As I sit now with an upwards arrow at 15.9, i’m just considering how one can have the same breakfast day in day out and take the same insulin, but then some days it just goes wrong. This is an example of one of those things that non-diabetics will never get to grips with.
I had this same breakfast evey day last week and barely rose above 8, yet yesterday and today i’m dealing with this crap. Hope it’s not like yesterday as it didnt come down all day until about 9.30pm and it was exhausting. I went from plan a to plan g.
Lucky you!!! I hope your day continues in the same vein.
I am up to 21.1 now with a whole new reservoir and infusion set.
I did have a small thought about how fortunate I am to have all of this tech. But yes, when bodies and hormones and weather and mood and.. and… and… are thrown into the mix, it can still be a struggle
Yep, you are definitely preaching to the choir. I’ve been at this for 30+ years and still don’t have it figured out. A very frustrating disease, for sure! You have my empathy!!
I think that this is one of the most frustrating aspects of this disease. You eat the same food at the same time, take the same insulin, and do the same amount of exercise, and… get different results. Sometimes drastically different results.
I am thankful for a community like this, where things like this can be said, and greeted with understanding.
I tried explaining this phenomenon to my husband many years ago. He was sympathetic on the surface, but did say something along the lines of that he didn’t understand why it would be so difficult to figure out what the right dosage of insulin would be. That response did not go over well with me.
My lovely mother always asks “what do you think caused it?” and I get that it’s good to analyse, but sometimes the most you can do is say that this has happened and tomorrow is a new day. I guess she still thinks back to when I was young and she managed my diabetes for me and probably analysed almost to the point of madness.
Anyway, im back on steady ground now with a 6.9, so… that’s happened and tomorrow is a new day
When I was diagnosed I had an hour-long visit with a certified diabetes educator, herself a type 1, to get trained up on how to manage blood glucose. One point she emphasized is “If your blood sugar is too high, you need more insulin.” That’s my touchstone; it cuts through all the confusion of why and how could this happen. If my BG is too high I take more insulin. If I don’t see at least the beginnings of a response on the CGM within a half hour I take another dose. I repeat until I see the curve start to bend, and I prepare some fast carbs to catch the falling BG that I can now expect.
Although your mother is right, we know that’s also kind of beside the point: like you, I just fix it and get on.
I got the same thing from my dad, only I was 63 (I’m LADA, dx’d T1 at 66) and he was about 90! I’m sure he thought it was some how his fault, though I don’t know how it could be…no family history going back at least three generations, some remote relative on my mom’s side, not his, reportedly had T1. I never knew how to answer him! I think it’s just an unexplainable part of nature, DNA trying to evolve…for all of us…something none wanted and we’re challenged to live with!
Curiously I had a similar conversation with my endo today (May 6 in the US) and, while he continues to be concerned about my regular post-prandial highs we both agreed to blame my Liver for the Morning. Or at least he seemed to (he named my Liver first.)
I get up at 100mg/dL (5.5), the target, I wander around, I do nothing much. I have a cup of tea, my BG goes to 180+mg/dL(10) every day. I measured the amount of milk and the carbs are about 2g/cup (I don’t stick to one of course, but all the same).
The shared explanation is that “getting up” kicks our various livers into gear and they drop sugar into our blood. This happens directly into our blood (the portal vein) and spikes our BGs massively. The precise numbers don’t matter. In my case, perhaps unusually, it only happens the instant I eat.
I believe “Morning Phenomenon” (make sure to spell it right), FOTF and my own weird CITS (Carbs In The Stomach) are one of the signal issues for T1s. I don’t much care about post-prandial highs; I’ll accept those, but when something like this happens day, after day, after day and none of the folk remedies work I believe this is something that every diabetes educator should explain to every T1.
My explanation: While meal carbs are faster than insulin they are not that much faster, hence moderate post-prandial highs. Liver carbs happen instantly so a high from Liver carbs can never be countered by subQ insulin. Liver carbs are also irrational, anyone seen a brain in a liver? They happen to us all the time; waking up, stress, low BG of course; the possibilities are legion.
I don’t have an answer but I think I have an understanding and that’s really all I need.
I feel you all. I have been struggling a lot with the extra randomness since going off birth control. Just one more variable added to a body and life full of variables! I am kind of getting the hang of switching between a follicular and luteal basal profiles… but it’s been frustrating. I’ve scared my coworkers with the “what is even happening?” confusion lows twice in the last couple months, and I would love for that to never happen again… I can handle increased insulin needs so much better than decreased insulin needs.
Hormones are another thing entirely, Rachel. I too have two basal patterns. Sometimes ill havve a stubborn high for a few hours then I’ll think “oh right, yeah, time to swap pattern”. I’ve just increased my oestrogen so this is taking a little bit of settling down. It will settle though and patterns do emerge ().
It’s so reassuring to hear about other folks struggles!
Yeah, that is what ‘they’ say’. Sadly, they don’t seem able to address ‘when you follow the rules and it doesn’t work’.- Same situation but different results. Big Sigh.
I have exactly the same thing happening almost every day. Perfect bg on getting up of 83. Have my first cup of tea and all of a sudden they are 180 and going up! I generally inject one or two units when I get up to try and get ahead of that but it doesn’t always work and it still flashes up quickly - or conversely I end up dealing with a low because for whatever reason my liver decided to sleep in. Another possible consideration is that the body releases extra cortisol into the system upon waking up, preparing the body for activity. It’s tough when all of the other body systems work as they are supposed to but the endocrine system is broken :-(.
type 1 x 70 years, same here. metabolism is simply too complex to spit out a simple formula for insulin/food. like it or not, we all try to be proactive and nail it, but we have to be ready to be reactive when things don’t work like the book says. too bad, because it results in high glycemic variability, which can be as damaging to our bodies as prolonged hyperglycemia. no choice but to play the hand you’re dealt. don’t be discouraged–your struggles are normal.
Oof, yes they are. I’ve struggled with this. It used to be like clockwork for me - I would know exactly where in my cycle I was based on how my blood sugar was behaving. Not so much the last few years! I assume it has to do with my age (46) and the changes women start to experience around this time. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it now, and it can be so frustrating and difficult to handle.
And sometimes its a slight variable that cause fluctuations and you don’t know how much of a variable it will cause … I have a bad back and I ride my exercise bike 5-10 miles a day. But yesterday I went into 2 stores and I know walking causes BG drops for me, because apparently walking for me is much more exercise than exercise bike riding?? 2 stores was the variable, no extra insulin after 6, nice and stable before bedtime, and at 2 in the morning I started dropping big time. 1 candy bar later, 28 carbs, I finally stabilized. Sigh… it wasn’t even that much walking, just different.
it means a lot
I am kind of getting the hang of switching between a follicular and luteal basal profiles… but it’s been frustrating. I’ve scared my coworkers with the “what is even happening?” confusion lows twice in the last couple months, and I would love for that to never happen again… I can handle increased insulin needs so much better than decreased insulin needs. 
).
Sadly, they don’t seem able to address ‘when you follow the rules and it doesn’t work’.- Same situation but different results. Big Sigh.