Do Insulin Action Changes Confuse You?

The subject of insulin resistance and sensitivity is something I thought I had all figured out as it applies to me. However, like so many other things with diabetes, changes always happen. This last week has been one of higher levels of blood glucose levels for me than I have encountered for a long time. I checked my insulin and everything was still in date and still in date for the day I opened the vial, but still the high readings happen.

Next I checked my weight and it is down 6 pounds from the last doctor appointment, which means my insulin resistance should be less, but still the readings remain high. I am still using the same insulin to carb ratio and the same correction ratio, but the blood glucose readings are still elevated.

So a couple of days ago, I injected more fast acting insulin, 5 units more on top on what I normally inject for carbs and correction and something happened. Yes, my blood glucose rose again. Then I checked for hard areas (scar areas below my skin) in the areas I have been injecting in the stomach area and found a few more that I like, so at my last injection, I went to my leg that I haven't used for several months, now my blood glucose readings are in the range they should be and when I woke this morning, my fasting was 88 mg/dl. More reasonable and makes me feel a whole lot better.

In the research on this, I have come across several articles. I will use this article from Diabetes-in-Control. The high points include the following:

1. If you’ve had a prior hypoglycemic event
2. If your blood glucose has been running high
3. If you’ve drastically changed your normal exercise patterns
4. If you ate more calories, fat, or protein than you realized
5. If you’re stressed, mentally or physically
6. If you’re lacking on sleep
7. If you’ve had some alcohol to drink
8. If it’s a certain time of the month (women only)

Of the eight points above- #2 and #5 are points that affected me especially during the time of higher than normal blood glucose readings. The rest of the points above are not applicable as I was eating the same foods daily, I have not changed the exercise, I have slept more that eight plus hours, and I don't drink any alcohol.

Since what happened to me was the build up of scar tissue and this is not listed, It really makes me wonder what the author was thinking about and she was not the only one not considering this as a cause of higher that expected blood glucose reading.

This is why I keep my own list of check points when something like this happens. As you can see from the checks I was doing, I had more things to check on my list, but fortunately found the problem before I was in serious problems. I will explain some of the other points in a future blog, but for now I wanted to give you some of the checks I and others use.