Too many lows

[Starlight]

Been having alot of lows lately, and i've been literally eating like a pig to sustain sugar levels but nothing working. Lowered the insulin by one unit- no signs of improvement. Ate bigger breakfast- no improvement. Haven't been doing any more excercise, no colds/viruses..so what is it? Im really getting frustrated having soooo many lows in one day. Its topping up to 4 lows in a day! I eat the lollies and whatever else needed- 1-2 hours later- low again.
:( Dinner time today- high. :( arggh! These fluctuating levels are so frustrating.

[DeusXM]

Might be the weather - I've been having similar problems lately. Firstly, if you've having that many hypos, then drop your basal dose - I've decreased mine from 18/18 morning/evening to 14/14, although this is also because I'm trying to change my eating patterns in the evening too. Then obviously drop your bolus doses accordingly - I went from 5/9/12 to 3/6/14 (like I said, I'm changing my evening habits). I'm not going to tell you by how much to change your insulin because only you're going to know what's safe for you, but I think if you're having 4 hypos a day, a 1 unit drop per jab isn't enough.

I know this doesn't sound helpful, but basically it's a case of testing frequently and changing your dose as you require. Be aware too that your high reading may be less to do with not having enough insulin and more to do with the hypos sending your liver into a panic. But yeah, drop your insulin, rather than eat more.

[Starlight]

Yeh, well its very cold here and im wondering if thats the case. Im also not on the pump- on injections, so every little trouble is much more harder to control for me and being 15 doesnt help, control is hard at this age.

[jdstein11]

Are you having your lows after you eat? Maybe you should drop your dose by 2 and see what happens. I've been going low just before lunch lately, just about every day. I've ranged between 75 and 35, so I've adjusted both the dose before breakfast and before mid-morning snack.

[DeusXM]

Yeha, it's tougher if you're 15 because you've probably still got the odd hormone monkeying around and then there's all the peer pressure. However not being on a pump isn't an excuse - I'm not on a pump either, nor would I want to be. It's true that you can't micro-manage your bg quite as effectively, but we're talking the ability to play around with about 0.5mmol/l here - if you're having lots of hypos on MDI you'll still have them on the pump, unless you reduce your total intake of insulin.

My problems have been from the hot weather here - I'm absorbing my insulin too quickly for my digestive system to play catch-up. However the cold means you are probably metabolising at a higher rate to maintain your temperature so that will also cause a bg drop too.

[klpants]

Starlight

Are you female? if so could be a LOT to do with hormones and PMS. I know when I was a teen trying to control my sugars was horrendous and couldn't ever understand why. Figured out though all to do with hormones. Even now just before that time of the month my BS are not what they should be and I know it's my body preparing for the period.

But if you're male I'm not sure, although hormones do also pay a part with males and diabetes.

Try and write things down and see what kind of a pattern forms. If this happenns every month then you will be aware of when this will happen.

Hope you work it out. :top:

[Starlight]

Yeh i am female. They seem to have stopped now since lowering the insulin, pre breakfast. Although i was 3.8 the other day (after excersise) and couldnt really feel it. Do you think not feeling it will be more occasional? Or it was just because i was doing excersise that i didnt really take notice? It worries me. :confused:

[klpants]

Well...It's hard to say whether when you have a low and not feel the symptoms so much, will become an everyday occurance or not. I know sometimes I've been on a run before and when I get back and stop THEN I can feel my BS is low but while doing the exercise I can't ( normally I try to keep my BS's at about 7-10 when exercising) While exercising you've got a lot of things going on in your body like release of endorphins, and adrenaline and these processes can limit you're awareness of blood sugars.

Best thing to do while exercising as a rule of thumb:

Before you exercise, do a test and treat accordingly, if a bit low have a snack or energy tablet.
While exercisng and you are thinking you are low, really consider how you feel, do you feel tired with lack of energy?, if so you could be low. I notice that if I'm full of energy and rearing to go then my BS is usually normal. But as soon as I feel not like going on then time to test.

Yes, it's pain, but the more aware you are of your self and body then the easier this **** disease is to cope with!!