Newbie

[Scarlett]

Hi everyone, my name is Carole and have had type 1 diabetes for 42 years approx. At present I’m on a 6 month trial with Libra sensors. What a shock to view my high and low swings . Such a learning curb I’m on, after all these years.

 

[Annemarie]

Welcome @Scarlett you’ll get lots of information, new friends and many laughs on here. Have you read today's what I had for breakfast yesterday’ it unmissable!

 

[Ljc]

Hi @Scarlett , welcome to the forum. It is amazing the amount of info we can get from the Libre isn’t it.
It has helped me improve my control no end .

 

[Inka]

Welcome @Scarlett 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Scarlett

Yes the libre can be quite an eye opener can’t it!

And isn’t it amazing to see what your BG has been up to overnight every morning!

 

[SB2015]

Welcome to the forum @Scarlett . Great to have your vast experience on here.

The Libre was a game changer for me. It helped me drop my HbA1c by 10, but more importantly for me it has enabled me to stay in range for a much higher percentage of the day. I had no idea how big my postmeal spikes were before using the Libre, but I have been able to adjust my carbs and time my Bolus before meals so that I avoid the worst spikes (most of the time - still impossible when eating out)

I look forward to hearing hw you get on. This is a great place for keeping up to date with changes and things are certainly changing fast at present. I am waiting for my next pump , a Minimed 780 for which I will self fund the sensors, and then see whether that saves me a bit of thinking time.

 

[Scarlett]

Thank you everyone for your welcoming replies. When I look at my results I can see I’m all over the place, it’s such a shock. A few questions.... As I’m checking so much more between meals I can see most meals I’ve been eating give me high spikes, eg breakfast cereal( gluten free). Do I still only do correction just before the next meal? At the moment I want to correct straight away. I’m also going high, about 2 am . I have to wake and use the toilet and test then. This happens only when blood sugars are about 4 when I go to bed. I have to eat carbs to bring it up to about 8 before I sleep. This is because of medication I’m on for another condition. The night I don’t have to eat before bed I will usually wake at 2am and glucose results about 6/7. But by the morning 6.30am I can be very low. Have tried reducing Levemir to 8 units but then run high all night. Help.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thank you everyone for your welcoming replies. When I look at my results I can see I’m all over the place, it’s such a shock. A few questions.... As I’m checking so much more between meals I can see most meals I’ve been eating give me high spikes, eg breakfast cereal( gluten free). Do I still only do correction just before the next meal? At the moment I want to correct straight away.

Well you *can* correct earlier, but it’s much higher risk and you would need to be cautious, because your meal dose is still acting and you are ‘stacking’ more insulin on top. You could try some cautious experiments, and possibly aim to only correct down to 9mmol/L (which is the recommended post-meal maximum).

The other big question is what happens to your BG 4-5 hours after the breakfast dose if you don’t correct. If your BG more or less returns to where it started pre-breakfast, then your dose is right, but the spike is the result of the timings of insulin and food absorption. In which case you may need to leave a gap between injecting and eating so that the insulin has time to get going. 15-20 minutes is quite standard. But some forum members need to leave 30 mins or longer before eating breakfast.

I’m also going high, about 2 am . I have to wake and use the toilet and test then. This happens only when blood sugars are about 4 when I go to bed. I have to eat carbs to bring it up to about 8 before I sleep. This is because of medication I’m on for another condition. The night I don’t have to eat before bed I will usually wake at 2am and glucose results about 6/7. But by the morning 6.30am I can be very low. Have tried reducing Levemir to 8 units but then run high all night. Help.

Have you done any fasting basal checks? these are really easy with Libre, and while it does meal missing an occasional meal for a few days while you check various sections of the day, the beneficial effects of checking your basal coverage over 24 hours are huge.

There’s a good write-up of the approach (and what basal insulins are supposed to be doing) here:

Basal Testing in Diabetes - Diabetes Support

Managing diabetes effectively requires constant monitoring and adjustments to ensure blood sugar levels remain stable. One key aspect of this management process is basal testing, which focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of basal insulin in the body. In this blog article, we’ll explore the...

www.diabetes-support.org.uk

Good luck, and let us know how you get on 🙂