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Lowering blood sugars

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AliceRachel10

AliceRachel10

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I need some serious advice.

I felt I'd gone off the rails when my honeymoon period came to an end. I just couldn't lower my bloods and it was making me depressed.

Anyways after two weeks of beating myself up it got to a point where my sugars weren't coming down from 27mmol at all with my fast acting (novorapid)

I rang 111 because it was about 10pm

They told me to go to a&e. This was last Friday.

After two blood tests and urine samples and some of there insulin.
I came down just under 20 and they sent me home because they had come to the conclusion that although not a lot my sugars were being effected by the insulin.
Told me to go to the GP for new insulin and that mine wasn't working.

after having to wait 4 days for a new insulin and taking lots more basal insulin I got HUMALOG.

So I tested i was 25. Took 9units
Hoping to come down to between 7-10
I'm 25.4.

The diabetics nurses made me feel like I was being silly and dramatic.

Although throughout these past 2-3 weeks I've not developed ketones i feel shocking.

I'm worried about the repercussions of riding high for so long and the fact no ones listening to me and I just can't get my levels down.

I've altered my basal, altered the ratio for carb counting, I'm checking for ketones.

I'm exhausted, urinating more, dry mouth, headaches. I feel back to square one again but I don't know what to do


Diagnosed march. Type 1.
 
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@AliceRachel10 Hi Alice. I am sorry to hear this , you must be feeling dreadful. You're neither being silly or dramatic, was this a DSN or a gp practice nurse, some of them just don't seem to have any idea of how awful we feel when running at such high levels, imo it's perfectly normal to be worried !

Sorry to say this but TBH I think you need to go to A&E again.
 
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Good grief, why don't they do something! Grrr.
 
Hello @AliceRachel10 I hope you are feeling better now and your numbers have come down.
You mentioned that your bolus insulin was changed, what about your basal insulin are you sure that's not faulty? Have you checked to make sure your pens are working correctly as well?
 
Ljc said:
@AliceRachel10 Hi Alice. I am sorry to hear this , you must be feeling dreadful. You're neither being silly or dramatic, was this a DSN or a gp practice nurse, some of them just don't seem to have any idea of how awful we feel when running at such high levels, imo it's perfectly normal to be worried !

Sorry to say this but TBH I think you need to go to A&E again.
Click to expand...



Hello, thank you for your message! It's been a diabetic nurse, diabetic dietician, a&e doctor.

As soon as a&e saw I'd come down by a few mmol they sent me home. They just wanted me under 20. Weren't fussed aslong as I didn't have ketones.

Xx
 
Pumper_Sue said:
Hello @AliceRachel10 I hope you are feeling better now and your numbers have come down.
You mentioned that your bolus insulin was changed, what about your basal insulin are you sure that's not faulty? Have you checked to make sure your pens are working correctly as well?
Click to expand...

Hello, unfortunately not :(
Yeah they said that's fine because when I take 14 on a night it brings me down but as soon as I eat it flies up and stays up because my fast acting does next to nothing
I feel desperate for sugar because I feel tired and weak! But I'm worried to eat because i get so high.

When I rang the diabetic clinic I was 32.
I just don't know what to do :/
And yeah pens working fine. I've tried 3 different batches of novo and just started new batch of humalog

Xx
 
Hi Alice. when that happens keep yourself Hydrated ! Drink water for England. Good luck from someone who has been T1 since England won the World Cup. 😉
 
HOBIE said:
Hi Alice. when that happens keep yourself Hydrated ! Drink water for England. Good luck from someone who has been T1 since England won the World Cup. 😉
Click to expand...

Haha I'm doing that without trying Dying of thirst ‍♀️
Is that just to keep out the ketones xx
 
Alice how long before a meal do you inject your insulin?
 
Ah ok well try injecting 20 - 30 mins before you eat and see if that helps.
Are you also sure your basal is correct now and do you know how to check your basal?
 
Pumper_Sue said:
Ah ok well try injecting 20 - 30 mins before you eat and see if that helps.
Are you also sure your basal is correct now and do you know how to check your basal?
Click to expand...

Right okay!
And yeah basals been fine, lowers me during the night and maintains during the day x
 
Ok then it's the timing of your insulin that is causing the problem by the sound of it. It's takes anything up to 30 mins for your bolus to start working so you need to time things so the peak of action coincides when your meal hits your blood sugars.

Also double check your carb counting is correct as we all make mistakes with that 🙂
 
Pumper_Sue said:
Ok then it's the timing of your insulin that is causing the problem by the sound of it. It's takes anything up to 30 mins for your bolus to start working so you need to time things so the peak of action coincides when your meal hits your blood sugars.

Also double check your carb counting is correct as we all make mistakes with that 🙂
Click to expand...



I've been taking more then necessary novo because they told me to alter my ratios. It's gone from all working fine regardless of what point I took it to not working. I was on 27 and took 20 units which should have took me to hypo but it didn't do a thing, that's why I rang 111. Even when I do it as a correction it's not doing anything or as it should Xx
 
AliceRachel10 said:
I've been taking more then necessary novo because they told me to alter my ratios. It's gone from all working fine regardless of what point I took it to not working. I was on 27 and took 20 units which should have took me to hypo but it didn't do a thing, that's why I rang 111. Even when I do it as a correction it's not doing anything or as it should Xx
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Am I right in thinking that all was ok till they altered your ratios ? If so then the change in ratios was not suitable for you. Maybe you need to try gradually going back to previous ratio's till you find what suits you.

I'm one that finds Novorapid is not so rapid, I need to bolus at least 30 mins before eating in the morning else my BGs rocket up before the bolus has a chance to get going.

It's best not to change more than one thing at a time , else you won't know what's worked.
 
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Hi Alice

Sorry to hear you are having such difficulties with getting your levels down, and not surprised to read that the levels you have are bothering you.

Have you done some fasting tests for your basal insulin? It is only by diong these that you can check that they are correct. You mention that you are on humalog. I was switched to Levemir in order for me to split my basal insulin which made things more flexible.

If your basal insulin is correct then I wonder whether you still need to change your carb ratio. When you changed it did you reduce the number of cabs for 1 unit of insulin levels. It seems upside down but that will then give you more insulin. If you went the other way you would not be the first to get it muddled.

Once you are high you may find that your correction doses need to increase, as the higher your BG the more resistant you will be to insulin. Once I had worked out my correction ratio, I was then advised what % to take increase it by when my BG was above 10, then a higher % etc above 14, and so on. If you haven't been advised about this talk to the DSN (as pumper Sue has said there is a big difference between talking to a DSN and a practice nurse who specialises in diabetes.

Back to bolus insulin, when I was getting fed up with post meal spikes I found these things helped
- timing my delivery of pre meal insulin (for me about 30 min before the food)
- bothering to weigh food when at home to get more accurate carb count
(I have frequently got caught out by labelling on some packets of dry good as they give carbs once cooked)
- aiming to keep my carbs at any meal at about 30g
It was a long time before I conttoned on to the fact that the more carbs the bigger the spike
- diong something for 15 minutes after a meal. We usually go for a walk straight after.

I hope that there is something in my rather long ramble that is of some help and that you get things sorted soon.
 
No I didn't change a thing my levels just spiked.

I've checked my humulin I and the DSN said they were happy with that and that my fast acting just stopped working,

They said although it's not going down taking my FA is still protecting me.
They have no explanation and I've been fasting, having carb free meals and altering my ratios

Xx
 
Sorry to hear what you are going through Alice

This 'sick day rules' pdf might give you some ideas about additional insulin requirements that might be involved when your levels are running so high.

https://www.t1resources.uk/resources/item/sickday-rules-pdf/

Hope you manage to get them under control soon. Good that you are checking for ketones.
 
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