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Hi

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Pwinnock13

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I have type 1 diabetes, since 2002. Enjoy travelling, socialising, theatre, playing petanque. Belong to a writer's group and speaker's.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum 🙂
 
Welcome to the forum @Pwinnock13
It sounds like you have a busy time With all your interests.
I look forward to your input on here.

If you would like to it would be great to know if you use MDI, pump, sensors, …
 
SB2015 said:
Welcome to the forum @Pwinnock13
It sounds like you have a busy time With all your interests.
I look forward to your input on here.

If you would like to it would be great to know if you use MDI, pump, sensors, …
Click to expand...
Hi No I use a sliding scale, which suits me better.
 
helli said:
I have never heard of ”sliding scale” in this context.
Can you explain (to satisfy my curiosity)?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
I think it means that you adjust the dose of insulin based on your blood sugar but don’t adjust it for the food you are eating?

So if you had a good blood sugar before breakfast and were eating a lot more carbohydrates than usual, you’d take the breakfast dose only based on the good blood sugar and not take more for the higher carbohydrate meal. At lunch your blood sugar would be higher because of the big breakfast so you’d take more insulin then.

That might be wrong so let me know if it is but that’s how I’ve heard it described by people before. I’ve heard it used for people who eat the same thing every day but aren’t capable of carbohydrate counting, eg where carers help with their meals.
 
A sliding scale is that you adjust the dose of insulin according to your test metre reading. This suits me better than other treatments.
 
Inka said:
That’s interesting @Lucyr Thank you - I’d not heard of that.
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I’d only heard of it in the context of hospitals, where they have you on an insulin drip, and adjust it up or down whenever they take a blood glucose sample. It seems reactive, not proactive. I didn’t realise anyone used the concept for every day life.
 
Pwinnock13 said:
A sliding scale is that you adjust the dose of insulin according to your test metre reading. This suits me better than other treatments.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that info. I have never heard of this method.
So do you still use basal and bolus insulins and use this method with just your bolus insulin or is this using a mixed insulin or something else? And when do you inject your insulin.... Obviously premeal when you take a reading, but before every meal or just twice a day? Just trying to understand the problem at the hotel restaurant you mentioned on your other thread. Did you inject before you went down to dinner?
 
Pwinnock13 said:
A sliding scale is that you adjust the dose of insulin according to your test metre reading. This suits me better than other treatments.
Click to expand...
As a matter of interest what insulin's do you use and do you adjust your insulin for the amount of carbs you eat at each meal time?
 
Pwinnock13 said:
A sliding scale is that you adjust the dose of insulin according to your test metre reading. This suits me better than other treatments.
Click to expand...

Thanks for explaining 🙂 So what insulins do you take and when?
 
Pumper_Sue said:
As a matter of interest what insulin's do you use and do you adjust your insulin for the amount of carbs you eat at each meal time?
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Novorapid and Toujeo. I do not count the carbs, tried this method and it didn't work for me. So a doctor recommended the sliding scale to me.
 
Pwinnock13 said:
Novorapid and Toujeo. I do not count the carbs, tried this method and it didn't work for me. So a doctor recommended the sliding scale to me.
Click to expand...
I'm curious as to why it didn't work for you. As long as you take the time to work out your carb ratio for each of your meals (time of day) and your basal is correct you wont have this hassle of having to eat on time. From your other thread your basal is obviously wrong if you went as low as you did. It sounds as if you are having to feed your basal/mop up excess.

Ask to go on a proper carb counting course or look at the BERTIE website which will teach you how to go about things safely and take out the worry of having to eat as you do.
 
Pumper_Sue said:
I'm curious as to why it didn't work for you. As long as you take the time to work out your carb ratio for each of your meals (time of day) and your basal is correct you wont have this hassle of having to eat on time. From your other thread your basal is obviously wrong if you went as low as you did. It sounds as if you are having to feed your basal/mop up excess.

Ask to go on a proper carb counting course or look at the BERTIE website which will teach you how to go about things safely and take out the worry of having to eat as you do.
Click to expand...
I do not get too many low readings just on the odd occasion.
 
Pwinnock13 said:
I do not get too many low readings just on the odd occasion.
Click to expand...

That’s good. How about highs though? Re the carb counting, I’ve never met anyone it doesn’t work for. Perhaps your initial ratios were wrong? I worked mine out myself.

A question - if you use this sliding scale, as you describe, do you stick to the same amount of carbs for your meals each day, or do you add/reduce your sliding scale insulin recommendation according to the carbs you’re about to eat?

Actually, I have more questions too because I’m fascinated, but I’ll leave it at that one for now. I’ve never ‘met’ anyone on a sliding scale like you describe so do forgive the questions and interest.
 
Welcome to the forum @Pwinnock13

I am also very interested to hear more about your approach, as it’s not one I’ve heard of before!

You may have to forgive us for our incessant questioning. Glad you’ve found a system that works well for you. 🙂

Do you carry fast-acting glucose with you in case of low blood sugars? Sounds like that might have been helpful in the restaurant.

At 2.1 I would certainly want to be taking some fast acting carbs. rather than ‘normal‘ food personally.
 
Pwinnock13 said:
I adjust the dose according to my meter readings.
Click to expand...

So you would look at your meter reading before your meal then inject according to what that reading was whether you were about to have a light lunch eg salad and a couple of crackers, or a large lunch of roast, potatoes, veg and apple crumble? That is, you do not think about the food that you’re about to eat?

Then that food and the subsequent blood sugar rise is dealt with when you test and inject at your next meal?

That’s what I think you mean but I don’t want to misunderstand. I would guess your basal is maybe mopping up some of the carbs too?
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Welcome to the forum @Pwinnock13

I am also very interested to hear more about your approach, as it’s not one I’ve heard of before!

You may have to forgive us for our incessant questioning. Glad you’ve found a system that works well for you. 🙂

Do you carry fast-acting glucose with you in case of low blood sugars? Sounds like that might have been helpful in the restaurant.

At 2.1 I would certainly want to be taking some fast acting carbs. rather than ‘normal‘ food personally.
Click to expand...
Yes I do and took a few.
 
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