Type 1 skipping breakfast?

[MollyBolt]

There might be more than one thing going on @MollyBolt Firstly, if you’re not injecting sufficiently in advance, you might be spiking higher than you would with better injection timing. If you get the timing right, you might also be able to reduce your insulin slightly and avoid the later lows.

However, it’s not unlikely that’s big part of this is the honeymoon period, where your own insulin is kicking in too late and sometimes too much. That could help explain your lows. If so, the best thing I found to do was to have a small snack mid-morning or whenever needed to ameliorate the drop.

can you say more about what to expect with the honeymoon period? assume there is no way to know if I'm in it or not? or is it everyone who is newly diagnosed pretty much?

 

[MollyBolt]

Also interestingly I just got my new HbA1c come through (I was having a blood test for something else so they included it just for info). It's gone from 102mmol/mol 26 June to 46 mmol/mol 27 Aug to 42 mmol/mol yesterday. Assume this confirms the idea tha that I'm in the honeymoon phase? Though also I am trying v hard to keep in range etc.

There's a note on the record which says "Laboratory comment: diabetes unlikely". I assume that this doesn't know I am diabetic (and is not magically saying I'm cured)?

 

[Inka]

It’s supposed to fluctuate to some extent @MollyBolt Obviously it’s not supposed to shooting to 20 and plunge down to 3, but movement up and down is normal. This is the balance we need to seek with Type 1 - balancing insulin and food. This includes top-up food/carbs as needed.

can you say more about what to expect with the honeymoon period? assume there is no way to know if I'm in it or not? or is it everyone who is newly diagnosed pretty much?

It varies for each person, but it’s a period of time during which you still have some functioning beta cells which work erratically sometimes and usually kick in too late. This is because the first phase of their response is messed up or missing. In practice this means, you might start dropping ‘for no reason’. Actually, there is a reason - your own insulin kicking in. It can be erratic but I found there was an element of predictability too. For me, and for a T1 friend too, our own insulin tended to kick in 3 hours or so after breakfast. So, I always took snacks out with me and a snack of between 10-25g stopped drop.

 

[Inka]

Also interestingly I just got my new HbA1c come through (I was having a blood test for something else so they included it just for info). It's gone from 102mmol/mol 26 June to 46 mmol/mol 27 Aug to 42 mmol/mol yesterday. Assume this confirms the idea tha that I'm in the honeymoon phase? Though also I am trying v hard to keep in range etc.

There's a note on the record which says "Laboratory comment: diabetes unlikely". I assume that this doesn't know I am diabetic (and is not magically saying I'm cured)?

Yep, that will be a slip up at the lab or by your GP. I got that once too! It was because they hadn’t put my Type 1 on my electronic records (and still haven’t despite being asked a number of times 🙄 )

 

[nonethewiser]

Super helpful - and sorry to be unclear in my message. So the museli comes in at just over 60g of carbs. I try and inject 30 mins beforehand, but it's very haphazard I am afraid because my work start time varies quite considerably. The porridge plus yoghurt plus plums is actually 50g of carbs but there's something weird about porridge and it always sends me higher. (I keep musing I should switch away, but also it is a weekend treat.) I usually manage it to be more like 30 mins ahead of time given I'm not working.

The trouble is that the moment I eat anything at all I seem to activate something which then means my BG starts moving around when I am active. One of my problems is that I work in three different buildings (in the same day) and moving from one to the other when I've eaten food means my BG fluctuates, but it didn't yesterday when I skipped (which as I say felt magical). But interested in the idea of going almost no carb for breakfast as @rebrascora suggested with the eggs etc. One to experiment with.

Make sure that porridge is proper oats not instant variety, Scottish oats is type I use each morning & get along just fine with it.

 

[trophywench]

Personally I've never really enjoyed breakfast first thing in a morning when I just don't feel properly awake, leave me alone for a couple of hours then take me to somewhere they serve a proper full English (or Scottish) breakfast without USA influence so no baked beans or hash browns but including half a round of fried bread, mushrooms, sliced and grilled fresh tomato, 2 eggs sunny side up, 3 rashers of sweetcure middle back bacon and one Lincs sausage.

Or eggs benedict. Or poached eggs on toast but just NEVER EVER serve me a dry overcooked egg yolk. Got to be fully cooked but still runny.

Not fussy about food, me!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

The trouble is that the moment I eat anything at all I seem to activate something which then means my BG starts moving around when I am active.

Sounds familiar! In recent years my levels have become quite feisty when I undertake any activity when I have ‘insulin on board’ - even just walking about.

There seems to be a sort of supercharging of action when I have insulin circulating. So much so that I can be scoffing handfuls of Skittles, but my levels will continue to drop until I stop walking. Only if I sit for 5-10 minutes will my BGs level and begin to rise.

I can strike a balance by reducing my dose in advance of the dog walk (or whatever).

 

[Ttelmah]

You might find that switching to something very low GI gives the advantage of not having the spike after this meal you have been seeing, but also just helps through the morning. The foods may be boring, but you may learn to actually like them. Muesli, though basically good has raisins that count a lot. Wondering possibly if you are seeing a body reaction to the act of actually chewing (hence the 'porridge effect' - new term here!). Historically, this effect is where the digestion sends markers to the liver, which are normally what starts the production of insulin, ahead of the sugars actually arriving in the bloodstream. Almost suggests your liver may be releasing sugars instead. Possibly try something like a milk drink rather than anything involving chewing?. Just a thought.