Low all day

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Northerner

Northerner

Admin (Retired)
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I woke this morning to 4.6, was 3.9 before lunch, 3.9 before tea and have just tested again and I'm 4.1 three hours after my tea. I suspect that my lantus, which I had increased because of my recent inactivity, now needs lowering again. I did reduce it by a unit last night, but think I might have to lower it further tonight! Still, I've got my HbA1c coming up in the next couple of weeks so it should help hovering at the bottom end of my range!
 
Does it not take a few days for the body to adjust after a basal change..?

What is your opinion on lowering your basal by the one unit you said and keeping to that new dose for a few days to see how your body gets on?
 
brightontez said:
Does it not take a few days for the body to adjust after a basal change..?

What is your opinion on lowering your basal by the one unit you said and keeping to that new dose for a few days to see how your body gets on?
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I know most people say that they find it takes a couple of days, but for me I always find the change is pretty much immediate within 24 hours.
 
brightontez said:
Does it not take a few days for the body to adjust after a basal change..?

What is your opinion on lowering your basal by the one unit you said and keeping to that new dose for a few days to see how your body gets on?
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Tez, I suspect I should have lowered it by two units last night, rather than 1, so by lowering it a further unit tonight (which I have done) I'm only really doing what I ahould have done already. I probably wouldn't have been so borderline all day today if I'd done what I really thought was necessary! Does that make sense? It's late!
 
I'm sort of with you on this one Northerner. You know your body far better than anyone else.

My understanding was it was it could be better to go down the really slow with a little suffering route then a bigger jump of 2 units.

The thing is if you drop another unit today, would you stay at the new dose for a week to see how the change affects you?
 
brightontez said:
I'm sort of with you on this one Northerner. You know your body far better than anyone else.

My understanding was it was it could be better to go down the really slow with a little suffering route then a bigger jump of 2 units.

The thing is if you drop another unit today, would you stay at the new dose for a week to see how the change affects you?
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I think this is true if you are not sure whether your basal is too high, Tez. After dropping another unit last night, I woke to 4.7 this morning, so I suspect it was a wise move or I might have been below 4. I'll see how things go today. I'm dropping the basal like this because I know the reason for it - my activity levels are now approching what they were like before I hurt my knee and had to start raising it, so it was the RAISING of the basal that was the 'experiment' to see how much it needed to go up to combat the general rise in my BG. I did this one unit every couple of days. Clear as mud, eh! 🙂
 
Northerner said:
I woke this morning to 4.6, was 3.9 before lunch, 3.9 before tea and have just tested again and I'm 4.1 three hours after my tea. I suspect that my lantus, which I had increased because of my recent inactivity, now needs lowering again. I did reduce it by a unit last night, but think I might have to lower it further tonight! Still, I've got my HbA1c coming up in the next couple of weeks so it should help hovering at the bottom end of my range!
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I hope you can sort the lantus out, I think I've finally tweaked mine to the right level hurrah 😉
 
Emmal31 said:
I hope you can sort the lantus out, I think I've finally tweaked mine to the right level hurrah 😉
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Thanks Emma, glad to hear you've got yours sorted! 🙂 I'm decreasing mine by another unit tonight as I've been quite low all day again, although not as low as yesterday - just tested at 4.3 before bed despite taking less novorapid than I did for the same meal a few days ago. Oh dear! That means I have to have a slice of buttered toast AGAIN! 🙄
 
I've heard some people say they can be really low in the morning to really high with only 1 unit change in their bolus injection. I've only dropped mine by 3 units for one week last year, otherwise it's stayed the same, maybe I should be more fussy about my waking levels and fine tune a bit, but to be honest I'm a bit scared to!

Glad you're all getting it sorted 🙂
 
Woke to 4.4 this morning, so it looks like my lantus reductions so far have been a wise move! This means that my lantus has reduced by about 40% over the past week, and all pretty much due to increased activity levels - just shows how important exercise can be in increasing insulin sensitivity and keeping levels in check 🙂 A couple of weeks ago I was waking in the high 5s, low 6s despite the extra insulin I was taking.
 
Glad it seems to be panning out Ok. Know what you mean - did a silly thing last night. Took my insulin late because forgot to test before dinner, then more later on because BS still high. Went for long walk with dog before bed and woke to 1.9 during the night. Have not been active much recently and certainly notice the difference - lantus has gradually risen from 9 to 15!

so, glad things are back on track for you Northe.
 
runner said:
Glad it seems to be panning out Ok. Know what you mean - did a silly thing last night. Took my insulin late because forgot to test before dinner, then more later on because BS still high. Went for long walk with dog before bed and woke to 1.9 during the night. Have not been active much recently and certainly notice the difference - lantus has gradually risen from 9 to 15!

so, glad things are back on track for you Northe.
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Ouch! 1.9! 😱 I've just had a 2.0, very little warning. Three jelly babies and a hob nob! No munching nuts to sate the hunger so the hypo isn't overtreated.
 
Ooooo Northerner, not good . . . . . . hp you feel better soon, take care, shirl
 
Hope it stabilises soon. scary when there's not much warning :(
 
shirl said:
Ooooo Northerner, not good . . . . . . hp you feel better soon, take care, shirl
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runner said:
Hope it stabilises soon. scary when there's not much warning :(
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Thanks guys, I'm fine. I was 5.4 before tea, so looks like I ate just the right amount! 🙂

I think it's down to the new dose of BP pills I've been on - the pharmacist warned me that I wouldn't recognise lows so easily, and it looks like she is right! I'm due to see the doctor at the end of the month and hope that my BP has improved enough to lower the dose back to what it was.
 
Hmmm...down to 4.2 two hours after my egg and chips! 😱 More toast and less insulin (possibly) for tonight!
 
Exercise is a pain when it comes to the bg's isn't it, How are you doing today? 🙂 x
 
Emmal31 said:
Exercise is a pain when it comes to the bg's isn't it, How are you doing today? 🙂 x
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Started quite well, thanks. A more acceptable 5.4 on waking, then 5.4 again 4 hours after breakfast. However, this had risen to 6.8 by lunchtime. This is one of the problems I have with eating early and my basal. If there are more than 5 hours between breakfast and lunch then my levels creep up. All the rest of the time my basal is fine, so I don't really want to change it, plus it is still within my range. I doubt if they would give me a pump on such flimsy criteria though - 'needs pump to allow different basal rate between 5 and 6 hours after eating breakfast' - I don't think so! 😱

Also, exercise in the morning doesn't affect my levels until late afternoon i.e. several hours later - can be most annoying at times as it sometimes means quite a low hypo late afternoon, as recently.
 
rossi_mac said:
I've heard some people say they can be really low in the morning to really high with only 1 unit change in their bolus injection. I've only dropped mine by 3 units for one week last year, otherwise it's stayed the same, maybe I should be more fussy about my waking levels and fine tune a bit, but to be honest I'm a bit scared to!

Glad you're all getting it sorted 🙂
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I'm one of those in a decrease/increase of 1 unit 🙄

Hope you have managed to sort the levels out Northe...there's nowt worse than running very low (or very high) consistently..

Bernie xx
 
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