Oh bother this bloomin' basal!

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Well, today is the day I mark as my 'official' end to my first year of diabetes, as I was discharged on this date after 8 days in hospital and left to my own devices! I had got used to being looked after by all the nurses, and all the endless blood tests, injections and pills, but it hadn't really sunk in that I was now going to have to administer all this myself. The hospital DSN was brilliant though - getting me up to speed on how to set up the pens and do the injections, what levels I should aim for etc. I was on fixed amounts for the first few weeks, and had a few hypos (that was an interesting and novel experience!😱) as we adjusted the doses down. My biggest problem was that I lost my appetite, so was struggling to eat enough to cover the insulin (didn't know about carb-counting then, and though good, the DSN's were adjusting it every few days rather than for every meal!). The appetite problems were tracked down eventually to some of the drugs I was on.

I feel I've come a long way in the past 12 months. Looking at my readings, my highest this past week has been 8.0 and lowest 2.8, although I've only had three hypos - two on Friday and both probably something to do with the beer festival! I had my first night hypo in weeks last night - a 3.1 - probably due to the fact that I had a late tea and took too much insulin with it, but the insulin hadn't finished circulating by bedtime so I got a 'false' level before bed. I treated it and woke to 5.2 this morning, so I reckon the basal is spot on... for now!🙂
 
Northerner said:
Brilliant katie! Well done! Yayyyy!!!!:D
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Thanks Northe 🙂

(I'm a bit slow, only just these replies when you bumped up the thread :D)

Well done on your perfect readings hehe, not quite cured yet, but it could still happen 😉

My readings are still good, I think it's mainly because im doing an hours exercise every day! I keep having a hypo a day though, which is a bit annoying, but I should be able to sort that out.
 
katie said:
Thanks Northe 🙂

(I'm a bit slow, only just these replies when you bumped up the thread :D)

Well done on your perfect readings hehe, not quite cured yet, but it could still happen 😉

My readings are still good, I think it's mainly because im doing an hours exercise every day! I keep having a hypo a day though, which is a bit annoying, but I should be able to sort that out.
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Keep up the good work katie! Pity about the hypos though, but I think they are more likely whilst you're trying to get tight control - eventually you should be able to recognise the situations where you may need less or more insulin etc. Are they bad ones, and are you still getting your warning signs? I used to have far more hypos than I have now, thankfully.🙂
 
Northerner said:
Keep up the good work katie! Pity about the hypos though, but I think they are more likely whilst you're trying to get tight control - eventually you should be able to recognise the situations where you may need less or more insulin etc. Are they bad ones, and are you still getting your warning signs? I used to have far more hypos than I have now, thankfully.🙂
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Theyve mostly been just under 4, like 3.8, 3.6, 3.9 and they have been when I was checking before a meal so I didnt notice them. I notice them if im being active though, or if im any lower, so that's ok 🙂 I just keep taking a bit too much insulin because im used to taking more than my ratio, as I kept being high all the time!
 
oh dear, random high of 17 today!! I didnt do my exercise yesterday and over slept today so my insulin resistence may have been high after my weetabix :D All I had apart from that is a mini milk!!

I'll do my exercise video again in a min and see how it goes tomorrow, tut.
 
Hope things have improved katie, and that that was a one-off! I've had some odd ups and downs recently, although things seem to have stabilised again. Last Friday my levels were low all day apart from waking - 6.5, 2.9, 3.7 and 4.0 before bed. The following day they were higher than normal - 5.8, 6.0, 8.7, 7.5. Nothing disastrous, I know! I suspect that I had gone 'light' on the insulin in reaction to all the lows of the previous day. My last couple of days have been spot-on though - 4.7, 4.6, 3.8, 7.7, 4.4, 5.0, 4.5 and 8.5 before bed last night. I woke to 4.8 this morning! So, I reckon I've got the basal just right at 9 units and am doing pretty well with my bolus calculations (well, I call them 'calculations', but they're really just guesses on the whole!🙂)
 
seems spot on!

I know you were going to wait a couple of weeks after your appointment to get your A1c done, have you had it done yet?
 
sofaraway said:
seems spot on!

I know you were going to wait a couple of weeks after your appointment to get your A1c done, have you had it done yet?
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Not yet, I think I will go next week, or when I can double up with an appointment with my DSN (I get the blood taken at the same hospital, so saves me a trip!)
 
Well done on getting the basal right Northerner 🙂

Northerner said:
Hope things have improved katie, and that that was a one-off!
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I'm afraid not! went out on saturday night to my summerball so err got a little drunk. So sunday blood sugars were terrible. I neglected myself because I was feeling really down too :( That also resulted in me not exercising and eating more carbs again so my levels have been rubbish for a few days. It seems that if I dont exercise the day before, my levels after breakfast shoot up. I took my usual amount for breakfast and my levels were 18 a couple of hours later 🙄

I'm climbing out of the black hole now though so shall resume the diet tonight!

"oh to be in love, and never fall out again!"

I felt the need to quote her here :D Ok I think 3 coffees has turned me insane...
 
katie said:
...I'm afraid not! went out on saturday night to my summerball so err got a little drunk. So sunday blood sugars were terrible. I neglected myself because I was feeling really down too :( That also resulted in me not exercising and eating more carbs again so my levels have been rubbish for a few days. It seems that if I dont exercise the day before, my levels after breakfast shoot up. I took my usual amount for breakfast and my levels were 18 a couple of hours later 🙄
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Well, there were exceptional circumstances, so hopefully you will be able to be a good diabetic for a little while now!😉 Exercise seems to have about a 12-hour delay before it affects my levels, but then keeps affecting them for about 40 hours. It's such a cruel thing that, when you're feeling a bit down all you want to do is eat and not worry about your levels, but then it just makes you feel worse! I've also found that alcohol the night before tends to lower my levels the day after - seems it's the other way around with you!

It is interesting how levels can go so high just from breakfast, it must be something to do with how some people digest certain foods and convert them to glucose. I haven't had a level above 16 since I was diagnosed - in fact, the last time I went into double figures (a 10.7) was on the 7th April! I'm not bragging, just realise how lucky I am!🙂
 
Northerner said:
It's such a cruel thing that, when you're feeling a bit down all you want to do is eat and not worry about your levels, but then it just makes you feel worse! I've also found that alcohol the night before tends to lower my levels the day after - seems it's the other way around with you!
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yep it's a vicious circle, you definitely feel worse when you dont do any exercise, grr.

Hehe Alcohol doesnt make me go high the next day... I was so drunk (and remember nothing) that I didnt take my lantus for a start. Then I slept most of the day sunday because I hadnt slept on saturday night, had a big hypo and had to get up and stuff my face. I then felt so bad i went to bed again. Knew id be high but i just waited till dinner time and took novorapid for that without testing THEN went to bed without testing and woke up to 20. I totally neglected myself because i got upset about something early on sunday and obviously the hangover!

Anyway... im feeling better now and will look after myself again!

Northerner said:
It is interesting how levels can go so high just from breakfast, it must be something to do with how some people digest certain foods and convert them to glucose. I haven't had a level above 16 since I was diagnosed - in fact, the last time I went into double figures (a 10.7) was on the 7th April! I'm not bragging, just realise how lucky I am!🙂
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yep you are very lucky.

I can never get my breakfast dose right for cereal, it seems to be completely random, but the exercise was helping a lot.
 
Katie, Northerner, hope you're both feeling better now. 🙂
 
AWWW poor Twin , you ok now ? you know where I am if you need to talk ,

Anytime 🙂🙂🙂🙂
 
I feel much better today thanks twin, I have bad days and good days but im sure i'll get happy soon :D xx
 
katie said:
I feel much better today thanks twin, I have bad days and good days but im sure i'll get happy soon :D xx
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Good , I hope it is soon then 🙂 we all need some happy times lol , if all else

fails get drunk lol 😱 he he he he
 
hehe yeah we do indeed! that's my motto too, not sure it worked out on saturday, but it usually does!
 
katie said:
hehe yeah we do indeed! that's my motto too, not sure it worked out on saturday, but it usually does!
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Top motto twin , he he he he ..i might adopt that theory too lol :D:D
 
Hmmm...a couple of slight glitches today. I was 3.0 before my evening meal and 3.4 before bed. I don't think it's a basal problem, just too much novorapid - but thought I'd been under rather than over. The one before tea may have been because I decided to mow the lawn and should probably have backed that up with a hobnob or something! The other worrying thing is that I had no symptoms for either of the hypos, so maybe I'm losing my hypo-awareness - although they were both 'slow' hypos and not a rapid fall. Hey ho!🙄
 
Northerner said:
Hmmm...a couple of slight glitches today. I was 3.0 before my evening meal and 3.4 before bed. I don't think it's a basal problem, just too much novorapid - but thought I'd been under rather than over. The one before tea may have been because I decided to mow the lawn and should probably have backed that up with a hobnob or something! The other worrying thing is that I had no symptoms for either of the hypos, so maybe I'm losing my hypo-awareness - although they were both 'slow' hypos and not a rapid fall. Hey ho!🙄
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mmm worrying .. i have good hypo awareness and know as soon as i go below 4 , but twice this week and once a few weeks ago i have had "LOWS " and not felt them coming on until the last minute. 😱
 
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