OK so first to introduce myself and a little about me. I am a 22 year old type 1 diabetic for almost 6 years now. Its been an interesting ride ever since being diagnosed going through lots of different docs until I finally found the right ones. Going from shots to a pump and now back to shots which has been a hard transition so far :(
Anyways about the gaining control issue. So when I had to be taken off my pump for insurance reasons that I lost my insurance when I turned 21 because I happened to turn the papers in a day late. So I was on an assistance program for the pump until my funding ran out. Which was the worst part though was I was just starting to gain better control when I had to go off the pump. So now that I am back on the shots my blood sugars are all over the place usually I wake up low from a lantus shot of 40 units every night so just about every morning I wake up low and starting to not feel the symptoms from them that used to wake me up. Then the rest of the day I am on a novolog sliding scale but after a low in the morning my bloodsugars are all over the board. :(
Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can gain control again ?? Or any tips....I just dont like dealing with numbers anywhere from 40's to 500's during the day ... not a good thought of what it is doing to my body on the inside
can you split up your lantus shot so you're talking 20 in the AM and 20 in the PM? i can't remember if lantus is one of the insulins that can be split. that might help you avoid the lows and keep you more stable throughout the day. my only other suggestion would be to test often (just temporarily until you can figure out your insulin), so you can avoid the lows or highs. by testing often you might be able to head off the lows, in turn avoiding the rebound highs.
also, your food and activity will play a big role in your blood sugars. if you want to, you can take the time to evaluate your eating habits (not just what you're eating, but how much, how often, what times during the day, etc.), as well as any physical activity you have. these might help you correlate your blood sugar patterns to your eating/exercise patterns.
and welcome to juvenation! you've come to the right place - we're all here to help you and want the best for you! please keep asking us questions or looking for support. we'll do what we can :o)
I've had problems with too much Lantus making me low. I decreased the dose by 1-3 units and it wasn't so frequent that I woke up like that.
If you're into the 500's, then it sounds like you either need to take more Novalog after you eat or you should perhaps eat less sugary food. If you don't know how much a typical meal raises you, then take a measurement before and at different times after a meal. Take your regular amount amount of insulin eventually and see what effect that has.
I talked to my educator the other day and she told me to try reducing my lantus by 2 units to see if that makes a difference so I am going to try that tonight. I dont really eat to many sugary foods during meals but what I believe now that I am thinking about it may be the snacking in between meals because of boredom or just hungry. So maybe try cutting back the insulin and cutting out most snacking might start helping me being that I live on a farm I could go outside and do something instead of eating something. Just to get my mind off it and then exercise in the same respect to help the blood sugars come down.
That sounds like a good plan. However, exercise can increase or decrease BG depending on some other factors. In short, I wouldn't rely on exercise to lower your BG. Not saying it's a bad thing, at all. But yeah, make sure you get insulin when you eat, even if it's a snack.
Lantus can be split. For example, if you take 40 units, you can take 20 at night, and 20 in the morning. It happens a lot for some reason that people drop to 40 or so in the night, and for some reason (dawn effect) some time after 6:30'ish you creep up. You can check at 6:30 and see you are 120 and think that is okay. You may not realize that in the night you were 38 - 48. If you do nothing, around 8:30 am you will discover you are 180! I found that splitting the lantus like I suggest here helped alleviate the extreme low. The other thing I do, which most people will not like, I wake up 6:30 - 7:00 and start my day (dose up, eat, etc). This is probably the best way to minimize the fluctuations. If you snack before bed, you might avoid some of this, but you can expect your sugar levels to be higher in the morning. A slow acting sugar might help with the snack (e.g., milk). Diabetes is a complex and annoying problem, but you can certainly help with some of these suggestions.
Anybody have some ideas, insurance wise, how she could get back on the pump?
Sometimes clinics have free samples of insulin (whole bottles) that they can give you if you are seen there and ask. I had to do that some, in that past. I don't know about the pump though.
I have read about many people splitting their Lantus dose, when it does not last a full 24 hours. The split usually works very well and gives more stable control throughout the day and night.
Medtronic Minimed sells reconditioned pumps for a much lower price. There may be programs that will help with the supplies too. i will start a new discussion and post some links that might help.
You might call Minimed Medtronic and see what they might set up for you.Try this number if you are interested: 1-800-646-4633
Hi RichardI actually took my lantus down the 2 points last night that my educator had told me about and that seemed to help a little bit I still woke up at 96 this morning but its not horrible like they have been.
I do still have my pump from minimed that I was on so I wouldnt need the pump just the supplies is what I would need. I actually already was on their assistance porgram also that when I first lost my insurance that was one of the first companies I contacted. They supplied $1200 in pump supplies but Im sure as all of us know with pump supplies it helps but it doesnt go for more than a couple months of course. Other than their company IDK who else would offer pump supplies for the medtronic pumps.