morning lows

[techgirl12]

This is driving me crazy!
so i just moved back into my dorms for spring semester of college. I knew I would have to change my carb ratios for meals because the walking to classes is about 10 times the exercise I get normally.
I was at 15 units of Lantus as night and I had no anticipation on changing that... However, the past 3 mornings I have been waking up low (to my alarm or roommate not to the low blood sugar)

Wed. morning - 47
Thurs - 62
Today - 58

I decreased my Lantus last night to 14 units... however as you can see I still woke up low this morning.

Two questions... can heat be a factor in this? At night I am sleeping in a loft in a college dorm room aka like 80 degrees and I get hot pretty quickly. So maybe this is speeding up the Lantus?
Secondly - should I lower my dosage again tonight... or wait?

I'm so frustrated because I hate having the first thing is eating sugar when I wake up... especially when I usually need to try and steal a shower... but since i have to wait it throws my schedule all off! lol

any advice would be helpful

[Subby]

Melissa, Isn't it so frustrating to work with tweaking your MDI when the pump is right around the corner for you! I found that... then again I'd been going at it for a while longer I suppose. I admire you rolling up your sleeves (although it's hardly an option most of the time, is it?).

if I was going low in the morning from a good BG last thing at night, I would suspect my dose is still too high, then I would take some tests through the night to confirm my suspicion. Speaking personally I would be happy to reduce my dose my a small increment again. But I'm not offering that as medical advice - what I would advise is calling or facing your doctor to ask for some guidance.

I was just reading in Pumping Insulin (great book to have going onto the pump.... I'm glad I finally got it) where Walsh states that heat increases the speed of insulin... I find conversely it can make it very sluggish for me, but I think I am pretty weird. It's probably only experimenting and observing that will answer the question if it's the heat having any effect.

[hodgsonsurvivor]

Absolutely. You're not going so low that you're not waking up in the mornings, so I'd reduce my next dose by 2u. That's what my doctor told me to do. He says you can judge how well your Lantus dose is working by your fasting result. So if it's too low, you're taking too much. If it's too high, than you're not taking enough. I have been so relieved since he gave me the information I needed to adjust this myself. I don't panic anymore about waking up with bloodsugars in the 60s. It usually means I didn't have my dinner and snack correctly.

[jenb]

Don't know if Lantus works like Levemir, but when I adjust Levemir it takes 24-48 hours to realize the full effect of the change. Lows are not fun to awaken to. Take heart and have patience.

Jen