I’m slowly getting my sleep patterns back on track after this weekend. It was a fun weekend, and I’m glad I experienced this convention. But holy hell… I’m pretty sure I got a collective 10 hours of sleep during the entire weekend. And upon my return on Sunday, I promptly fell asleep on the couch at 8:15 pm, only to be prodded by the hubs to head to bed around 9. Wow. All in good fun and thankfully, my blood sugars behaved for the most part.
I also don’t recommend competing with hypoglycemia. Especially if you are unaware. Just saying. Yeah, it happened.
So after all my sleep deprivation, the only natural thing I should do come Monday morning is run a basal test, right? Sure!!! Who needs coffee or food when the high from the weekend can keep you awake and sustained?
Right…
Good news: I passed the afternoon basal test, which disproves my doc’s hypothesis that my extremely high bolus rates are compensating for my extremely low basal rates. In fact, I managed to stay between 77 mg/dl and 88 mg/dl for about 6 hours. This still leaves the question as to why my blood sugars sky rocket to oblivion an hour after I eat and just stay there. Do I really need a 1:3 carb ratio? Seriously?
Bad news: This test is shit! Seriously. Could NOT do anything productive because I ate at 7 am and could not stuff my face until 5 pm. (And I did… still paying for it now…) I was starving. I was waiting for the inevitable crash that never happened and seriously wanted to just fail the test so I could eat my left overs. I had 3 major headaches throughout the day and pretty much stared at my computer screen for 2 hours pretending to be productive. By 4:30, I wanted to eat my laptop with a side of the contract for our company Christmas party. (You know, because paper has fiber and stuff.)
I’m assuming that since I passed with flying colors that I only need to do this time period test once. (Because why would anyone want to do this three times, as instructed???)
Lesson learned kids: starving is bad.
See Jen Dance 
Wow, it sure sounds like basal testing does suck! I can’t recall ever really doing it and following through. Besides, when you don’t eat, your daily routine (movement, exercise – however subtle) isn’t the same, right? I can’t possibly believe your basal needs are the same when you’re not eating. But having said that, it sounds like your rates are phenomenal. That’s great!
What kind of insulin are you using? I’m wondering if that may affect your BG spikes. Novolog, Humalog, and Apidra all act differently in how quickly they work and how quickly they leave the system. The differences are subtle, but they exist. In a constant basal “trickle”, you’d never see it, but with a bolus they become apparent.
Novolog… mostly because that was what the pharmacy at my old HMO carried. So I’ve just stayed on it.
I’m still experimenting with the testing though. Yesterday I decided to do the dinner basal rates, but bottomed out around 3:45 pm. (If you go low or high, the test stops and you eat or correct, respectively.)
Today I’m trying my morning rates. In two hours without eating, I spiked from 120 (wake up) to 180. I may cut the test short if the trend continues. They say to continue the test as long as you can stand it. I don’t know if I want to feel like this for the next four hours.
Dude. Basal rates SO suck. I’m overdue myself.