Weird going ons with blood sugar levels

[ninmad]

My control has not been good since the march lock-down so recently I started intermittent fasting for 14 days. Mornings I wake up with 7 which still high but improvement on march and April. I'd then go for a walk come back and test again and to my shock my levels have risen instead of falling, so from 7 it would go up to 12 and even 14 on the worst day. I avoid carbs as much as possible in my meals so no pasta or rice or white bread 80% of the time.
So what doesn't make sense is how can it go up from 7 to like 14 if I went for a lite exercise and ate nothing in between.

Another issue is that I have also noticed that readings from the same machine have recently produced different results from the same finger and within same time, like one reading would be 11 then 10.2 then 9.5. This has been going on for the last couple weeks and cant make sense of any of it.
Im 27 and type 1.5

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.

What, if any, medication/insulin(s) are you on?

Your morning increase in BG may be down to Dawn Phenomenon, which is due to your liver throwing out some glucose from it's stores in the morning and is believed to be a throwback to prehistoric days when we didn't have cupboards and fridges containing food and had to head out to forage for food.... ie hunt down a woolly mammoth or something. I find I need to use 2 units of fast acting insulin to cover DP even if I have no breakfast and that would amount to an increase of about 6 mmols.

It may also be that your beta cells are dying off. If you are stressed about the current pandemic or perhaps associated financial issues it might trigger a decline, so that might tie in with the lockdown or it might just be coincidence. You might want to talk to your nurse or consultant about it. What are your other readings like throughout the day? Does it come back down on its own or are you using corrective doses of insulin?

Getting different readings from consecutive finger pricks moments apart are not unusual. As long as they are in roughly the same range. BG meters are only accurate to within 15% and the higher your reading the more inaccuracy there will be. Also, blood is not homogenous and if you squeezed it from the same puncture hole or even finger, it may be possible that platelets have rushed to the site to plug the hole and so affect the haemoglobin percentage in the blood at the site, effectively diluting it. That is just a possible scenario I have thought up from a very limited knowledge of biology, so don't quite me on that.

Hope that helps make things a little less puzzling even if it is still very frustrating.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

So what doesn't make sense is how can it go up from 7 to like 14 if I went for a lite exercise and ate nothing in between.

Your liver has dumped glucose because as far as it's concerned you are starving hence the survival mode has kicked in. Perhaps have some bacon and egg or an omelette before your exercise and see how you get on.
If you are not on insulin it sounds as if you should be, perhaps ring your Dr and ask for help or your DSN.

 

[trophywench]

As Sue says - it is important to literally, break your fast asap after you get up in a morning. This does not mean you need to eat breakfast cereal or porridge or even any carbohydrate whatever! So if you settle for protein and if you want to, some fat - your body won't feel the need to give you energy by throwing out stored glucose via your liver, cos it can fuel your cells with protein instead! And you'll stay full for longer than if you had grabbed a bowl of Shredded Wheat etc!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Completely agree with the others, that your ‘Ehhhhhh.... But I didn’t eat anything!’ rise is most likely a liver dump. Some people get it more than others. some people find it happens while still asleep - for others (like me, and perhaps you) it is triggered by getting out of bed. Eating something soon after rising can keep the liver happy and stop the glucose dump, alternatively as a T1.5/LADA you could dose a small bolus - but be aware that exercise will probably make you more sensitive to insulin - so go cautiously and check frequently!

Another issue is that I have also noticed that readings from the same machine have recently produced different results from the same finger and within same time, like one reading would be 11 then 10.2 then 9.5. This has been going on for the last couple weeks and cant make sense of any of it.
Im 27 and type 1.5

Your BG meter variations are most likely just the permitted strip inaccuracy. Some meters use more of the allowable ISO variation than others (roughly speaking within +/-15% from lab values 95% of the time, and more accurate when nearer hypo range). This table shows quite how wide some of those acceptable value ranges can be, especially as BG increases

 

[Docb]

Useful table, ED&D and on top of that you have to add sampling error. If you had a perfect meter which was absolutely accurate and did a series of pricks, on the same finger and on different fingers you would still get a range of readings which you would expect to average out at the value you would get from a proper blood sample.

Instrument error and sampling error, the bugbears in any control system.