Spiking and hypos since using libre

[rebrascora]

Err, @rebrascora - so is the 45 minutes an improvement on the Novorapid then?

Err..... yes! NR was about an hour but sometimes longer. An hour and a half was about the longest I waited.

 

[Greys]

Err..... yes! NR was about an hour but sometimes longer. An hour and a half was about the longest I waited.

Strange how we all differ. I find mornings I have to pre bolus 30 - 50 mins. Lunchtime and dinner I don't have to (humalog).

 

[daducky88]

Hi. Are you not inclined to swap back to prevent the frequency and severity of your hypos?
Due to covid I'm working from home so the pre bolus method is easy atm as I sit at my desk after injecting and remember to check bloods before eating. Going back to the office will be whole a new ball game as I'll have to change my routine and ratios for sure.
I use the app on my phone so if need be I could always set an alarm on there . Love the egg timer

I was but i'm not sure the animal insulins are avai anymore in the UK at those concs as fermenting a lorry sized vat of h. Insulin is probably cheaper than exteacting it from 5000 cattle. I think i remember discussing it years with an conssultant and he seemed to be convinced the r.human insulin had to be better because it was natural product and didnt consider the conc or profile points fully according to my mind..
Maybe i dont need the low doses now as one is naturally heavier when an adult.

 

[daducky88]

Hi. Are you not inclined to swap back to prevent the frequency and severity of your hypos?
Due to covid I'm working from home so the pre bolus method is easy atm as I sit at my desk after injecting and remember to check bloods before eating. Going back to the office will be whole a new ball game as I'll have to change my routine and ratios for sure.
I use the app on my phone so if need be I could always set an alarm on there . Love the egg timer

I know whatcha mean about change.
Unconscious energy demand comes in different forms
E.g. walking, cycling to work
driving a considerable distance
extreme heat

My old car which i had for 16 years had a defunct aircon system and was that sort of fading gloss black upon which frying an egg is easy. I used to commute with it(1h 15') or my m'bike(45') thr the centre of london daily for 12 years. That car was a blinking menace of Fri afternoons. You'd get home and jump straight into a cold shower or make a quick g+t, stick you trunks on and go and stand under the sprinkler and dry off in the sun while you gin. 🙂.
But when i finally swapped it, i bought a white car as you never how long ones finances will keep up with car repair bills e.g. of aircon recharging

On a few occassions i had leave the free commute channels thr the centre and pay the congestion charge to check blood sugars due to delays from.prior breakdowns of other commuters. Every incident added 40 mins to the otherwise 1'15" commute. I seriously began to consider applying for a disability badge as i was testing glycaemia as a consequence of a disease and getting stunned a £10 for not crashing into people.

 

[daducky88]

Ah OK thanks. I always referred to that as 1:10 but that makes sense now.

I think its ok either way. 🙂
U/ g or U/ portion

 

[daducky88]

@Greys I find the Libre a miracle and a curse. The joy of being able to see what is happening to my blood sugars between finger pricks but then the desire for perfection can be all encompassing. For this reason, I some times take a break. It also gives me confidence I can cope if my technology failed.
Reading your experience, I wonder if you have basal tested to make sure your basal dose is correct. There is no little point tweaking your bolus dose if your background insulin is not correct. With a LIbre, this is easier than the olden days of constant finger pricking.
My other thought is to consider what it is you are eating. (I am not going to suggest you change your diet.) Whilst packets and the internet and Carbs and Cals apps tell us how many carbs are in the food we eat, they do not take into consideration the time it takes for them to be digested. A healthy pancreas will release incredibly fast acting insulin when it gets the message that our blood sugars are starting to rise. Even Fiasp is no where near as fast as proper human-made insulin so we have to predict when that rise will be and match the timing of our bolus dose. For example, we eat very fast acting carbs such as jelly babies when we have a hypo - these can impact our blood sugars within 15 minutes. But something like curry or pizza could take 4 or 5 hours to cause the rise. In other words, the advice to inject bolus 15 minutes before or just before or 45 minutes before is a gross simplification and depends on what it is we are going to eat.
Finally, some advice I was given regarding avoiding lows during exercise was to put something slightly sweet in my water bottle. This gave me a constant flow of carbs rather than the need to load beforehand.

Good luck ... and try not to get too obsessed (even people without diabetes could see numbers below 4 and above 10 sometimes)

I find complex carbs take upto 4 hrs to be cleared from my blood (provided suffic insulin given) though they start to increase glycaemia from.~20mins for me, peaking ~1.5-2hrs after consumption.
I tend to dose insulin when adding carbs to the pot as i can weigh* it then and thus tends to be 20 mins b4 eating most of the time.

* Sdrawkcab gnikrow

Isnt it annoying that manus list carbs/ 100g of cooked food rather than carbs/100g of the form its sold in.

If the the later were used, the cook could work out the right amount of a packet to put in the sauce pan.

Eg a packet tells you:
Cooked rice has 25g CHO/ 100g. But sells it as dried rice.

So we need some sort of conversion to calc dry weight to give you desired portions.

For dry rice, you get about 2/3 the carb back per weight of dried rice.

So if you want 4 portions or 40g cho, divide by 2/3 =60g dried rice to yield 40g cooked carb.


Or if i wanted

30g cho. / 2/3 = 45g dried rice to cook

Of for

20g cho / 2/3 = 30g dried rice to.cook


CHO RATIOS

So really all this revolves around 3 elements. g of cho you want, g of food to prepare to give you that and the CHO ratio = g CHO divided g food

To calc the cho ratio of for example of dried packet food, to understand how many portions you get back from a defined dry weight, you need a scales. I bought myself a 0-500g scales. Its quite handy. £7 on ebay.

Steps to calc carb ratio of packet food (CRpf)

1) drain and weigh packet contains
2) cook drain and weigh packet contents
3) calc CRpf
=( cookd wgt (g) x CRcf) / packet wgt(g)

where CRcf is carb ratio cooked food
On label, under nutritional info, you see cho g per 100g cooked food. But we want cho g per g of cooked food fir tge CRcf. So divide the label's figure by 100 to give you the CRcf.
Eg cooked rice has 25g cho per 100g cooked rice
The CRcf= 25/100 = 0.25g cho per g cooked rice

So now we have the elements : packet wgt , cooked weight, and cooked food carb ratio , we can calc CR packet foid CRpf

CRpf= (cooked wgt x CRcf)/packet wgt

Therefore

CRpf = (267 x 0.25)/100 = 0.67

I.e. every g from the packet has 0.67g cho as sold.
Or 60g dried rice has 40g cho


Why manufs can-t just list cho/g in the form a product is sold, goodness only knows. I guess its a question of minimum stipulated standards req for nutritional info. I wonder who sets that?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Eg a packet tells you:
Cooked rice has 25g CHO/ 100g. But sells it as dried rice.

So we need some sort of conversion to calc dry weight to give you desired portions.

I’ve never liked the ‘cooked weight’ information for rice and pasta, because I always felt it woukd entirely depend on how long you had cooked it and how ‘al dente’ or... erm... soggy the rice or pasta had got.

Many packets state dry weight as well as cooked weight, so I’ve just kept a note of those on my phone over the years 🙂

eg White basmati 100g dry weight becomes 93g CHO
and Brown basmati 100g dry weight becomes 80g CHO

 

[daducky88]

I’ve never liked the ‘cooked weight’ information for rice and pasta, because I always felt it woukd entirely depend on how long you had cooked it and how ‘al dente’ or... erm... soggy the rice or pasta had got.

Many packets state dry weight as well as cooked weight, so I’ve just kept a note of those on my phone over the years 🙂

eg White basmati 100g dry weight becomes 93g CHO
and Brown basmati 100g dry weight becomes 80g CHO

Thats a good a good point re cooking. I cook mine to equilibrium viz where they dont gain or loose more by further cooking.
10 mins rice and pasta, 30 mins a whole spud, one brought to the boil.
Funnily enough a son of friend of mine also cooks al dente nosh where EVERYTHING is crunchy, including te rice and pasta. Frankly i dont think he knows how to cook properly. Its a obviously a personal thang like some drivers racing up to stop line and braking heavily at traffic islands with a car load of passengers. Aaaah heeelp!!!! you see them clawing at the glass, heeeeelp their cries ring out into the distance