non-sensical!

[Vix]

Ok, my sugars have been ALL over the place with no rational pattern for about 6 weeks despite me crying down the phone to the receptionist at the diabetes clinic, who promises someone will call me back and they never do... then the last 4 days things seemed to rationalise, not all good but my waking levels up until evening meal have been ok (last 4 days only) then they shoot up to anywhere between 13 - 19 before bed but I've been told not to do a correction dose as I've been having night hypos before that and see what happens, and then I wake up and my waking sugars are fine... BUT today I was 6.6 waking (that's good for me at the moment) and now shot up to 12.1 despite me doing exactly the same for the past 4 mornings - it doesn't make sense to me!!!

xx

 

[Lauras87]

I'm kinda having that prob at the mo.

None of the 6 nurses have rung me back - seems a bit naff

I hope your bloods get better when you switch background insulins 🙂

 

[Vix]

I'm kinda having that prob at the mo.

None of the 6 nurses have rung me back - seems a bit naff

I hope your bloods get better when you switch background insulins 🙂

thanks Laura 🙂

Frustrating isn't it when you feel like you've hit rock bottom and the people that should understand life with diabetes don't seem to get the urgency! Fingers crossed that I can change insulin a week today and don't have too many highs/lows before then... Hope you get your pump soon 🙂

xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi Vix

Sorry to hear the D gremlins have been on your case at the moment. Very frustrating when things go completely out of kilter and no two days seem to behave the same.

Sounds like you are doing just the right thing though. If your liver hs been kicking off and dumping glucose here and there then getting rid of hypos can really help. Not ideal as it means not correcting/staying high for a bit 🙄 but if it gets you off the gluco-coaster then worth doing.

In your shoes I would want to go back to basics and run a basal test just to see what was going on there. Unless your basal is behaving *everything* else will be mental (and very frustrating!) in my experience.

If you have not come across the concept of basal testing yet (I only dicovered it on forums, though goodness knows why clinics don't teach it day-1) then have a read of this:

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=120

Which will give you the basic idea.

 

[Vix]

Hi Vix

Sorry to hear the D gremlins have been on your case at the moment. Very frustrating when things go completely out of kilter and no two days seem to behave the same.

Sounds like you are doing just the right thing though. If your liver hs been kicking off and dumping glucose here and there then getting rid of hypos can really help. Not ideal as it means not correcting/staying high for a bit 🙄 but if it gets you off the gluco-coaster then worth doing.

In your shoes I would want to go back to basics and run a basal test just to see what was going on there. Unless your basal is behaving *everything* else will be mental (and very frustrating!) in my experience.

If you have not come across the concept of basal testing yet (I only dicovered it on forums, though goodness knows why clinics don't teach it day-1) then have a read of this:

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=120

Which will give you the basic idea.

oh interesting, thanks! I've never been told about basal testing! It doesn't even match ANYTHING my DSN has said as I've just changed hospitals and my new DSN has said that I wasn't eating enough and that I should be snacking more... Ok, that wasn't really what I wanted to hear as I'm recovering from hip surgery and struggling to get much exercise in apart from walking about half an hour a day (far cry from my 8 hours of volleyball a week before shattering my hip!) and I don't want to put weight on... but I did as she said, and had a nectarine mid morning, but she then said that wasn't enough and I have to have 2... she also told me to have supper before bed eg crumpet, toast, even if my sugars are 15 to stop hypos in the night! This really doesn't make sense to me, especially as reading that link my sugars should be ok if I don't have a snack or even a carb free meal if my basal is right, which it sounds like it clearly isn't!! I can't get an appointment to see my DSN until next Fri and then I think I'm going to try switching to levemir and maybe split it rather than 1 glargine daily as she said that my glargine may not be the best option for me...

I also do my basal in the morning (bit needle phobic and would rather get 2 injections out of the way before breakfast) so wonder if changing it to the evening might help???

I just don't understand why in the past few months it has suddenly taken on a mind of it's own with no logical explanation to me!

Xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I also do my basal in the morning (bit needle phobic and would rather get 2 injections out of the way before breakfast) so wonder if changing it to the evening might help???

I just don't understand why in the past few months it has suddenly taken on a mind of it's own with no logical explanation to me!

Xx

If you are prone to dropping overnight with Lantus (I was) then taking it in the morning can help (or possible splitting it).

'Snack to keep BGs up' is poor advice IMO. We shouldn't need to regularly 'feed' insulin any more - certainly not at the levels you suggested!

First thing to do I'd suggest (even while considering a switch to Lev) is to get your Lantus 'ballpark' right. If you are going to switch it might not be worth tweaking and polishing as you'll have to do all that again on the different insulin - and there's no guarantee that you'll be able to swap dose-for-dose so Lev will be pretty much back to sq 1 for a while.

In the meantime though there's no reason not to do a quick basal test or two just to get a vague idea of what is going on when you don't have a mealtime dose active.

Oh and... annoyingly, you can't expect your basal to be 'right' forever once you have tested and sorted it. Only really 'right for now'. The basic pattern will probably stay similar, but my Lantus needed tweaking up and down every 3-6 months. I could generally tell when and my 'normal' meal doses/corrections just stopped working!

 

[Vix]

Thanks 🙂 I struggle to work out my basal as it's so up and down that if I up it (currently on 18 units) then I get hypos in the night and at random times, and if I drop it as my DSN suggested then I have so many highs that I can't cope! But you're right, I will do a basal test tomorrow morning, hoping that my waking levels will be ok - never can tell at the moment!! xx

 

[Lauras87]

thanks Laura 🙂

Frustrating isn't it when you feel like you've hit rock bottom and the people that should understand life with diabetes don't seem to get the urgency! Fingers crossed that I can change insulin a week today and don't have too many highs/lows before then... Hope you get your pump soon 🙂

xx

My pump appointment has been moved to 13/3 from 10/4 (I only found out coz my consultant wnts to see me & told me)
Yay for an earlier date but worried.

I hope you get switched over soon

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thanks 🙂 I struggle to work out my basal as it's so up and down that if I up it (currently on 18 units) then I get hypos in the night and at random times, and if I drop it as my DSN suggested then I have so many highs that I can't cope! But you're right, I will do a basal test tomorrow morning, hoping that my waking levels will be ok - never can tell at the moment!! xx

Hoping that you have a 1u pen for Lantus? I found 2u increments way to crude an adjustment option. 1u of Lantus seemed to make a *massive* difference to me (eg if Lantus just 1u too low I'd be firing in units and units of Humalog corrections!)

I wrote a series of blog posts when I was wrestling with Lantus myself some years ago: http://www.everydayupsanddowns.co.uk/2010/02/some-units-are-more-equal-than-others.html

 

[Vix]

Thanks Mike - off to check your blog out... no, my lantus pen is 2u increments xx

 

[megga]

Thats very poor advice you have been given, i was tol the same thing by the nurse at the GP surgery when i was first diagnosed, then my first DSN (S at Derby hospital, any one gets her, there lucky, she's 1 in a million) told me, "you dont feed it, your not there for the insulin, the insulin is there for you" and she was right.

Adter you do your basel testing, look at what food your eating, i (after 8-9 years) never had good control untill i learned about fats and protien, i always had a good insulin to carb ratio and could never understand why my blood sugars were all over the place. After joining this forum i found out that that bit of ham or cheese that i would snack on, was the reason.