Just had my annual review and dropped hb1ac from late 7’s to 7 ( whey hey ) but remember the good old days when I was in the 11’s and then dropped fast , now I hear its not good to drop fast so has anyone here experienced any probs with getting down fast ? I never had any comps ?
Hey Simon
I have very recently dropped fast (10.3 to 8.5 in about 2 months). But they seemed delighted with me, not worried. I don’t know what the problems might be with it, but I am finding my hypo symptoms are sometimes/often different, or not nearly present enough for my liking. The other day my knees gave way when I was walking along, and I suddenly felt really light headed. Had a wee sit down and tested my sugar and it was really low. None of my usual symptoms were there, and I now recognise these two symptoms as possible hypos but it was a bit scary.
No other side effects yet though…
Hey Caroline congrats on bringing the bs down, seems the pump suits you well ! I found the hypos were comp different after I started pumping, not as severe but could catch me out . I used to feel it around 4.5 but now won’t pick.it up till around 3 ! Regards Dropping I was told it can damage the eyes ? ?
I’m a bit the opposite, apart from the time I described above. It’s not happened recently, so maybe my body is nearly used to being lower generally, but for the first couple of months of pumping I was feeling my usual hypo symptoms for hours on end and I’d check my sugars and they’d be sitting around 6 or 7. I had the usual shaky thing that felt like I was going low, but didn’t actually get any lower. Weird. Hadn’t noticed that it had stopped but I think it has… Good stuff. Hope my eyes will be okay, but I reckon I’d rather lose them than my kidneys (or my sense of humour). I’m at clinic next week so will see what they have to say about it all. Thanks for the tip!
Are you planning to stop now you’ve reached 7 or are you aiming lower?!
Hi guys..
When I got my pump just before Christmas I went from late 11/12 to 7.7 by late January! – Great start to the new year, the pump seems to suit me too (luckily!) I hadn’t heard anything about eye damage, but had my screening a few weeks ago, so I guess they’ll let me know if there’s anything to worry about (on his initial look, the chap said it all seemed ok)
Due to always yo-yoing before with high and too low blood sugars, I’ve never lost my recognition of hypos, but the level did change from 6ish to now about 3, so I have to be carefull..
I’ve never been told about dangers from dropping too fast, but surely the overall long-term effects have to be a bonus to having lower bs levels, so reducing any later complications?
Well done Simon and Caroline – aren’t we a clever lot – gold stars all round! – keep up the good work.
@simon: The “damage” caused by a big drop is merely temporary – and one has to have been stilting along starwards near 20 for a while for it to happen. . . as BG drops, the concentration of water in your blood rises and starts streaming into your honey-sweet lenses, causing them to swell up like tangerines and make you myopic. Shortly after diagnosis I suddenly needed binoculars to see across a room – after a month or so of single digit BGs, lenses became flapjackic once more. (But the year and a bit I spent in the doubles caused cataracts, so I would join Charlie’s advisory choir of “Downwards and forwards”!)
Thanks cecile , I never realised the bs had to be in the heavens to start with ! Caroline – I intend to get it as low as possible , if that means plenty of hypos on the way no problem , I will just stock up and binge on sweets ! Also great to see peeps dropping bs with the pump ! I know they say it may not work for everyone buy does anyone know anyone it hasn’t worked for or is that a PCT rumour ? (To save money )
I don’t know anyone a pump hasn’t worked for. I can’t imagine how it wouldn’t work for everyone. Even if you only use it as a basic insulin delivery system, and have a static basal rate throughout the day, your control would still be better than on MDIs because of the careful sums it does measuring active insulin. From the outside, I can see that there’s a squeam factor, and maybe folk would think it was …. hang on. Going off topic. I’m starting a new thread. Come too!