Still having high bg's help

[Emmal31]

I managed to get my blood sugar's down before dinner to 7.2mmols last night, I went swimming because I felt a bit better. My bg's always go high after exercise so I injected as normal when I got home because it was 10.1mmols. BG before bed was 12.3mmols I was so annoyed I asked hubby to set an alarm for a couple of hours because I corrected the 12.3 and I wanted to make sure it had worked. His alarm did go off apparently although it didn't wake me up and he said he woke up this morning with the phone in his hand and it had obviously gone off but he didn't remember it going off 😡 so bg this morning 18.7mmols.

I haven't been sick since yesterday morning so there was absolutely no reason for such a high. I am at my wits end with it all I really don't want this stupid condition I feel like just giving up seriously! My bg has come down to 10.1 but I feel like it will just shoot back up again because I just ate breakfast - I waited 2 hours for it to come down before I could eat. What should I do? any suggestions right now would be very helpful I've already upped my lantus and I am correcting and testing as much as I can. I feel so rough I feel like I need to sleep for a day

 

[Caroline]

Not sure what to suggest, but hope you feel better. Someone is bound to be along at some point with some ides for you.

 

[chrismbee]

I'm astounded that your BG goes up after exercise!
Had you eaten very slow releasing carbs before (eg. pasta)?
Have you done a basal test? My first idea is that your basal is out: initial impressions are that it is too low to cope with your background glucose, although there is a remote possibility that it could be too high and your body is fighting against low BG's by dumping glucose into the blood.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I'm astounded that your BG goes up after exercise!
Had you eaten very slow releasing carbs before (eg. pasta)?
Have you done a basal test? My first idea is that your basal is out: initial impressions are that it is too low to cope with your background glucose, although there is a remote possibility that it could be too high and your body is fighting against low BG's by dumping glucose into the blood.

My thoughts exactly.

I've read that BG rises after exercise can be triggered if you exercise when already high (14+ I think, but that might vary from person-to-person). Exercise also has a different effect depending on whether it is aerobic or anaerobic (though I'd have expected swimming to make BG fall both during and for several hours afterwards, assuming your are breathing during it!).

Have you tried missing a meal Emma (ie eating no carbs and taking no rapid-acting insulin) so that you can watch what happens when only your basal insulin is active? Would be interesting to see, as it sounds like your basal might be off. Only 1u too little can result in similar raging highs for me.

You mention sickness... are you recovering from illness? Could still be messing with your BGs even if you are on the mend. If you are waiting 2 hours before eating are you modifying the amount of carbs you eat? Or are you including the correction in the meal dose? If not adding extra to account for bringing BGs down you would have used up some of your meal bolus by the 2 hour mark dealing with the pre-meal high.

Hope you get to the bottom of it soon.
M

 

[Emmal31]

My thoughts exactly.

I've read that BG rises after exercise can be triggered if you exercise when already high (14+ I think, but that might vary from person-to-person). Exercise also has a different effect depending on whether it is aerobic or anaerobic (though I'd have expected swimming to make BG fall both during and for several hours afterwards, assuming your are breathing during it!).

Have you tried missing a meal Emma (ie eating no carbs and taking no rapid-acting insulin) so that you can watch what happens when only your basal insulin is active? Would be interesting to see, as it sounds like your basal might be off. Only 1u too little can result in similar raging highs for me.

You mention sickness... are you recovering from illness? Could still be messing with your BGs even if you are on the mend. If you are waiting 2 hours before eating are you modifying the amount of carbs you eat? Or are you including the correction in the meal dose? If not adding extra to account for bringing BGs down you would have used up some of your meal bolus by the 2 hour mark dealing with the pre-meal high.

Hope you get to the bottom of it soon.
M

That is the strange thing I recently worked out that my timings were wrong so my insulin wasn't matching the carb peak so when I go swimming it's usually 1 hour after eating but my bg's are normaly 7-8mmols. Last night it was 8.8mmols before I went out so it was within a good range for 1 hour post meal. I always need insulin for exercise even if I haven't eaten in hours it's the same with stress,illness and time of the month nothing seems to really drop my bg's.

I think I might give the missing a meal a go to see if my basal is out because I know that's defintely not right at the moment.

I was sick a couple of times yesterday morning and struggled to lower my readings most of the day even with about 4 corrections on top of meal doses. I got it down just before dinner to 7.2mmols. I feel fine today apart from the tiredness so I don't think I am still under the weather.

I added the injection for breakfast onto the correction dose this morning and waited for 2 hours. Thank you for the suggestions mike.

 

[Northerner]

It sounds to me like your basal might need increasing further Emma, so your premeal levels are at the lower end of 'normal' - this would make those later highs appear much more reasonable I think. Also, I am one of those people whose levels increase after exercise. Usually, what I find is I might start at, say 9.0, go for a run and levels will have fallen to 7.0, but then they will climb gradually over the next hour or two. Then, at my next meal and afterwards I need to reduce bolus insulin significantly as otherwise my levels will drop low!

p.s. there is a distinct possibility that the correction to the 12 that caused the 18 in the morning did drop you low and caused a liver dump in the night. Might also explain why you feel so rough too.