I've just had 4-5 days of blood glucose highs for no obvious reason. This happened through 3 site changes (clutching at straws for the reason), a new bottle of insulin, several calls and emails to my DE to confirm my actions were right, and generally through days of total chaos, not understanding what was going on.
I've had this many times on injections but only for a day or two. And back then I blamed it on absorption at the injection site, or not bolusing for carbs properly. In hindsight I think that was totally wrong.
A gazillion corrections as suggested by the pump, and a basal increase of 50% over many hours, barely did anything, and within 2 hours of corrections I was back where I started.
Speculation included getting sick, being stressed (I wasn't) and more. None of it was true.
So what was the problem? Take any guess you like because I wouldn't have a clue.
Yesterday my numbers started coming down and today I'm back to normal - no site change, nothing. I have not done or eaten anything different either. If anything I had less carbs once I realized what was happening. I didn't want to deal with carbs that weren't going to be corrected on top of my no-food BGLs being high.
Go figure!
Looking at other blogs and tweets, I know this happens to people... but what I'm reading more about is wild swings, from high to low to high - totally unexplained. That wasn't the case for me - I just went high and stayed high with the insulin doing almost nothing.
It's more than frustrating!
Lucky I'm a night owl. Night before last, I switched my basal to +30% for sleep. Lucky I stayed up a bit longer because at 4am I started to drop into my normal zone. I definitely would have had a hypo had I gone to sleep when I'd planned to.
When I checked, quite by chance, I was 4 mmol/L (72 mg/dl) with no hypo symptoms and basal at +30%. So off went the temp basal, and I headed for some glucose, and some longer-acting carbs, because that +30% basal would have still been working for a few hours. That's my worst fear - a hypo at night (a nypo).
So last night, when I knew this high-phase was over, I went to bed on 6.2 mmol/L (111 mg/dl) and woke up with exactly the same BGL. Sweet! (Pun intended!)
So today, I'm completely back to normal. Stranger than strange!
Friday 31 July 2009
Tuesday 14 July 2009
Test Your Blood Sugar - July 14th, 4:00 ET (USA Time)
Diabetes Hands Foundation I 2802 Tenth St, Berkeley, CA 94710 I Ph: 650.283.4862 I EIN: 26·2274537
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
14,000 People With Diabetes
Test Their Blood Sugar at the Same Time
BERKELEY, CA: July 8, 2009 – July 14, at 4:00 pm ET, 14,000 people worldwide will test their blood sugar simultaneously and share their results online through TuDiabetes.com (www.tudiabetes.com), a social network for people touched by Diabetes which originated in March 2007, as well as through its sister Spanish language social network, EsTuDiabetes.com (www.estudiabetes.com).
The idea for the test-in came from Kelly Rawlings, someone who has lived with type 1 diabetes for 35 years. Kelly is one of the nearly 10,000 members at TuDiabetes.com, which has been called the “Myspace on Insulin” and a “Facebook for Diabetes.”
“People with diabetes have to test their blood sugar as part of their daily routine: it’s like drinking water or brushing your teeth,” said Manny Hernandez, co-founder of TuDiabetes.com and a person with diabetes himself. “When Kelly mentioned having a collective test-in, I thought it would be a great way for thousands of us to connect and raise awareness about diabetes.”
Currently, more than 250 million people are afflicted with diabetes. In the month of July, TuDiabetes will pass 10,000 registered members, and EsTuDiabetes.com, the sister social network about diabetes in Spanish, passed 4,000 registered members touched by diabetes from Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, Argentina, the US and other countries. In both communities, initiatives to raise diabetes awareness are the primary focus, making the combined 14,000-member milestone yet another opportunity to shed light on this chronic condition.
Participating in this initiative to raise diabetes awareness is easy:
“We hope to see most readings posted at 4 pm ET on July 14. If you are a few minutes late, however, or are able to post your blood sugar reading earlier or later that day, it’s OK,” said Hernandez. “What really matters is that you test your blood sugar regularly. If you don’t have diabetes, just tell someone who does to test and share on July 14.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
14,000 People With Diabetes
Test Their Blood Sugar at the Same Time
BERKELEY, CA: July 8, 2009 – July 14, at 4:00 pm ET, 14,000 people worldwide will test their blood sugar simultaneously and share their results online through TuDiabetes.com (www.tudiabetes.com), a social network for people touched by Diabetes which originated in March 2007, as well as through its sister Spanish language social network, EsTuDiabetes.com (www.estudiabetes.com).
The idea for the test-in came from Kelly Rawlings, someone who has lived with type 1 diabetes for 35 years. Kelly is one of the nearly 10,000 members at TuDiabetes.com, which has been called the “Myspace on Insulin” and a “Facebook for Diabetes.”
“People with diabetes have to test their blood sugar as part of their daily routine: it’s like drinking water or brushing your teeth,” said Manny Hernandez, co-founder of TuDiabetes.com and a person with diabetes himself. “When Kelly mentioned having a collective test-in, I thought it would be a great way for thousands of us to connect and raise awareness about diabetes.”
Currently, more than 250 million people are afflicted with diabetes. In the month of July, TuDiabetes will pass 10,000 registered members, and EsTuDiabetes.com, the sister social network about diabetes in Spanish, passed 4,000 registered members touched by diabetes from Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, Argentina, the US and other countries. In both communities, initiatives to raise diabetes awareness are the primary focus, making the combined 14,000-member milestone yet another opportunity to shed light on this chronic condition.
Participating in this initiative to raise diabetes awareness is easy:
- If you are a member of TuDiabetes or EsTuDiabetes, click on the home page banner and share your reading.
- If you have a Twitter account, post your reading on Twitter (use the #14KPWD hashtag) and link back to: http://14kPWD.org.
- If you prefer, update your status on Facebook or your preferred social network, linking back to: http://14kPWD.org.
“We hope to see most readings posted at 4 pm ET on July 14. If you are a few minutes late, however, or are able to post your blood sugar reading earlier or later that day, it’s OK,” said Hernandez. “What really matters is that you test your blood sugar regularly. If you don’t have diabetes, just tell someone who does to test and share on July 14.”
Thursday 2 July 2009
Update from eMails
Having no time at the moment to compose a full blog-post, I thought I'd put snippets taken from my recent emails to others.
Taken from an email to H:
From an email to S:
Taken from an email to H:
How often are you changing your cartridge? I so can't do 'every 3 days'. Doesn't work for me - so unless I have a problem, I'm doing Tuesdays and Fridays. Definitely using less insulin on the pump - before I was doing between 50u and 65u (40 of which was Levemir) - depending on what I was eating. Now I'm doing in the mid 30s - pretty amazing, considering I'm also eating a tad more carbs. You're only supposed to do around 25% less.
My ratio is still 65%basal to 25%bolus.
Are you/do you need to bolus for protein? I'm finding I do... actually I've known that for a long time, but my stupid DE (and believe me, I think hard before I call someone stupid) says I don't need to. It's typical advice for T2 that she gives me. If it was up to her, I could drink 4 glasses of tomato juice (around 24 carb) and not bolus because it's "free' food, but for a slice of bread at the same carbs, of course I need insulin. LOL NO food is free when eaten in any quantity, as far as I'm concerned.
Sometime, when I get around to it, I have to have another c-peptide, a Celiac test (strongly suspicious) and another GAD Antibody - you know... the one you're supposed to repeat in 6 weeks, but for me it's been 6 months! I didn't want a reason not to be classed as T1, in case the 2nd test was somehow negative. Now, it can be as negative as it wants.
My ratio is still 65%basal to 25%bolus.
Are you/do you need to bolus for protein? I'm finding I do... actually I've known that for a long time, but my stupid DE (and believe me, I think hard before I call someone stupid) says I don't need to. It's typical advice for T2 that she gives me. If it was up to her, I could drink 4 glasses of tomato juice (around 24 carb) and not bolus because it's "free' food, but for a slice of bread at the same carbs, of course I need insulin. LOL NO food is free when eaten in any quantity, as far as I'm concerned.
Sometime, when I get around to it, I have to have another c-peptide, a Celiac test (strongly suspicious) and another GAD Antibody - you know... the one you're supposed to repeat in 6 weeks, but for me it's been 6 months! I didn't want a reason not to be classed as T1, in case the 2nd test was somehow negative. Now, it can be as negative as it wants.
From an email to S:
I only have 2 words for the pump: LOVE IT!!!!
Mind you... just spent since Friday battling high sugars, with no clue as to why. I hardly ate at all. Today it's much better, actually back to normal, again with no logical explanation. I had problems like this on MDI too, but first time on the pump.
Never had such consistently good BGLs! But we knew all that. It's not hard work at all. Only thing I find frustrating is sometimes getting the carbs wrong on a plate of food that's presented to me. Apparently everyone has that more or less. Been sticking to between 80 and 110gr carbs a day, which works better for me than anything else I've experimented with.
Had one site failure so far and one pump occlusion another time. Both easy fixed and I didn't panic, just followed what I thought. The occlusion happened when I tried a site on my lower belly - where I'd been injecting. Back to above the navel for now.
So yes... best thing I ever did!
Mind you... just spent since Friday battling high sugars, with no clue as to why. I hardly ate at all. Today it's much better, actually back to normal, again with no logical explanation. I had problems like this on MDI too, but first time on the pump.
Never had such consistently good BGLs! But we knew all that. It's not hard work at all. Only thing I find frustrating is sometimes getting the carbs wrong on a plate of food that's presented to me. Apparently everyone has that more or less. Been sticking to between 80 and 110gr carbs a day, which works better for me than anything else I've experimented with.
Had one site failure so far and one pump occlusion another time. Both easy fixed and I didn't panic, just followed what I thought. The occlusion happened when I tried a site on my lower belly - where I'd been injecting. Back to above the navel for now.
So yes... best thing I ever did!
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