Late tea last night

[mum2westiesGill]

I got really anxious last night because I was having to have my tea later than usual.

I had chinese takeaway chicken fried rice - it's my way of doing things that if I'm having a takeaway for tea I prefer to bolus after eating - it was 20:17pm when I did my bef tea test which was 6.9 within target.

- I weighed my tea out - 195g weight and 41g of carbs for my first bit then 151g weight and 32g of carbs for my next bit - 73g of carbs altogether

- I then manually re-entered my bef tea test result of 6.9 into mysugr insulin advisor and it was 7.5 units of humalog

- I waited until 00:27am to do my bedtime test which was 8.2 so just a tiny bit above 8mmol for bed but couldn't resist 1 rich tea biscuit of 6g of carbs and a bit of extra mature cheddar cheese

- at 8:06 waking this morning I was 11.7 but I followed my insulin advisor and did 1.5 units correction of humalog and by the time I wanted my breakfast at 9:56am I was back within target at 6.7

Is trying to do my best not good enough because for 30 years my BGLs are always up and down? I hear of people saying that their BGLs are always perfect

 

[Inka]

I hear of people saying that their BGLs are always perfect

There’s a name for these people @mum2westiesGill - liars! Nobody can get perfect blood sugars 100% of the time. We might for a day or even a week, but perfection is impossible and aiming for it will stress you out, as it does everyone.

It sounds like you did a good job. Yes, you woke high but you corrected and were quickly back in range. Well done 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

I hear of people saying that their BGLs are always perfect

Where do you see/hear this? I haven't seen anyone here on the forum claim their results are perfect, much as we would all like them to be.

If you wanted to get a better result, then the rich tea biscuit at bedtime was not the best idea but that was your choice.
As @Inka says, you handled the situation well this morning which is the important thing.

 

[Lucyr]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone on this forum say their BGs are perfect. Where are you hearing this?

 

[mum2westiesGill]

I hear of people saying that their BGLs are always perfect

There’s a name for these people @mum2westiesGill - liars! Nobody can get perfect blood sugars 100% of the time. We might for a day or even a week, but perfection is impossible and aiming for it will stress you out, as it does everyone.

It sounds like you did a good job. Yes, you woke high but you corrected and were quickly back in range. Well done 🙂

Thank you @Inka and can I ask what is your latest time for tea?

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Where do you see/hear this? I haven't seen anyone here on the forum claim their results are perfect, much as we would all like them to be.

If you wanted to get a better result, then the rich tea biscuit at bedtime was not the best idea but that was your choice.
As @Inka says, you handled the situation well this morning which is the important thing.

@rebrascora I've not heard of anyone on the forum say that their rests are perfect - I've just heard people in general saying it - maybe they're dreaming it up lol.

Thanks for your comment about the rich tea biscuit - like you say it wasn't a good idea but in the end it all went well

 

[mum2westiesGill]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone on this forum say their BGs are perfect. Where are you hearing this?

Hi @Lucyr I've just heard of people in general saying it - not anyone on the forum.

 

[Inka]

Thank you @Inka and can I ask what is your latest time for tea?

6.30pm probably 🙂 If I go out for a meal, I try to eat early but sometimes it can be as late as 7pm. Anything past that and I start getting a bit antsy, wanting to get my food in me before too late.

Generally I aim for 6pm at home.

 

[Sally71]

I don’t know who these “perfect” people are but I very much doubt they are telling the whole truth. Type 1 is pretty much impossible to keep in range all the time, it just doesn’t work like that. Which is what we keep trying to tell you.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try your best though; you know only too well what happens if you give up trying and end up in hospital. Just cut yourself a bit of slack sometimes. If something doesn’t work out right, try something different next time. Most of us gained most of our knowledge just by trying different things and finding out from that what works best for us. What works brilliantly for one person doesn’t necessarily work for someone else, you have to try it and see. You’re actually doing brilliantly, you just don’t seem to see it - don’t give up! You did really well last night, 11.7 is only slightly above range and you sorted it out again.

If it makes you feel any better, my daughter spent most of the afternoon today with her blood sugars around 16, she did several corrections but might as well have injected water for all the good it did. Finally increased her basal by 40% for a few hours and that brought it down again, unfortunately we weren’t keeping a close enough eye on it though and then she went a bit low! Sigh. No idea what that was all about, bit of a rubbish day for us but no point dwelling on it, try again tomorrow!

* edited to remove an incorrect assumption I made about type 2s. Sorry for any offence caused, none was intended, I shall think before I type in future.

 

[Lucyr]

I don’t think it’s easier for T2s to keep in range just because their pancreas is still producing insulin, that’s a pretty ignorant thing to say really. I find it makes things quite unpredictable and changeable really, I need different basal dose and different ratios depending on what mood my pancreas is in and how much insulin it fancies producing on any given day. Certain foods can cause a big enough spike that my pancreas might then respond, and of course the insulin I injected is still working. For those on tablets these can just cause their pancreas to produce more insulin without any control over when and how much insulin it will produce, and frequently no or very limited means of testing to find that out. It’s different not easier.

 

[Sally71]

Apologies, I didn’t mean to cause offence. I thought this because I’ve known T2s who seem to think that a reading of 8.5 is sky high, therefore I thought it must be easier for them to stay below that. But I accept that I obviously don’t know as much about it as I thought I did so I shall stick to talking about T1 in future because that's what I know about. Sorry

 

[mum2westiesGill]

I don’t know who these “perfect” people are but I very much doubt they are telling the whole truth. Type 1 is pretty much impossible to keep in range all the time, it just doesn’t work like that. Which is what we keep trying to tell you.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try your best though; you know only too well what happens if you give up trying and end up in hospital. Just cut yourself a bit of slack sometimes. If something doesn’t work out right, try something different next time. Most of us gained most of our knowledge just by trying different things and finding out from that what works best for us. What works brilliantly for one person doesn’t necessarily work for someone else, you have to try it and see. You’re actually doing brilliantly, you just don’t seem to see it - don’t give up! You did really well last night, 11.7 is only slightly above range and you sorted it out again.

If it makes you feel any better, my daughter spent most of the afternoon today with her blood sugars around 16, she did several corrections but might as well have injected water for all the good it did. Finally increased her basal by 40% for a few hours and that brought it down again, unfortunately we weren’t keeping a close enough eye on it though and then she went a bit low! Sigh. No idea what that was all about, bit of a rubbish day for us but no point dwelling on it, try again tomorrow!

* edited to remove an incorrect assumption I made about type 2s. Sorry for any offence caused, none was intended, I shall think before I type in future.

Thank you for your reply. I'll make a big effort to stop beating myself up about whether it's high or low. Like you say it's absolutely impossible to keep in range all the time.

Thanks for saying about your daughter and I'm pleased that by increasing her basal brought it back down. I'm sorry she went low after. I was low 3.2 at 23:07pm bedtime and have absolutely no idea why. I got the carb count at 19:02pm teatime for Iceland Chicken Fried Rice correct - 56g for half a pack and I had the full pack because it was only a small pack so it was 112g of carbs altogether - BGL was 10.8 and insulin calculator told me to take 11.0 units for food and 1.5 units for correction. I had a gin and diet pepsi during the evening.

After my hypo treatment of 1x 150ml can of non-diet coca-cola I was 4.2 so had 3 rich tea biscuits 18g of carbs and BGL this morning was 5.5.

No point in dwelling on it - try again at the next test or the if it's bedtime the next day

 

[Sally71]

Pleased to say that daughter has been sitting steadily around 7-8 most of the time so far today so no idea what was going on yesterday! We did have a pub lunch so maybe she underdosed for that, we don’t weigh everything like you do and just take a guess, usually get it about right but maybe we messed up yesterday! We’ll see what happens this afternoon, if she goes up again then I might have to consider a more permanent basal change. There’s always something that needs looking at!

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Pleased to say that daughter has been sitting steadily around 7-8 most of the time so far today so no idea what was going on yesterday! We did have a pub lunch so maybe she underdosed for that, we don’t weigh everything like you do and just take a guess, usually get it about right but maybe we messed up yesterday! We’ll see what happens this afternoon, if she goes up again then I might have to consider a more permanent basal change. There’s always something that needs looking at!

Awww @Sally71 I'm glad your daughter is more steady today. Yesterday was yesterday and today is today a new day. I hope you all enjoyed your pub lunch. Now for a bit of advice from me lol get some scales and weigh your daughter's food lol - if you usually get it right then that's brilliant! Still on the pub lunch subject what did you have?

 

[Sally71]

I had a burger, she had scampi, it was one of those pubs where everything comes with chips but we didn’t mind! Usually guess 5 per scampi but they looked larger than usual so I said 8 each and then 40 for the chips. Of course I don’t work her pump for her any more so I didn’t see what she actually entered! Then we had biscuits for pudding, maybe she forgot to bolus for those, I don’t check everything she does any more because she has to learn to do it for herself and accept the consequences if she gets it wrong. (I’ll help her if she needs it of course, I think that last sentence possibly sounds harsher than I meant it to, but she has to learn how manage her diabetes herself, I won’t be there forever!)

 

[PattiEvans]

There’s a name for these people @mum2westiesGill - liars! Nobody can get perfect blood sugars 100% of the time. We might for a day or even a week, but perfection is impossible and aiming for it will stress you out, as it does everyone.

....and the minute you make a positive comment about your diabetes in public, it hears you and immediately sets out to make you a liar! In the thread where I asked about advice for setting up Libre 2 on my phone I commented that I rarely went over 13.3. The comment was based on the 90 day "Time in Target" which said I had only 1% over 13.3. So diabetes fought back and won...with far too much time over 13.3 in the last 7 days. It's very definitely a sneaky little beast!

 

[mark king]

Yes @Pattidevans our Diabetes is a little bit like steering a car - - you constantly need to have hands on and ensure you're still heading in the right direction.
Also it pays to take note of any signs and act accordingly but just like on the road some are better than others at doing it.

Best

 

[PattiEvans]

Yes @Pattidevans our Diabetes is a little bit like steering a car - - you constantly need to have hands on and ensure you're still heading in the right direction.
Also it pays to take note of any signs and act accordingly but just like on the road some are better than others at doing it.

Best

Oh yes @mark king .. I know and I know why I went off down some cart track.... too many very impromptu meals during the nice weather with no time to bolus ahead.

 

[Molly M]

I got really anxious last night because I was having to have my tea later than usual.

I had chinese takeaway chicken fried rice - it's my way of doing things that if I'm having a takeaway for tea I prefer to bolus after eating - it was 20:17pm when I did my bef tea test which was 6.9 within target.

- I weighed my tea out - 195g weight and 41g of carbs for my first bit then 151g weight and 32g of carbs for my next bit - 73g of carbs altogether

- I then manually re-entered my bef tea test result of 6.9 into mysugr insulin advisor and it was 7.5 units of humalog

- I waited until 00:27am to do my bedtime test which was 8.2 so just a tiny bit above 8mmol for bed but couldn't resist 1 rich tea biscuit of 6g of carbs and a bit of extra mature cheddar cheese

- at 8:06 waking this morning I was 11.7 but I followed my insulin advisor and did 1.5 units correction of humalog and by the time I wanted my breakfast at 9:56am I was back within target at 6.7

Is trying to do my best not good enough because for 30 years my BGLs are always up and down? I hear of people saying that their BGLs are always perfect

My OH doesn't have diabetes but has been checking his bg sometimes after I've done mine and his readings vary - mostly lower than mine but sometimes higher. I can't see how anyone, never mind someone with diabetes, could get their levels perfect all the time.

 

[mark king]

Sorry @Pattidevans I didn't mean to cause you offence I was just trying to give Gill some tips that could be put to some use.

Best