Cant get stable!!

Iv just recently moved house, got a new job and to top it all of changed by back ground insulin to levemir. The problem is the last couple of weeks my bloods have gone haywire!!! Im counting carbs, eating as healthy as possible, jobs pretty physical so good exercise and hitting the gym when I can. I cant get my bs back to how it was, feeling pretty clueless and lost right now and feeling rough!!! Trying to get into see a diabetic nurse is hard work as im still trying to join a new surgery!! Really dont no what to do!!! Could this all be down to the change of insulin?

Hello Mike
If you keep an online Blood Glucose Diary on this site, include the entries for the last week or so, so that we can make comments and suggestions for improvements. This facility is just underneath the 'POST REPLY' box.

when a change in background insulin takes place and a new job, which is physical from your description, it will require you to test your basal [levemir] again. So if it was me, I would start with the overnight dose..............go carb free/miss meals so your blood sugars have no outside influence from glucose or insulin.............repeat it a few times to confirm the numbers then make the necessary changes.........

once right, move on to your daytime dose......when these are both right, or near enough there, your QA adjustments should start to mean something meaningful......

as Alan suggested if you can get some BG entries up from the last three days at least you could get some suggestions from the forum......

Please help im totally out of controll and cant get back in controll ive even been in hospital with ketoasidosis, plz have a look at my bloods and help )))))))

Hi Sarah.

I recently had an experience similar to yours (blood infection). It has taken over three weeks of going back to first principles with the pump to get my levels anywhere near decent! TDD is still about 25% higher than pre infection but generally the levels are dropping but not to the level of hypo. Sustained kidney and liver probs with the infection...kidneys now seem Ok but the liver haa a way to go!

MY GP states I am way too impatient and it will take weeks. While the red on your diary looks bad you are not totally out of control! Take your time and go back to what you were taught when you first went onto the pump. My endo's advice is also to target the lows and not the highs as I seem to over react to the highs...if you target the lows you will not get the reactive highs! I am also on a pump.

I wish you well and go slow. Helen

Hi Helen,

Thans for your reply how did you get the blood infection and how did you know you had it?

Im very impatient because i feel ill when my sugars are not great and it gets me down just wanting to jack it in, yes i know not the attitude to have but when you end up in hospital and the doctors make out its my fault its rather annoying.

What pump are you on Helen?

Hi Sarah,
The blood infection aarrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I went overseas (Korea) to visit my daughter and her family and when In Korea i have to work really hard to keep the BGs down as they eat a lot of various rices and tend to put honey or palm sugar in their meat dishes. No one will hazard a guess as to exactly how I picked it up but it seems like I got it in Korea and actually had it for a couple of weeks.Drs say I could have caught it here and cooked it in Korea.

I felt tired and often went to bed very early and on one day when they had arranged a special outing I opted out as I was too tired (unlike me). I spent the day in bed but did not feel much better. So the only symptom I had was extreme tiredness. On the day I was to come home I had to change the infusion set at about 3:00am and when I got up to do that I passed out (I occasionally feel faint...low BP). Did not think much about it continued and went back to bed. The plane left at about 20:00 and when at the airport I felt unwell but not SICK. I ate an icecream and felt a little cold but as I was flying into Australia and dressed for that, I thought it was simply the outside temp. The plane trip back was unpleasant (very full) and cramped with several children who cried rather than slept! 10hour flight.

I arrived in Brisbane feeling OK but very tired. Through immigration, customs etc and into a cab to go home. I showered and went to bed. Woke up several hours later shivering. Into the shower to warm up and back to bed. This happened again later in the afternoon but when I woke at about 6:00pm I could not get off the bed. I rang the ambulance and again passed out when I went to open the door to make sure the ambos could get in! Short story: temperature 39.1, BP 110/40 and BG of 5.3. Diagnosis...very sick.
initially isolated but after tests moved to a ward and filled up with saline and antibiotics. Six days in hospital with BGs all over the place. I left hospital with TDD of close to 100 instead of my usual 65-75 and started working to get BGs and TDD down. TDD yesterday was 70.3 and all readings were between 3.8 and 10.1 (10 readings!). Heading in the right direction!

It has taken me some time but I now think that when Drs and nurses lay blame it is often because they do not have a good grasp of just how complex the whole thing is and how individual. It si not one size fits all!

I am on an Animas pump and what I have learnt is that it will take time and being impatient and reactive does you no good.

I seem to take a long time to bounce back and I just have to take my time and not expect instant results.

You sound like a younger version of me!

I usually target the midnight to dawn readings then the breakfast to lunch if you can get those right first it seems to make the afternoons more manageable. The last lot I work on are the 16:00-22:00. I do not eat after 18:00 so that makes it a bit easier.

I'd love to say be patient but I know what I think when I am told that, so ...tackle it bit by bit and good luck. Helen