Hello! I’ve had diabetes for 16 years and am running into a new issue. Throughout my entire time with diabetes I’ve been able to eat things with high GI without spiking like crazy. This morning I woke up and my blood sugar was at 113. I bolused 10 minutes before eating, and measured out the cereal. One hour later and I spiked up to 259 which hasn’t happened before. Is this typical for others? I also had a homemade waffle the day after Christmas and had a similar spike over 300 (added up carbs from ingredients and divided it by number of waffles made). I had to take correction and up my basal for a couple hours after to combat the high. Just wondering if this is something that warrants a meeting with my endo or any tips/tricks to avoid this spike.
hi @Tee25, cereal in the morning isn’t high GI, for me it’s like gasoline on a raging fire. Mornings can be a problem even if you are low carb because of AM stress hormones and “liver dumping” sometimes called dawn phenomena. These things can change over time so what worked well 16 years ago may not work as well today because you’ve changed. Of course you should talk to your med team. In my opinion, if your blood sugar comes down at the 4 hour (after eating) mark. then it’s probably that you are absorbing the sugar very fast and the insulin needs to catch up.
Things that reset my dawn phenom - travel to other time zones sort of resets my AM spike in stress hormones. Of course travel itself is stressful but I see a 3-4 week difference when I am travelling and when I get back.
Changing my wake-up time. this isn’t sustainable, but when I get up a few hours early it can change that dawn thing for me.
Changes in base line stress including weather. I have to mess with my basal insulin when it gets cold. I think because the weather puts a different stress on my body. Work and family stress can sometimes be better if I am exercising regularly. Work stress is just stupid and I need to sometimes tell my work peeps a simple 1 word sentence: NO. but it’s easier said than done. cheers good luck.
Hi Taylor @Tee25 , your insulin needs might be changing; for me, this has occurred many times over the last few decades.
Assuming that your morning routine hasn’t changed, that you do not have an infection or something else going on, you may need to change your breakfast insulin to carb ratio. That is, if you are comfortable making adjustments; I routinely make these insulin dose changes and report at usual visits with my doctor.
Did the added insulin, correction bolus plus increased basal, bring you glucose level to a “normal place” within four hours after eating without causing you to go low? If “yes”, you can use that information in changing your I:C ratio.
I want to echo Dennis. In 36 and have been diabetic since I was 11. I think you need to adjust how much insulin you take. Mine was always the same until I was in my late 20s. I ran into the same problems you did and I’ve had to change how much I take a hand full of times now.