Hey everyone, I am having a difficult time keeping control of my blood sugar. It is driving me crazy! About every two weeks I have to increase my insulin by ten units or more and then two weeks later I have to drop it back down ten or more units. It is really annoying because in betweent that time I am either really low or really high. :( I am not sure why this is happening, at first I thought that I was going lower because of a honeymoon but then I went back up and down and up and down and up and now down again. I haven't been sick or stressed. I have also been losing sleep because I keep going low during the night. It is getting really hard to concentrate in school with these aweful numbers. I am very frustrated and I hate how I don't have an answer. Any help or advice would be great or even some encouragement.
I'd chalk it up to puberty. I had a hell of a time when I was your age figuring out the right doses and such.
Is your mom or dad able to call your endo and talk to them over the phone? They should be able to go over your numbers and your current doses and make some changes.
(Sorry I don't have any real advice, I kind of just took it day to day and don't remember any "tricks" to dealing with puberty and insulin dosing! haha)
Since you're growing, this can happen sometimes. It sounds like you're doing a really good job trying to manage everything.
When your blood sugars are crazy how high are the highs and how low are the lows?
Do you do shots or use a pump?
Since your highs only last a week or so, you may try to eat low carb and/or exercise, in addition to increasing insulin slightly. Then only make a big insulin change if the high lasts more than a week.
If you're worried about middle of the night lows you may just set your alarm for 3am to wake up and test. That way you can treat it early. Keep sugar, glucose tabs or a juice box by your bed so you have quick sugar.
Katelyn, you're not alone! My numbers were awful from about age 12-16. Not only are you going through puberty, but you're growing into your adult size, so your insulin needs will go up anyways.
Can you make a plan with you endo? I.e., if you've been running low for approx 2 days, use X basal, and if you're running high for approx 2 days, increase it by X%?
Sadly, you'll probably have to test more often to correct problems before they get too extreme until things settle down. Hang in there!
It could very well be puberty and the onset of your menstrual cycle. You can start to see monthly cyclic swings in BG even if you haven't actually started getting your period. The best thing is to try to track it, by using a calendar to mark down when your BGs start to trend high and when they start to come back down. Then you can see if the next month you start to go high around the same day (like 4 weeks later, give or take) and might be able to more quickly adjust your insulin, and you also might have an idea of when to back off the insulin to help prevent lows as the cycle ends. From other moms, I know they have spent months trying to figure out their daughter's cycles to know how much to adjust insulin up and down for that week. I would definitely be talking with your mom about it and be in contact with your endo or educator on how to handle best for you.