Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Benjamin McLaughlin on March 12, 2012 at 7:38am

Tim, I am sorry, but I am a little confused. I basal tested overnight, and I did the morning, and my blood sugar during that testing only dipped 15 points throughout. I may be entirely wrong, but I thought that meant that my basal settings were accurate. If the rapid absorption was the case, wouldn't it have dropped my BS during the night and/or morning tests?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tim on March 12, 2012 at 7:48am

During the honeymoon phase (and to me that seems to be exactly where you are, since you started out at large doses that have gone way way way down in the month since diagnosis) I wouldn't expect things to be so stable as to say that the basal testing done 2 days ago might still be accurate today. Spotting trends without re-doing the whole basal test, and tweaking basal and bolus based on those observed deltas, is far more commonly used.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JohnG on March 12, 2012 at 7:40am

Unfortunately I cannot walk a 1/2 dozen blocks without having low BG unless I make some kind of adjustment. You need some bolus insulin for food, but you can use some fast acting carbs before and during your football activity's. I have no idea what your insulin dose should be but I regularly cut my bolus in half if I'm eating before a planed activity and use some fast acting carbs if needed.

You will need to give yourself some time to figure out what you BG is going to do, based on food, type of food, insulin, and activity, diabetes also has some mystery variables just to keep things interesting.

Keep a log book and test, test, test. take it slow and you will figure it out. We are all different so there is no easy reference chart that will solve this type of problem.

Note: Many pro athletes will keep there activity level close to the same every day during the season so there basal insulin is a little more predictable.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Benjamin McLaughlin on March 12, 2012 at 7:50am

Megan, I think (Tim may reply and prove me wrong, haha) my basals are good. By taking 6 units a day (split am/pm) my blood sugars have stayed stable. I am afraid by stop taking the basal, then my sugars will slowly elevate.

John, I am not sure exactly what you mean. I feel as if my body is taking care of my bolus needs. Right when, if I take one unit of bolus, I am almost always going to be in the 60s within 4 hours at least, some as early as 2 1/2 hours. I almost always end up having to eat about 10-15 fast acting carbs to bring me back up, hence the predicament of whether or not to just add those 15 carbs to my meal, or not take the bolus and not add those carbs. I just feel as if eating more carbs just to justify taking one unit of bolus seems a bit off, but that is my "pre-diabetic" mind thinking, it may be totally different now.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Benjamin McLaughlin on March 12, 2012 at 7:55am

Tim, I see what you are saying. So what you are suggesting is maybe bump down to 2 units am and two units pm and stick with one unit of bolus and just see what happens? Should I do that for a few days to let my body get adjusted? Then if I am still going low bump basal down again, or do you really recommend taking the basal 4 times a day?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Benjamin McLaughlin on March 12, 2012 at 8:50am

Tim, it looks like you were correct in stating that it is the basal. I am 4 hours post breakfast and I am down to 62. That's after I didn't bolus anything for the 70 carbs this morning. I swear, if I hadn't read everything about the honeymoon period, I would be convinced my diabetes has just left me. I guess I should enjoy this while it lasts, and in the meantime just keep adjusting things. I have no clue.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by FHS on March 12, 2012 at 10:40am

Oh definitely.

About 5 years on into my diagnosis, I was still training and my dosing hadn't changed much at all. It took a couple years to work out my dosing/diet/training regime but I was on cruise control. I honestly stopped thinking of myself as diabetic. It was fantastic!

It took awhile, but it did hit me a few years later and I went through a whole period of denial, despite one bad endo visit after another.

Definitely enjoy it now, get a few years of practical knowledge working through your dosing issues, but definitely be ready to hunker down and really put that experience to good use later when, in many ways, thing will not be as easy.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tim on March 12, 2012 at 4:13pm

If you believe the bg problem is purely linear, then basal testing is by definition "correct" and I was not correct :-)

The thing is, the linearity breaks down at some point for everyone, and in your case (honeymoon) it's not surprising that your pancreas produces more insulin on the days you eat, than on the days you don't eat. Because your pancreas is still working. I think there are people here who would zoom in and say that it's your pancreas' second phase insulin production that is responsible for the slight hypos you're seeing 3 or 4 hours after a meal. If you're in your honeymoon phase it's not surprising you've still got some second phase insulin production - others here have talked about in some cases where the first phase is too little and the second phase is actually too much.

For those of us who are by very nature nonlinear, basal testing is at best a good start for actual basal doses. It has to be tweaked from that starting point. Tweaking it a unit or two in TDD is not a big breakdown of linearity.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Shawnmarie on March 12, 2012 at 9:23am

I'm another honeymooner who takes only bolus and no basal. I only bolus for meals over 20g of carbs and if I'm going to exercise after a meal, I generally don't bolus even if it's greater than 20g. I was diagnosed a little over five months ago and my fasting has been under 100 almost every day since then with no basal. I too often feel like I might not actually be diabetic, but then something always happens to remind me the T1 is still there.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by FHS on March 12, 2012 at 10:28am

Yeah, I ran track in college starting about 4 months after my diagnosis.

I was on NPH/R and knew nothing about carb counting or basal testing at the time. Based on what I can remember, I was probably eating over 500 g/day of carbs and I was taking ridiculously low amounts of bolus to cover my meals, if any at all.

I was constantly fighting lows but through trial and error I knew I had to keep taking insulin in order to get me through weekly workouts. Maybe not with every meal but I definitely had to maintain my basal and balance my bolus with daily activity. My first season was rough and I was constantly toying with my diet and insulin doses from week to week.

If you have been basal testing and understand carb ratios, then you are ahead of the game and doing everything you can do. I imagine that maintaining your weight is probably an issue so I imgine you can probably tolerate a few extra carbs without screwing your BGs over too badly.

We all want to maintain near normal BGs but I think, as an athlete going through a honeymoon period, you can probably deal better with BGs on the higher end to mainatain your workout schedule.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Type1Gal on March 12, 2012 at 11:47am

kinda the same thing happened with me, DKA..put on a higher dose of insulin, then kept tweaking it down. However, at this point, both my fasting and meal insulin production was failing...so, I always had to be on a basal; I cut back to only 3 units lantus initially and ate no more then 15 carbs per meal w/no insulin (I could still handle about 15 carbs w/out insulin)...i did that for a while, as I was in a honeymoon stage. Had to eventually increase my basal...and, of course, even the low carbing didn't work after a few months. So, now on basal - bolus, going on a pump. the honeymoon phase can be just as tricky...I still think I'm going out of it...still titrating insulin doses. I too am very insulin sensitive...and need still small amounts, 8 maybe 9 units basal. Yes, you can take 1/2 units, both in a syringe and/or novo junior, I use them both.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on March 12, 2012 at 3:40pm

It's not quite as precise but I used to bolus "between the lines" on the needle to approximate 1/2 U increments. My friend who had Type G gave me some 1/3U syringes she got that have smaller increments too.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page