Toying with an experiment....

Definitely getting into a routine with this now.....
Yesterday was Day 8 and I used 22 units of Fiasp in 7 jabs and 6 units of Levemir overnight.
TDD = 28u in 8 jabs.
IMG_20241004_072125906.jpg
And VERY happy with my overnight graph, especially as I had a dried fig before bed when I was on 6.9mmols and wondered if it might be too much as they are generally about 7g carbs each but I thought I had a tiny bit of Fiasp left active to use up.
IMG_20241004_072310809.jpg
Going to give it to day 10 and then decide if I am adopting this as my new regime. That is looking likely at the moment as I am actually starting to find it easier than my old routine.
 
mashedupmatt said:
I am in awe at your tenacity and perserverence with this experiment @rebrascora and it does look like your graphs are very good (not sure I could put up with that many injections though!) - top work for effort
Click to expand...
I often have to inject 7 or 8 times a day because of my low carb diet, so a few more is neither here nor there. I confess that I don't change my needle every time, so there is no faffing about in that respect and no calculating what I need, so no real thought involved. When the high alarm goes off at 8mmols, I need 2 units. It takes seconds to get my pen out and jab it and my pen is in my over the shoulder pouch during the day and under my pillow at night, so I can do it almost on the run, certainly whilst walking or during sleep, although I am no longer needing any during the night now that I have morphed the experiment into taking 6 units of Levemir at night which is working really well and just managing daytime levels by jabbing a bit of Fiasp every now and then when I need it.

I would stress that there is no way that I could do this without Libre and it being so reliable for me.
 
Day 9 results....

Fiasp 10 jabs amounting to 21u
Levemir 1 jab of 6u

Total for the day 11 jabs and a TDD of 27

IMG_20241005_091334729.jpg
IMG_20241005_091443699.jpg
Confession, I didn't do much exercise yesterday and I jabbed a correction of 1.5 units Fiasp at bedtime when levels hit 8.9 and rising. I tried to resist doing it when the alarm went off at 8mmols but it continued to rise, so I guessed I needed a bit extra and that seems to have worked out OK.

Tomorrow will be a busy day as we are hosting a driving event and I have refreshments to sort out for attendees and an obstacle course to set up, as well as looking after guests and driving horses, so it will be a full on test and whilst I said I was going to halt it at 10 days which will be the end of today, I am extending the experiment to an extra day to see what happens on a really busy stressful day. I expect some wobbles so my graph will not be nearly as good, but as long as I don't have any disasters, I think I will be adopting this approach long term as it just seems easier for me (more jabs but less thinking) and my 7 day TIR is currently 97% and improving day on day as I get into a routine with it.
 
Interesting @rebrascora 😎 What do you find easier about it? Is it not having to inject early and wait for the morning Levemir to get going or is it having what seems a more stable amount of Levemir at night?

Good luck for tomorrow 🙂
 
Inka said:
Interesting @rebrascora 😎 What do you find easier about it? Is it not having to inject early and wait for the morning Levemir to get going or is it having what seems a more stable amount of Levemir at night?

Good luck for tomorrow 🙂
Click to expand...

I think it is partly because I am just responding to my levels rather than taking this that and the other into consideration and not having the morning basal just seems to have removed an unknown quantity as to how it is working and when and how much and long. The evening dose being higher than it used to be, but taken earlier, seems to be working well through the night even with exercise, whereas previously I was having to adjust the dose almost every night and even on a 0 dose I was having too many nocturnal hypos. I can now see the large morning dose of Levemir was a contributing factor to that and because I rarely plan my activity it wasn't something that I could adjust before the start of the day or extract at bedtime. 🙄 It was rare for me to have a week using the same dose of evening basal, probably because that morning dose was contributing quite significantly to it, so just jabbing a slightly larger evening dose to get me through the night and help out with FOTF seems to be giving me much more stable results.

Another benefit is that I am also a hole down on my belt since starting the experiment. I don't regularly weigh myself, but definitely feel like I am loosing a bit of weight and if I dropped another hole or two on my belt, I would be quite happy.

So far the only draw back is a few more injections, but lots of benefits. I doubt it would work for most other people as my diet, way of life, Libre reliability, Levemir and Fiasp all contribute to making it work well. I think particularly the short, fast nature of Fiasp is a key factor. In fact, since starting this experiment I now have a little less regard for Levemir than I did but a much greater liking for my Fiasp.
 
That makes total sense @rebrascora If it’s working for you and is safe (which it certainly seems to be) then stick with it 🙂 Nothing’s written in stone. You can always adjust it as you deem necessary if things change in future. I’m a big fan of ‘what works for the individual’.
 
Graphs for Saturday and yesterday not so great and I did feel like I was chasing the dragon's tail at one stage on Saturday night. I am guessing I went high due to stress as I hadn't had anything obvious to take me up that high and I had done loads of exercise during the day which I fully expected to drop me overnight.

Day 10 of experiment ...Saturday

Fiasp.... 31 units in 10 jabs plus 6 units of Levemir overnight
TDD - 37 in 11 jabs.
IMG_20241007_082504940.jpg
And then Sunday...
IMG_20241007_082442229.jpg
Sunday's afternoon diet was much higher in carbs than I normally eat and involved bread and cake and porkpie and a drink with apple juice in it, plus I didn't factor in the activity after an already very long and hectic day, so it is a bit of a mess.
The breakdown was 8 jabs of Fiasp amounting to 23u plus 6 units of Levemir. TDD 29u and 9 jabs.
Got things back on a reasonably even keel this morning....IMG_20241007_082523548.jpg
I think the hypos yesterday afternoon probably partly illustrate that this approach to diabetes management is easiest with a low carb diet. When I ate more carbs and had to factor in exercise and basal needs, it became unmanageable. Happy to be back to low carb today and intend to continue with this system for the time being, but will not bore you with any further details.

Thanks for all your comments. both the encouraging ones and the concerns expressed about it, as they were helpful in me keeping myself safe and being self aware which are primary factors in good diabetes management.

For anyone looking at all those trips into the red 😱, particularly yesterday and thinking that is shocking, I have had days like this with my "normal" basal routine, so whilst not ideal, they are something that happens from time to time with diabetes. Libre generally reads low for me so these were very minor lows (if all of them were even below 4 at all) Apart from meaning I had to leave my car at the farm after the event, which was the only time I double checked a low, I was 3.9 with a finger prick when Libre said 2.9 🙄 and so I just picked the car up later, none of them stopped me doing whatever I was doing. I just ate a couple of JBs and carried on.
 
rebrascora said:
Graphs for Saturday and yesterday not so great and I did feel like I was chasing the dragon's tail at one stage on Saturday night. I am guessing I went high due to stress as I hadn't had anything obvious to take me up that high and I had done loads of exercise during the day which I fully expected to drop me overnight.

Day 10 of experiment ...Saturday

Fiasp.... 31 units in 10 jabs plus 6 units of Levemir overnight
TDD - 37 in 11 jabs.
View attachment 31855
And then Sunday...
View attachment 31856
Sunday's afternoon diet was much higher in carbs than I normally eat and involved bread and cake and porkpie and a drink with apple juice in it, plus I didn't factor in the activity after an already very long and hectic day, so it is a bit of a mess.
The breakdown was 8 jabs of Fiasp amounting to 23u plus 6 units of Levemir. TDD 29u and 9 jabs.
Got things back on a reasonably even keel this morning....View attachment 31857
I think the hypos yesterday afternoon probably partly illustrate that this approach to diabetes management is easiest with a low carb diet. When I ate more carbs and had to factor in exercise and basal needs, it became unmanageable. Happy to be back to low carb today and intend to continue with this system for the time being, but will not bore you with any further details.

Thanks for all your comments. both the encouraging ones and the concerns expressed about it, as they were helpful in me keeping myself safe and being self aware which are primary factors in good diabetes management.

For anyone looking at all those trips into the red 😱, particularly yesterday and thinking that is shocking, I have had days like this with my "normal" basal routine, so whilst not ideal, they are something that happens from time to time with diabetes. Libre generally reads low for me so these were very minor lows (if all of them were even below 4 at all) Apart from meaning I had to leave my car at the farm after the event, which was the only time I double checked a low, I was 3.9 with a finger prick when Libre said 2.9 🙄 and so I just picked the car up later, none of them stopped me doing whatever I was doing. I just ate a couple of JBs and carried on.
Click to expand...
It don’t look as bad as you made out on the other topic. 🙂 to me a valiant wrestle to keep the time in range.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top