I’m beginning to think that the issue is quantity of insulin infused rather than the amount of time the new site is being used.
For this set change I tried yet another suggestion, which was to take my breakfast bolus on the old set. The idea was to give the new set a longer time to start absorbing.
My blood sugars were pretty good for the morning, with the exception of waking up high. I responded well to the correction and I was also pretty accurate for my breakfast bolus. Once I got myself into the target range, I spent most of the morning/early afternoon there.
Where it gets interesting is at 2:00 in the afternoon, which is when I had lunch. This would be the first meal on the new infusion set. I had a box of Amy’s Organic Macaroni & Cheese, which clocks in at 47g of carbohydrates and 3 servings of cottage cheese, which clocks in at 15g of carbohydrates. These were both packaged items, leaving little room for error in terms of measuring serving sizes. The mac & cheese has a lot of complex carbs in it and and good dose of protein (16g). The cottage cheese is also a heave protein item. So with the complex carbs and heavy protein, these items don’t seem like they should raise my blood sugar very quickly.
Within 2 hours I had skyrocketed up to 321! Based on no manner of scientific testing whatsoever, I don’t think that what I ate warranted a rise up that far.
Though it could be something with my insulin/carb ratio – I just don’t think that is the case. I’ll have to do more testing. Maybe I need to experiment with some other lower carb options as well.
I worked my way down, not taking any additional corrections. I played basketball later in the evening, and there was some strangeness with another real high spike afterwards. I haven’t figured that one out yet.
I get frustrated with these spikes that always seem to happen on the first meal of the new infusion set. I fight with it for the next few hours. Then I will often times crash – either from the serial rage bolusing, or it may be from pooling insulin that is finally catching up to me. I haven’t quite nailed it down yet.
I’m still playing around with different ideas, and am confident that I will eventually stumble onto something that works for me. This is yet another example of the old adage “YMMV” or Your Mileage May Vary.
Diabetes is such a personal thing, and there is no “One Thing” that will do the trick. That in itself can be so frustrating.
