Up and Down days

[Jules Skipper]

Hi Everyone, I'm Jules, new to Diabetes Type 1 world , what a roller coaster since April this year

today started well, slept well , glucose at 6.6 before breakfast, taking 3 units of insulin. Then it was like i hadn't taken any, went up to 12.3, keytones at 0.1. drank lots of water and it came down to around 10 and dropping. Approaching lunch time, it was 4.8 and i felt wobbly already. Difficult to concentrate on work when my head is buzzing

Just wondering (as I'm a woman of a certain age), if pre menopause can cause this kind of up and down day?

thanks for your feedback
Jules - Skipper

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Just wondering (as I'm a woman of a certain age), if pre menopause can cause this kind of up and down day?

When there's a question of the form "Can X cause BG to behave unpredictably?" the answer is almost always yes.

 

[nonethewiser]

Menopause aside it's just typical behaviour in early days of diagnosis, its called honeymoon period although never heard of phase when I was diagnosed, maybe they didn't have name for it or simply wasn't told, not sure tbh.

 

[Jules Skipper]

thanks guys, i guess honeymoon period goes on longer than i thought, 2 months for me so far, and i had levelled out and up till now could attribute highs to miscalculation of carbs i was eating, or lows being not enough insulin when eating, or too much time between meals. Trying to keep meal times and carb intake as consistent as i can. thanks for the re assurance, have a good week end

 

[helli]

Hi @Jules,

As others have said, our hormones can affect our levels.
As for honeymoon being over after 2 months, mine lasted about 8 years. Thankfully, I didn't have the kind of beta cells that would go to sleep for days or weeks and then wake up when least expecting it. But my insulin dose slowly increased until it stabilised after about 8 years. I am probably a bit of an abnormality but when Type 1 is diagnosed as an adult, it can take years for all of out beta cells to finally die. I think this is one of the reasons why it is often misdiagnosed as type 2 with adults.

You mentioned that you are carb counting. Are you adjusting your insulin dose according to what you eat (and making corrections)? Some people are kept on fixed doses for longer than others but learning how to adjust my dose made my life so much easier and would mean you don't have to keep your carb intake consistent.

Also, if you inject your bolus when you eat, you do not have to keep your meal times consistent. You can eat (or not) when you want. Even when on fixed dose.

 

[rebrascora]

It was about 2 years for my honeymoon period to end and it happened in stages. First stage was about 6 months, when there was a notable need for more basal insulin and then another one about 6 months after that and then after my first Covid vaccine a year after that there was another very notable increase and been reasonably stable + or - a few units here and there for exercise etc. since then.

Things gradually become more a bit more consistent and you kid yourself that you are just getting really good at managing it, until you have a few roller coaster days, just to remind you that it doesn't play by the rules all the time. This is the world of diabetes.