Hi New Here

Hi,
Am a DAFNE Graduate from beginning of April, found it very useful but seem to of lost my way a little.
Was diagnosed last June and has been a bit of a mindfield really. After DAFNE have been doing quite well, although this week I am really struggling.
Am on 0.5u QA - 1CP so was given a half unit pen - same insulin which is great, however this week despite checking the pen works and needle etc is dispensing insulin when I inject is making no difference to my BG.

Today for instance woke at 12.9 have had a very small sandwich for lunch (small breadbun) had 3 units of QA and still gone up to 15.9 so have had an additional 2 units.

Feel absolutely dreadful and have been checking for ketones - monitor says none at moment though was at 0.3 two days ago but managed to get rid of those over 4 hours of small doses of insulin.

I have always been high and felt fine and now I just feel rotton but cannot seem to bring my levels down - if I dont eat I stay stable (though still high) so feel sure my BI is ok I am on twice daily 5 units of levimir.

Any suggestions? I work on my own in my own business so a bit frightened to go mad on cranking up the QA too much!

TIA

Welcome
It seems from your ratios that you are insulin sensitive. So steady as you go.
Would you be confident enough to share your online Blood Glucose Diary with us?
Between us all we should be able to offer some good support for your situation - but need information to help.
Regards
Garry

Welcome.
As Garry says viewing your diary would help. Highs on waking could be a sign of nighttime hypos but without knowing bedtime values etc its difficult to tell. May be worth doing a 3am test to check what's going on.
I am also on a 0.5:1 ratio (even lower at breakfast) with a half unit pen!
Vicky

I don't have an online diary as such. Will try and update one using my readings from home.
Am a bit rubbish at writing it all down tbh but 10-12 is a happy wake up reading for me at the moment bearing in mind have gradually come down from high 20's.
Just dies seem to matter what i do this week slightest morsal of food is making me fly high.
Have got follow up meeting for dafne on 30th but not sure i can cope feeling like this until then :-(

Hello Skyesmum.

Welcome to Dafne.

Like you I am on 0.5 - 1 ratio, and like you directly after the course (October) my bg was all over the place. Only this last week do I feel that I am getting somewhere close to target, but I am still not getting a useful pattern, so I have a bit of a way to go yet. Don't lose heart. We have the extra annoyance of being highly sensitive, and what I have discovered is that being very sensitive and working with small doses means that the slightest error either way causes a huge swing - again, either way. This means that if you take an interim reading, before driving for example, you can really give yourself a scare, but if you can "ignore" that reading and wait till the pre-meal one, it often is down somewhere reasonable.

Be as accurate as possible with your carb counting, weighing as much as is feasible and using a calculator if necessary as a miscalculation of just half a CP can make a massive difference. Keep your liquids up.

I notice from your first post that your carb intake seems modest. Are you eating enough? If your body thinks it is short it chucks out reserves which can show as a spike.

Make lots of notes so you can learn and take the information to your follow up.

With Dafne, you have the information to take control of your life again, it's just that for we hyper-sensitive ones it takes longer to get there.

Best Wishes

Thanks NuMo,

You are probably right re the not eating enough - my meals are sporadic but always have been. I am trying to eat more regularly but old habits die hard.

Pre diagnosis I would happily go 3 days without a proper meal and probably survived on my numerous cups of tea with two sugars which has now stopped.

Pre bed last night was 18.9 had 30g carbs (ready meal so stated on packet, was at 17.2 pre meal had 4u QA + 5u BI, the bed time reading was only an hour later.

Woke up at 12.9 BI 5u and just tested again now at 11.5 3.5 hours later but as yet have not eaten or had anything except cup of tea.

Keeping notes etc is very hard as am out and about alot and normally very active but this last week due to feeling so awful not so much so. Discipline is really something I need to concentrate more on but the more pressure I put on myself the harder it is and I just end up feeling like I don't end up wanting to eat by time have worked it all out etc.

I run my own business etc and am terrified of loosing my licence so really worries me to have a hypo but also am now feeling dreadful and cannot function properly being so high, whereas a few months ago I was sailing along nicely at 15 and if got any lower was the most awful person to live with! 'sigh'

Bless you, Skyesmum. It is really tough isn't it. I don't have any solutions, but can make some suggestions.

Running your own business takes a lot of discipline, so you are not short of it, it just needs a slight change of direction. Also, when you run your own business, often your own needs get neglected - they seem low priority. Think what would happen to your business if you weren't able to look after it. So, looking after yourself is part of looking after your business.

I know what you mean about driving. I too prefer to have a good safety margin when driving, but I can't really say I am happy about it. Another learning curve I guess. Having glocotabs/jelly babies/whatever handy to use before BG drops below the limit I find reassuring. We only need half as much to get BG high again because of the 0.5 : 1 ratio.

Keeping notes is a bind, but can prove worth the effort. I use the Dafne diary - it's slim and easy to pop into bag or pocket, but then I'm not very clever with smart phones and such. Do you have a voice facility for your Dropbox app? If you could speak your notes as you go along you could then collate them as appropriate later. Just a thought.

I too have found that my body will no longer put up with the big highs it used to have to. I start feeling grotty at a much lower figure nowadays. In a way I am pleased about it because it means I am achieving better control. I am also finding that when I get irritated easily or am snappy it is often a sign that a hypo is in the offing, not very sociable but perhaps I can get better control of that too in time. If it's any help, my family tell me I am much nicer to live with now, so I guess I must have been a right Jekyll and Hyde at times!

If you keep thinking that running at 15 is OK - then I'm sorry, you face a dim future.
Are you able to test for ketones? If your current meter does not provide you with this facility, you need look for another that does.
Your lack of food may be part responsible, as others have suggested.

You must put in the time needed for you....to get a grip of your situation.
Please take this reply only in a wholly positive way.

Regards
Garry