New Levemir schedule:
7 am 13 units
5 pm 7 units
11 pm: 7 units
(Old: 6:30 am 13 units
6:30 pm 9 units)
24 hour and 6 hour graphs, respectively:
But Eric, I just realized that in splitting up the doses, you also ADDED FIVE UNITS to my total 12 hour dose. I’m not complaining, but how did you know to this??
Help me out with those numbers. Two questions:
Was the nighttime too much?
What about that afternoon spike?
Earlier (Saturday, I think? Maybe Friday?) I mentioned trying to get them on an 8 hour interval:
But you are doing them at:
Doing it at 7, 5, and 11 will emphasize the afternoon spike a bit, because you will be waiting 10 hours instead of 8. And also give you more at night, because your nighttime Levi will be on 6 hours.
Is there a schedule that lets you hit them at 8 hour intervals?
or
or
Anything like that?
You’re slippin’. Just so you know. Because at first I thought my math skills were just that bad, but I know they aren’t so where would I have gotten that? And then 
But that is the problem with being a sheep and not questioning things. You could’ve been like, “Nicky, we’re going to do shots eight hours apart at 7, 8, AND 9 AM, and there was a chance I was going to do it.
Can’t say I hated it though… how it all went. I’ll be back in a sec to tell you…
Yeah, I think the reason I originally said 7am and 5pm was because I thought a 10 hour gap would be okay, and I thought a bit more flexibility schedule-wise would be easier for you.
But then after seeing some of your afternoon spikes, I wanted to get a bit more aggressive and wanted to go to 8 hours.
So I changed it up a bit, from “7am, 5pm, and 11pm” to “7am, 3pm, and 11pm”. Was that Saturday? I can’t remember.
Sorry, I didn’t emphasize that. My bad.
But you can look at your spike in the afternoon and determine if it is a) Levi running out, or b) something else, like food or coffee or something.
If you think 10 hours is okay, go with it. But if that afternoon spike persists, try going to an 8 hour schedule.
And man, I encourage you to question everything I or anyone else ever tells you, okay? That helps us all.
If I am right, and you question it, it helps me to clarify it and you to understand it better.
If I am wrong, and you question it, it helps me to learn I made a mistake and you to save yourself some trouble.
Yes, I did see that you had changed it, but if I mentioned that I couldn’t make my jokes about you. AND you may have actually been assuming, like I said, that I was thinking and not just doing. IN the future, I’ll think first (AND check your math). 
Jokes… just jokes.
Need to look again at the pics. I can’t even remember the spike, but it sounds familiar. I want to say there was something else happening… and I bet it had to do with exercise. I’ll look. Then I’ll show you my graph from today… It’s been really nice. This morning was a little low, but it was also a Monday morning, extra Levemir, and full insulin boluses (based on what I needed over the weekend when I was kicked back in slippers and not at a wind sprint). But even being a little low wasn’t terrible. I just got an extra cup of… got a banana. 
You only know me at this one moment in time and in this corner of my world. Maybe you’d be surprised, but I question everything. I’m my father’s daughter… I question everything.
Except for very important things like insulin doses. Don’t have time for it all.
As I shared with you last night, I question everything too…
On another level, but, yes, I’d say you do.
So I think it was just exercise. I haven’t been able to plan for it— I’ve just done it as soon as there’s time. I exercised around 1:30 today and had a banana just before. So that rise is banana—not Levemir.
I really liked how the rest of the day went…
Interesting ride at 8 pm. What was happening?
@MM2, that would be my exercise. If I don’t have a way to plan ahead for it, it can really get tricky. I dislike crashing in the middle of a workout so I’ll take some carbs before starting, but I also have to be careful to do the right amount for the appropriate exercise. I wasn’t careful. That’s what was happening. 
Oh! The zigzag at 8 AM?? That looks like my morning coffee when I wake up low. As soon as I have a sip, I start to rise. The rebound can be pretty intense, so I start bolusing even before I start the cup. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s a yo-yo. Every cup spikes me again so that’s me trying to slow the spike, winning, then having to get the spike again because of a low.
I have a feeling you don’t handle your business this way.
Just wait till you see what my chips did last night. 
No more late night chips. I mean it this time.
So. Levemir has been good. It really has been. It’s me that hasn’t been good. But I’m back out of my hole, owning up, and moving on.
Before I show you the night, I’d just like to say this is why I dislike diabetes when I dislike diabetes. I’m becoming a smarter diabetic. I’m learning how to have really good control. Lots of tricks. But it’s all only as good as my effort and energy at that moment. I’ve had a hard couple of days and really wanted to just coast for a bit, but it just doesn’t look like that’s going to be a good option. Ever.
I also would like to say I’m not going to eat chips at night anymore. I have 4 nights from over the last couple of weeks that all look the exact same, and I’m about 96% sure each one included a chip party between ten and midnight. I bolused for everything. Last night, my blood sugar was a 40, and I decided I could probably have what was left in the bag (1-1.5 servings) WITHOUT bolusing. It would be about 20-25 grams of carbs. Not a great idea or choice, but it also wasn’t absolutely absurd in my mind either. I figured I’d probably run a little high but figured it wouldn’t take more than an hour until it would be in good range again.
Wrong.
Here are the other two nights I could find:
Chips cause a problem for me as well. If I work a small amount into a meal, it’s usually okay. For me as a stand alone snack, I recall them affecting BG more than their carb count would indicate.
Three thoughts:. 1. I’m told food labels can have a fair amount of error, like 20%. 2. Chips are difficult to measure 3. Some foods raise BG more than they are supposed to, gram for gram. And this effect varies from person to person… Like coffee, for instance… I used to drink about 3 pots of strong coffee per day, between 6 am and 6 pm. I did this for at least 10 years of my diabetic life, and didn’t see that in my BGs or A1Cs. For the past 3 years or so, I’ve drank hit tea instead, and greatly reduced quantity.
Seems to be true for me, too.
I heard this for the first time recently. I had no idea.
Sure. Sometimes I count 5 or 6 large broken pieces as the equivalent of a chip. They’re actually not all that hard to count when they’re whole, but the broken ones are where the opportunity lies. Can’t pretend two whole chips are only one, but with pieces…Hmmm. So maybe it’s not the chips that I’ve boluses for that are getting me. Maybe it’s the ones I pretended not to eat…
The truth hurts.
You just said 3 POTS of strong coffee a day…cups??? POTS?? How did you QUIT??
I’m cracking up over here because this is SO me. You are not alone in this, my friend.
@Eric, here’s some Levemir pictures. I took some the other day, too… I’ll see if I can find them so you can see how the three shots are working.
So in exhibit 1, if you can shield your eyes from that little midnight blip, you’ll see that between 6ish and midnight, my numbers were pretty good. That drop at midnight came from having a bunch of insulin on board so that I could eat chocolate. And eat it, I did. That midnight rise came as a result of having eaten chips… as a correction 
without adding a bolus behind it. So many bad choices last night. On the other side of it, you see my day. Not too bad considering the night. 
This one is today. That drop at 1:30ish was my workout.
And last one shows the start of a rise at 4:00. That’s a Levemir thing. I was actually starting to go low around 3:30 but hadn’t corrected. Before I knew it, it had turned and was climbing. I bolused 2 units to cover it.
I was considering doing 6 units at 11 tonight since my mornings feel a little hypo-ey. And maybe push the 5:00 up a little to 4 or so?
Oh, I’m so glad there’s a you. I know what I’m doing when I’m doing it, but somehow saying it out loud really drives home just how ridiculous…
