Gary_W
04-07-2008, 04:16 AM
Diabetes never ceases to amaze me in terms of how badly insulin ratios can vary without TOO many obvious causes.
Over the last year, I've tended to run at around 1u per 10g of carbs. At one point, this was the case whatever time of day. It's gone up or down a little over the year, but lately the variations have been much larger.
A few weeks ago, my insulin requirements went up a whole load. To cope with breakfast, I was needing 1:5. Yes, I did check my basals and they weren't far out. Dinner was around 1:9 at that time.
After a week of horrendous hypos and constantly throttling back the ratios, they are now 1:13 for breakfast, 1:14 for lunch and 1:15 for dinner. And my Lantus is now 12u per night (was 14) and STILL causes a 5 point drop in the night (90 in US BG terms). Or a bit more or less than this if it sees fit. Heaven forbid it should be consistant.
What has changed? Well, the stress levels are fairly similar. My weight has actually gone up a couple of pounds (feed the Lantus to avoid night hypos). I haven't been doing more or less in terms of physical activity. The clocks have changed and it's a little warmer (though yesterday was bitterly cold and it snowed...). I eat between 220 and 250g of carbs per day, am not overly sporty and I'm about 5lbs over 'ideal' weight. I can't really identify anything else. By weight, my estimated TDD should be 45-50 units. At present, it tends to be around 29.
At least this now explains why I went so badly doolaly last week after a gentle post-dinner walk where my BG went down to 1.7 (30 US) as according to the new ratios I had 3u of insulin too much; at the time, I was thinking my dinner ratio was 1:11 ish whereas it now seems to be up at the 1:15...
Any ideas what is going on?
Gary
Over the last year, I've tended to run at around 1u per 10g of carbs. At one point, this was the case whatever time of day. It's gone up or down a little over the year, but lately the variations have been much larger.
A few weeks ago, my insulin requirements went up a whole load. To cope with breakfast, I was needing 1:5. Yes, I did check my basals and they weren't far out. Dinner was around 1:9 at that time.
After a week of horrendous hypos and constantly throttling back the ratios, they are now 1:13 for breakfast, 1:14 for lunch and 1:15 for dinner. And my Lantus is now 12u per night (was 14) and STILL causes a 5 point drop in the night (90 in US BG terms). Or a bit more or less than this if it sees fit. Heaven forbid it should be consistant.
What has changed? Well, the stress levels are fairly similar. My weight has actually gone up a couple of pounds (feed the Lantus to avoid night hypos). I haven't been doing more or less in terms of physical activity. The clocks have changed and it's a little warmer (though yesterday was bitterly cold and it snowed...). I eat between 220 and 250g of carbs per day, am not overly sporty and I'm about 5lbs over 'ideal' weight. I can't really identify anything else. By weight, my estimated TDD should be 45-50 units. At present, it tends to be around 29.
At least this now explains why I went so badly doolaly last week after a gentle post-dinner walk where my BG went down to 1.7 (30 US) as according to the new ratios I had 3u of insulin too much; at the time, I was thinking my dinner ratio was 1:11 ish whereas it now seems to be up at the 1:15...
Any ideas what is going on?
Gary