Post meal numbers

Status
Not open for further replies.
SacredHeart

SacredHeart

Senior Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
OK, my post meal numbers are starting to go up into double figures, whilst eating stuff that never did that to me.

A couple of things come to mind:

1) Is it possible that the cold weather is affecting my circulation? My circulation isn't great at the best of times, and I've been struggling to get my fingers to bleed lately. Could it be that I'm getting out of date info, and they're not really that high?

2) Could my honeymoon (7 months so far) be finally over?

Thoughts, anyone? :confused:
 
Hi Becky, do the numbers return to normal before your next meal, or they staying higher than they were? If the latter, it could be the end of the honeymoon or seasonal changes. Either way you might have to start changing your ratios and upping your insulin. My insulin requirements dropped dramatically in April which I thought might be due to the Spring, but haven't really risen with the onset of Winter.
 
As Northener said if your blood sugars are coming back to range then it might be that your pancreas is struggling to bring your blood sugars down as quickly as it could before, so might need addititional help with extra bolus insulin.

I seem to be needing less insulin over the past couple of weeks, not sure if it's weather related.
 
Weather - a couple of aspects can affect levels:
energy requirements of maintaining constant body temperature - more energy is required to keep homeothermic (so called "warm blooded") animal bodies are the right temperature when the air (or water) temperature is far away from 37oC (for humans, usually a bit warmer for smaller bodies, which have even more problems keeping themselves at the right temperature) - so, when temperature is, say above 25oC or below 5oC, the extra energy requirements may be enough to need lower insulin doses than normal; air temperatures may have an effect on some people at nearer to normal temperatures - and children, having smaller surface area to weight ratios may be affected more than larger bodied people.

blood vessel adaptions to temperatures - capillaries near the skin surface tend to dilate (become wider) in hot temperatures to promote heat loss; so, injections into subcutaneous fat (fat under skin) may be more likely to hit a capillary and thus insulin will be absorbed more quickly; equally, injections into cold skin may be absorbed more slowly (although in very cold conditions, eg sub Antarctic islands, I used my abdomen, which wasn't exposed more than absolutely necessary in 25 days of staying in an unheated building / camping)

Then there's the whole area of activity - cycling into a cold wind takes more energy than cycling on a still mild day etc.
 
I too like Northe' noticed a substantial (50%) drop in my bolus requirements but have recently seen an increase and am wondering if it was due to weather or something? I was running higher than usual for a few days before crimbo and diddn't feel brave enough to sort out a ratio to get back down as I was eating differently around christmas holidays. I have now got back into a routine (ish) and am back with better levels, I woke today at 5.3 so well chuffed.

hope you get back in range soon.

Rossi🙂
 
Thanks for the replies, all. Sorry I haven't come back to you sooner, but I've been a)kind of caught up in trying to think all the info through, and b)moping a bit 🙄

Anyway, I rang up my DSN (also called Becky, would you believe), and told her about my weird levels. At first she was talking about putting a few more units on my bolus, but has suggested instead that I try taking 4 units of Lantus, instead of the....well, none that I currently take.

I'm a bit nervous about this, and don't quite see the logic, myself. Last time I was using the Lantus, I had some fairly horrid hypos from it. Having said that though, I do trust her, so I'll go with what she thinks. She's told me to keep in contact, and we can readjust as necessary.

One good thing though is that she mentioned ages ago about a 6 week meeting-type-group-thing for the newly diagnosed, which they're planning to start (apparently it's now this month), so I should be getting something through the door about that soon.
 
Good luck with the lantus Becky - how much were you using before? I started with 20 units, but have been on 6-8 since April.
 
Well I did lantus for a bit, and I was only on 8-10 units, then we cut it down and down until it was not worth me taking it. I wasn't taking any insulin at all for one very weird month (which I didn't like at ALL - shows how fast you get used to a thing!)
 
Just two pennies' worth here, about newly diagnosed and levels...I think I put this on the pumping section (?), but recently we had a consultant appt and my son's insulin had dropped even though he had gained weight and grown etc. Anecdotally it does look like the pancreas dribs and drabs on for a LONG time, splutters and spurts, beyond the traditional 'honeymoon'.

Since then we went to virtually no insulin at two points of the day -- then, the last two days, suddenly levels have jumped again! Argh. He *is* still growing massively, so that's a factor, BUT even beyond that, we can only really read this as yet another sudden stopping of a pancreas splutter!

Good luck with everything.
 
Hadn't realised that you weren't on any basal insulin, 4 sounds like a reasonable dose to start with, you don't want too much that you have lots of hypos. I first started on 6 units and then added bolus in after that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top