Latest Basal Testing

[khskel]

I was getting concerned that my BG levels were creeping up a bit and wondered if might have to re introduce basal insulin to my regime so I bit the bullet and decided to start a fresh round of basal test so no breakfast today and this is what I found:

Last insulin and meal 18:30 28/07/2016

20:30 7.6
22:16 8.3
01:07 8.5
04:47 7.3
06:46 7.2
08:05 7.1
09:23 7.3
10:40 7.2
12:02 6.7

It will be interesting to see what happens at the other times of day but I think it's safe to say that morning levels at least don't warrant levemir. Now whether this is due to a few beta cells still doing their best to help out or a dearth of alpha cells and a consequential lack of glucose being released from the liver.

I could of course be anywhere up to 100% wrong 😉

I'm finding it all horribly fascinating!

 

[AJLang]

Those results are brilliant. Well done you.

 

[Northerner]

It's tricky isn't it? My levels used to be in the low 5s on waking but more recently have been in the low 6s, so not sure if this means I might have to reintroduce some lantus some time in the future. Your pancreas is keeping you very steady, but not 'correcting' you down by much either - what tends to happen with me is that whatever I go to bed on, even if in the upper 8s, I wake within non-diabetic range.

As you say, (horribly) fascinating!

 

[khskel]

OK so today I did the lunch time test.

Last insulin 06:45 02/08/2016
Breakfast 07:15

12:23 6.7
13:30 6.3
14:31 6.2
15:29 5.8
16:29 5.5
16:56 5.2
1 gluco tab due to drive home
17:48 4.9

So looks like a steady fall over the afternoon and although I am grateful for my pancreas for doing its best to help out it could pick a more convenient time. Next stop evening test.

 

[KookyCat]

Wow, those are unnervingly steady figures there, and a 4pm hypo dip without basal is quite something, could it be the alpha cells on the wane? If I remember my biochemistry correctly the alphas produce the glucagon and then that binds to receptors on the liver to trigger a mediated reaction to trigger the liver to produce glucose. There's a biofeedback loop in there between alphas and betas as well, but I don't recall much about it except that when the betas give up the ghost completely it can impact on the alphas who stay in tact but essentially turn off through lack of stimulation from their beta neighbours (hence the often impaired counter regulatory response in type 1). Some folks alphas are more easily defeated than others though and I can't remember why 🙄