Sudden spikes in blood glucose levels

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lightcub

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Type 1
Hi there to anyone reading, I am a 21 one year old T1 diabetic, diagnosed 3 years ago and I use a pen to take insulin as well as having a libre sensor.

My BG levels are normally very good with an average of about 7. Around 6 days ago, my blood test scores have suddenly spiked and are now high on average for the past 6 days. I correct them but everytime I eat they spike even if i take insulin very early or overcompensate with the amount of insulin im taking. Normally my ketone levels are 0.0 but at the moment they are 0.2. I am not sure how to fix this because this change in blood glucose is very sudden and quite random. I thought maybe I should change my ratios but even when i overcompensate with insulin i will still end up being high later on. Can anyone please help with this? Any advice or guidance would be extremely appreciated.
 
Hi @lightcub and welcome. I can't help as I'm T2 but I'm sure some of our helpful T1s will be along soon
 
Hi @lightcub , do you think you could be brewing up an infection? Or have you had a Covid jab recently? (a lot of people seem to be finding their blood glucose has been going a bit crazy afterwards, sometimes taking a couple of weeks to settle down .
I assume youve gone through the usual suspects, eg, compromised insulin (have you swapped to a new cartridge just in case?)
 
Hi @lightcub
Our blood sugars some times feel as if they have a mind of their own but there are a few things to check
- have you changed your insulin. Sometimes we get "dodgy" insulin. It may have been kept out of the fridge in transportation for too long or just not quite right. If your blood sugars are constantly rising but your bolus seems to be bringing it down temporarily, the usual candidate in the basal insulin. If this does not work, change your bolus.
- have you checked your insulin pen. You may have prefilled pens but I try to avoid single use plastics so have reusable pens. Unfortunately, sometimes the dosing mechanism in pens fails and you may not be getting as much insulin as you think. Therefore, it is a good idea to change your insulin pens. Again, I would start with the basal and then the bolus.
- are you ill or stressed? Any mental or physical stress can cause our liver to release glucose to fight the stress which causes our blood sugars to rise. If this is the case you could try temporarily increasing your basal insulin dose. This depends which insulin you are taking. Tresiba takes 4 days or more for a change to have an impact and, by that time, you may be over your illness. However, Lantus and Levemir can make a difference straight away.
 
Hi and welcome

You haven't had the Covid vaccine recently have you? That has been causing major spikes for some of us for quite a while afterwards.

The other possibility is that your basal needs have changed and it might be worth doing a basal test to see if your basal insulin is holding you steady
 
Robin said:
Hi @lightcub , do you think you could be brewing up an infection? Or have you had a Covid jab recently? (a lot of people seem to be finding their blood glucose has been going a bit crazy afterwards, sometimes taking a couple of weeks to settle down .)
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Hi Robin, thanks for your reply! Yes I had my covid jab 2 weeks ago. I did not know they were affecting others blood glucose too, thanks for letting me know 🙂
 
helli said:
Hi @lightcub
Our blood sugars some times feel as if they have a mind of their own but there are a few things to check
- have you changed your insulin. Sometimes we get "dodgy" insulin. It may have been kept out of the fridge in transportation for too long or just not quite right. If your blood sugars are constantly rising but your bolus seems to be bringing it down temporarily, the usual candidate in the basal insulin. If this does not work, change your bolus.
- have you checked your insulin pen. You may have prefilled pens but I try to avoid single use plastics so have reusable pens. Unfortunately, sometimes the dosing mechanism in pens fails and you may not be getting as much insulin as you think. Therefore, it is a good idea to change your insulin pens. Again, I would start with the basal and then the bolus.
- are you ill or stressed? Any mental or physical stress can cause our liver to release glucose to fight the stress which causes our blood sugars to rise. If this is the case you could try temporarily increasing your basal insulin dose. This depends which insulin you are taking. Tresiba takes 4 days or more for a change to have an impact and, by that time, you may be over your illness. However, Lantus and Levemir can make a difference straight away.
Click to expand...
Hi helli thank you very much for this I will consider it all, this has reassured me massively.
 
I told you our helpful T1s would be along 🙂
 
rebrascora said:
Hi and welcome

You haven't had the Covid vaccine recently have you? That has been causing major spikes for some of us for quite a while afterwards.

The other possibility is that your basal needs have changed and it might be worth doing a basal test to see if your basal insulin is holding you steady
Click to expand...
Hi thank you for your reply and warm welcome 🙂 Yes I have had my vaccine recently, I had no clue it would affect me a few weeks after so thank you for this it has put me at ease.
 
Out of interest which Covid vaccination did you have @lightcub ? It does sound a likely culprit. I’d still change your insulins if you haven’t already though (new cartridges).

Which bolus (fast) insulin are you using?
 
Hello and welcome to the forum 🙂

Have you tried doing a basal test? It might just be a simple thing like needing a bit more basal 🙂
 
Hi Inka thank you for your reply, I had the Pfizer vaccine 2 weeks ago. I use Novorapid as insulin.
 
lightcub said:
Hi Inka thank you for your reply, I had the Pfizer vaccine 2 weeks ago. I use Novorapid as insulin.
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I had the Pfizer one too 🙂 I thought it would be useful to know which one you had for others who might be dealing with similar problems. I didn’t have highs after the vaccine (or if I did, they were only slight and not noticeable) but we’re all individuals so don’t rule it out.

Have you recently opened a new box of the Novorapid cartridges? Some years ago there was an issue with poor storage on their journey to the U.K. and their ‘life’ was shortened. If in doubt, always change your cartridge.
 
Inka said:
I had the Pfizer one too 🙂 I thought it would be useful to know which one you had for others who might be dealing with similar problems. I didn’t have highs after the vaccine (or if I did, they were only slight and not noticeable) but we’re all individuals so don’t rule it out.

Have you recently opened a new box of the Novorapid cartridges? Some years ago there was an issue with poor storage on their journey to the U.K. and their ‘life’ was shortened. If in doubt, always change your cartridge.
Click to expand...
Glad you didnt have any highs after the vaccine and thank you for that suggestion, I will certainly look into that 🙂
 
Inka said:
Out of interest which Covid vaccination did you have @lightcub ? It does sound a likely culprit. I’d still change your insulins if you haven’t already though (new cartridges).

Which bolus (fast) insulin are you using?
Click to expand...
My levels went down after my vaccine . I had the Oxford
 
Some really practical tips for you already @lightcub

If it were me, I would suspect basal as others have suggested.
My basal needs seem to change slightly every month, and when they are ‘out’ by only a unit or two spread over the whole day it takes WAY more rapid insulin (or hypo-dodging carbs) to correct. Sometimes ‘diabetes maths’ has its own rules!

But yes... where levels really aren’t behaving and insulin seems to have turned to water it’s also a good idea to run through a pragmatic checklist of: is the insulin OK... is the site OK... is ot illness or stress... and all of those important things too.

Welcome to the forum! Glad you found it helpful 🙂
 
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