Diabetes is kicking my ***!!
Sorry this is long...
Had been doing really well until Thanksgiving. It is not high blood glucose causing the problems, but devastatingly lows ones and I have no idea why! Ideas? Here is what happened:
1. Thursday morning I woke at 72. Did some cooking for the big meal and made us buttermilk pancakes for a late breakfast (10 am). I calculated the carbs for each pancake (11) and took insulin for 22 carbs, but ate three pancakes with APPLE BUTTER for pete's sake. On the way to the dinner, I started feeling low (husband is driving) and I tested at 45. Had the completely disorienting kind of low where I actually seized a bit. Treated with Skittles, but it took a long while for it to go up.
2. Fast forward to the trip home. Please note: I ate reasonably well, had some pie, etc. Figured I would eat about 70 carbs and bolused for 50, square wave as it was a two hour meal. On the way home I was having a lot of trouble looking at the road; long story but I thought the problem was related to my slight double vision. Husband was driving again and thought I was sleeping. Got home and I tried to get out of the car, fell down in the front yard (neighbors probably think I was drunk. THE JOY OF BEING DIABETIC!) Tested at 41. Got into the house and my husband starts pouring juice into me. About two minutes after I drank the first juice, I got horribly ill. Eventually, he had to treat me with gel.
3. Woke up 209 on Friday, of course. Treated the high blood glucose level and got it under control by 10 am. I hovered around 100 all day. Dinner was leftover chili and I again under bolused. Woke up this morning at 40. I tested at 1 am and was still at 100. Took about two hours (ate breakfast, had some juice) to get it up to 60.
Basals have been refined lately and have been nearly perfect the last few weeks. Not sick or getting sick. No other bug changes.
All of these lows have been the very disorienting type. I get jerky, ornery, and am not the best to be around. Husband is hovering, looking at me with puppy dog eyes--he worries so. And I feel awful from all the lows.
Anybody have any thoughts on why this might be happening? Usually I would just say too much insulin, but I am pretty sure my carb counts were pretty accurate and I under bolused so much, that just does not make sense.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Zoe on -
Sorry you're feeling bullied, Spock. People do seem a tad more opinionated than lately - maybe it's Black Friday making people edgy.
Just to commiserate, I took nearly two months about six weeks to make enough changes to stabilize my (high) blood sugars, just because I was trying to make sense of why all of a sudden I needed significantly more insulin. I guess it's just human nature to both be cautious and to try and understand things first.
If I have any "theories" for myself it's that my pancreas finally gave out the little bit it was producing, but that's easier to believe after 5 years than after 50 (the opposite, that yours decided to spurt a bit at this late date!). Anyway, I think you're going about it in the way and at the pace that feels right for you! Hope it stabilizes soon. (for me, I think it's my new normal...for now!)
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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on -
I don't think there is. I make changes all the time. I'm sorry too that you're feeling bullied and hope I didn't contribute to that, although sometimes I try to be obnoxious about stuff. I'm glad that cutting back didn't send you skyrocketing so maybe a little more will do the trick. I dunno if some other issue, maybe a thyroid thing or something, might be able to do that to BG. I'm sort of in the same boat as I had my old (failed) pump cranked up, I think to counteract the failing motor (which produced slightly and variably elevated BG for a few weeks before I got the MOTOR ERROR and got a new pump) as it seems as if the settings are cranked up but I'm relying on the giant bag of halloween county I gave the person who sits next to me at work during the day, and more eating at home. Which I need to cut back on. I don't feel like going back and forth. I just want to take a "blood test" that will figure out my settings, not all this fiddling around with numbers all the time.
Re all the different suggestions for snacks and the "you should eat ____ not _____" stuff, which is always entertaining. I think the most important thing for hypo treatments is that they are easy to eat, which is pretty subjective. I don't mind little things myself (and am currently favoring Smartie [dextrose] and jelly beans [HFCS]...) but avoid Skittles as I drool a lot if I eat them while I'm running. I know you're a "pro" and have been around the diabetes block long enough to know that stuff.
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Permalink Reply by Zoe on
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I've given up on thinking, "as soon as I fix x, y and z it will all be perfect" but still keep expecting stability and looking for causes when it eludes me. If you are still wondering that with your 50 year diaversary coming up, that kind of says it doesn't really exist! I just looked and can't believe your diaversary date! That's just not fair! Mine was such a non-event that I had to go through my checkbook records to remember the day. "oh yeah, so I have Diabetes? I figured I did." I'm sure yours was more dramatic (in part by being so much younger). I don't think I'd be here today if I was diagnosed when you were (not because of D)
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Permalink Reply by Laddie on -
Acidrock threw out the idea that this is about something else such as thyroid.
One idea that hasn't been mentioned yet is that adrenal insuffuciency (Addison's Disease) can result in hypoglycemia because of lowered cortisol production. Addison's is another one of those conditions that can be autoimmune and go along with Type 1. It's unusual but can be very serious.
If you continue to have unexplained hypoglycemia, I think that you should contact your endo.
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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on
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Aha! I knew there was someone smart around here!
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Permalink Reply by jims on
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Here again, staring at the final product - glucose production a good start, we have here a complex chemical plant and multi hormones that figuring out who burped and threw plant off; really needs looking at the key hormones and plant overall operation factors and key organs.
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Permalink Reply by Tim on -
I've been through the cycle a couple times too and yes it is very possible to be doing quite well, no big problems, and then WOOMPF for no apparent reason hypos start coming out from everywhere.
The second or third more-than-mild hypo in a few day stretch really begins to make things start to snowball not just physically but also emotionally.
I've had such stretches where hypos cause me to have double vision (eyes not pointing in same direction). That was about 12, 13 years ago.
For me even moderate alcohol consumption can set me down the road to chain-of-hypos. I don't know if you had any over the holidays or not. I understand this can inhibit the glycogen processing in the liver that normally would be released as glucose and which we probably already dosed for.
After doing well (not needing hardly any correction insulin) for a stretch, I think we are especially vulnerable to a very slight deviation that can send us low. We get lulled into thinking that the dose doesn't have to be tweaked. And I think the pressure to get low A1C's sometimes prevents us from tweaking our doses in a way that would result in slightly higer bg's.
I know the textbooks would have us make very very minor dose correction, but in case of hypo strings I think it is reasonable to make some sort of gonzo large correction all at once rather than spread out the changes over days. I know I'm breaking the rules. But it's hard to argue with the fact that there was a string of hypos.
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Permalink Reply by Spock on -
If I keep this up, I will go see my doctor. I will give it a week. I have been on synthroid forever and that is tested regularly.
Yes, Zoe, diagnosis on Christmas at the age of ten was something. My folks (I make no judgments on their thinking) had known for a while. I had some tests, but the decision was made to let me enjoy the holiday. By Christmas day, I had no energy and tried to ski down a hill. I was so worn out, my dad carried me home and I was admitted into the hospital.
I agree--no normal. So many factors to consider all the time. Maybe Karen is correct: It is the full moon... I was 94 at bedtime (7 hours after the meal which was baked chicken and some couscous) and 242 this morning.
And no, AR, it is not you. Your obnoxiousness is absolutely obvious and usually makes me laugh.
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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on
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Besides the moon, I've noticed that Orion, the syringe-bearer, has swung around from watching over my house to fall on his face off to the side of the sky. It may be nuts but ancients lived at the stars for thousands of years...
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