Blog

It’s working VERY well. My blood sugar was around 112 this morning –a tad high, but I went to bed with it at 220, and didn’t want to correct and risk a low. (I’ve only fixed the night basal).

I’m probably going to end up backing down on the daytime insulin too. I’m still a bit low in the late afternoon and in the evening.
I’ve done a lot of “cushioning with my boluses”. I had a salad and only did enough insulin for the dressing in the afternoon, and didn’t bolus at all for a salad I ate before agility class.

I also probably need to start using my temp basal with agility class. I’m on my feet most of Maggie’s class, and moving a lot, since we’re starting to run small courses.

Marcie’s class usually isn’t a problem, because we run longer courses, with more recovery time.

Since I ended up spending the entire day fighting lows — and always 4 or more hours after meals, I ended up changing my basal rate from 12:00 – 4:00 and the basal rate from 4:00 to 8:00 am. — by .05 unit. Not a big decrease in insulin at all (I think it ends up being something like .3 unit. Of course, I couldn’t make that kind of adjustment with MDI. I’d have to cut the dose by a unit and be high until I adjusted to it.

I woke up at 104, so it’s definately not a problem.

I meant to go on a temp basal at 6:00 so I could walk without going low around 7:30-8:00, but I mucked that up — I think I programmed it in and then forgot the last step — hit go.

So I’ll eat a few extra carbs for breakfast, but short the basal by about a unit and I’ll probably be able to walk without eating more.

I really just want to avoid having to eat extra to avoid the low — yesterday I ended up eating 100 calories more than I wanted to.

This is probably as “vanilla” a week I’ll get this summer — well, not exactly true, but close. No workshops, no class meetings, just dog stuff.

My fasting blood sugar has been lower each day, and dropped down to 98 today from 155 when I went to bed, so I left a message with my CDE and told her I was going to drop my basal by .05 per hour from 12:00 – 4:00. That’s the most danger time to go low, and the biggest pain to treat. I had to treat a couple of lows the first night of the workshop (I over basaled for sitting still all day), and it was an absolute pain. Woke up twice and had to get up and deal with it.

One of the goals my CDE and I have, is for me to have uninterrupted sleep — which means having the right blood sugar at night, not too low and not too high, because either means waking up and dealing with something.

Something I’ve noticed … when I have a bad food day, my insulin usage goes up for the food I’ve eated.

Depends on how much food, how much insulin and how many calories I’ve over eaten, but the affect can last for several days. I can really see it in the bolus doses.

Here’s a example:

My last bad day was Thursday, with a slightly bad day on Friday. Both on Saturday and Sunday, post prandial (2 hours after meal) blood sugars were in the 160’s range. Today, they are down to 140’s, even though I’m eating “known” food. Stuff I’ve eaten before and stuff that is constant in calories.

Interesting…

Last week ended up being a rough week. Not completely sure why, but I do know that the sleep doctor’s appointment had a lot to do with it.

Sunday, on the way back from Monroe, I got tired. I was depressed because not only did the dog not run well, but one person, who I have a lot of respect for, was nasty about it. So I started the trip a bit discouraged. And it was a LONG drive. I haven’t been on a driving trip by myself for over a year, and this one was longer than that one. I didn’t realize what a problem that would be.

Anyway, about 3 hours out, I got tired and resorted to my father’s solution to tired when driving which is eating. At least I started with protein.

Ended up using 58 units that day.

The next day was okay, but as the doctor’s appointment got closer, eating got harder, and ended up with 3 days in a row at 50 units of insulin! The day of the appointment itself, I used 62 units.

One thing I’ve found is that if my blood sugar is under control and I can keep my insulin usage down to around 40 units, I currently lose weight. Any useage over 45 units results in weight gain, and fast weight gain at that. Very frustrating.

So I’m re-losing weight again.

The good news, is this week should be calm. Nothing scheduled.

July 4, 2004