but tedious if you are not) and look at the average BG variations through the day. You can also put on some statistical range bars if you want. That way you can see the effect of meals if you are fairly regular with your eating habits and give you a better idea whether any particular reading fits into your normal pattern. This approach really is one for the number nerds.

The key is to think about ranges and whether a particular number falls in the range rather than worrying why one number is different to any other one. Your D/N should help you figure out a target range relevant to you if you are not confident to work one out for yourself.

 

[SueEK]

Your readings are great - try not to worry, sounds like you are doing really well x

 

[zoombapup]

My method is to put all the data in a spreadsheet and then plot a graph of BG against time. I work on trying to keep a range of 5-10 and overall average of around 6 and only really think about results outside the range. Numbers in the range wander about for all the reasons suggested by others and can be labelled satisfactory. I find that those that are outside generally can be explained by some specific carbohydrate intake and can be used to recognise what foods to avoid. A couple of us have posted graphs elsewhere on the forum which show what we have got from this approach.

I keep all my data on a spreadsheet too. The reason I asked the question is that I'd been between 4.7 and 5.9 for a few weeks and then all of a sudden one day I'd gone over 6. Just didn't have any explanation for that strange reading in terms of food intake. My best guess is that I'd gone to another idiotic meeting where managers were giving me more things to report on and maybe my general ill demeanour that stemmed from that carried over into my BG levels somehow 🙂

One thing that might be why I'm concerned is the various charts I've seen online for what "normal" blood glucose levels are etc. Many have 4-6 as the normal range etc. As you mention, I should probably think of reasonable bounds as more like 5-10, but that seemed like a pretty huge range to me given my readings were all within a 1.0 spread give or take, for the last few weeks.

So anyway, thanks for all the feedback guys, I'm reassured that I'm being daft about it. I'll just monitor now to see what spikes I get from food and stop worrying so much about the absolute measurement. I've been thinking of it far too much as a competition with myself to "lower my score" and instead I should be thinking of it as a lifestyle turnaround. I'm actually quite enjoying a totally different (very low carb) diet and having more energy even when just walking does have a load of advantages (I used to get tired out just walking before I was taken into hospital). So its all good really.

 

[stephknits]

That's what is so great about the forum. Without it you could go on with concerns about your readings, which are amazing. I didn't think you could have such a tight range between readings.
I on the other hand am having an annoying day.
Woke on a 2.8, for no reason, went up to 15.9 an hour after brunch, then back to a hypo mid afternoon. I blame the Christmas shopping..

 

[zoombapup]

That's what is so great about the forum. Without it you could go on with concerns about your readings, which are amazing. I didn't think you could have such a tight range between readings.
I on the other hand am having an annoying day.
Woke on a 2.8, for no reason, went up to 15.9 an hour after brunch, then back to a hypo mid afternoon. I blame the Christmas shopping..

I guess it's a lot harder for type 1, because you have to control for what you eat over time. Sounds like a royal pain! 2.8 to 15.9 is a bloody big jump, you must have been doing some mega shopping 🙂

I'm just going to try some mindfulness/meditation when I have the dumb meetings and see if I can just let it wash over me. Hopefully that will relieve some of the extra stress increase. And here I thought I was generally pretty calm too!

 

[Ljc]

I'm just going to try some mindfulness/meditation when I have the dumb meetings and see if I can just let it wash over me. Hopefully that will relieve some of the extra stress increase. And here I thought I was generally pretty calm too!

I am very happily retired now but oh how I remember those dumb meetings, we had them every month plus five silly training days a year oh I nearly forgot the team building days when we got to do fun things like working out how to drop a raw egg out of a window without breaking its shell 🙄.
I was given this tip which worked well for me. You know when you are being given a load of ...... imagine that person in their birthday suit, it sure made me feel better and my big grin really unnerved them.

Oops, I meant to say , great numbers, you are doing really well.

 

[zoombapup]

.... imagine that person in their birthday suit, it sure made me feel better and my big grin really unnerved them.

Oops, I meant to say , great numbers, you are doing really well.

I'm not sure there are enough birthday suits for the kind of stuff I have to attend. We're talking panels of them 🙂 Thanks for the pep talk though!

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

One thing that might be why I'm concerned is the various charts I've seen online for what "normal" blood glucose levels are etc. Many have 4-6 as the normal range etc. As you mention, I should probably think of reasonable bounds as more like 5-10, but that seemed like a pretty huge range to me given my readings were all within a 1.0 spread give or take, for the last few weeks.

Goodness, no wonder you've been concerned. I think normal range is more like 3.4-11 - although healthy people are mostly in the 4-8 range, they do dip under 4 occasionally and also go up into the 8s and 9s or even higher occasionally. A friend of mine had a test for gestational diabetes when she was pregnant and her blood sugar was 11 - she didn't have gestational diabetes, she'd just eaten a big cream cake the night before and then had a horrible drive through nightmare traffic to get to the test that morning so was really stressed - a second test done shortly afterwards was perfectly normal.

Diabetes UK has the following targets for type 2s, so I think this is the range you should be aiming for:
Before meals: 4-7
After meals: less than 8.5

 

[trophywench]

No, the birthday suit doesn't cover a whole panel. However imaging each one of them - or the whole lot - sat side by side 'evacuating their bowels' - I was told that strategy by a new Deputy Headmaster when I was 11 - and it works!