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First day on MDI

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
SusieGriff

SusieGriff

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
It's mt first full day on MDI, I have been so nervous about it too. I have been trying to work out the carb values of foods, from the packets, but then resort back to my book 'carbs and cals' it seems so much easier that way.
I doubt myself all the time, whether I'm doing my sums right, lol
This is the first day with basal insulin too, yesterday was just humalog until night time, today I've had quite high readings about 9's and 11's then after a long walk it dropped down to 4. so I had a couple of jelly babies till my dinner was ready in about half an hour. am I doing the right thing?
😱
I'm sure I'll get used to it, but for today I'm still doubtful, and scared of it all.
 
If you are worried that your adding up isn't to scratch why not use a calculator - you will probably have one on your phone.

You'll get there don't worry - at the moment its all a learning time. If you dropped from 9 to 4 between lunch and evening meal you may have to reduce that ratio (assuming sums correct) but it will take a couple of days for things to settle and your DSN should review it all with you.
 
It really won't be long, trust me, when you can become a complete bore reciting the carb values of almost everything in your fridge and cupboards! It really does become second nature in no time at all. Of course there will be odd things you have to look up from time to time, and eating out will throw you for a while, but on the whole you soon fall into knowing how much is in what, at least in the regular food you eat. Food is well labelled these days, and with digital kitchen scales it's easy enough to weigh your own portion of rice etc as you serve it up. I typed up a list of common things we eat; rice, pasta, potatoes, flour, bread, fruit etc, and put the carb values with them then laminated it and left it in the kitchen. It's just there for quick reference and very useful. I only have to look up odd items now.
 
Tina63 said:
It really won't be long, trust me, when you can become a complete bore reciting the carb values of almost everything in your fridge and cupboards! It really does become second nature in no time at all. Of course there will be odd things you have to look up from time to time, and eating out will throw you for a while, but on the whole you soon fall into knowing how much is in what, at least in the regular food you eat. Food is well labelled these days, and with digital kitchen scales it's easy enough to weigh your own portion of rice etc as you serve it up. I typed up a list of common things we eat; rice, pasta, potatoes, flour, bread, fruit etc, and put the carb values with them then laminated it and left it in the kitchen. It's just there for quick reference and very useful. I only have to look up odd items now.
Click to expand...

Good Idea Tina, right now I am doing a similar thing in a little notebook, but the laminated list sounds good.
 
nomorecakes said:
I've had quite high readings about 9's and 11's then after a long walk it dropped down to 4. so I had a couple of jelly babies till my dinner was ready in about half an hour. am I doing the right thing?
Click to expand...

Its suprising how exercise effects blood sugars isnt it! Yes you did the right thing, if you hadnt of had those jelly babies it may have dropped lower so well done for correcting it yourself 🙂 i was the same but you will soon get the hang of carb counting, most things will have the nutritional info on the label but i always refer to my carb count books so when i eat out i can sort of guess by looking at the portion size how many carbs are in it....its a learning curve 😉
 
It won't be long before you no longer see food, but just see portions of carbs and slow or fast acting.

Write everything down. Be it what you eat, what you inject and what activities you do as well as the all important BG tests. It will pay dividends over the coming weeks and months.

You can then work back through looking for patterns of highs or lows and fine tune your ratios for different situations.

Sounds like you're doing fine so far.🙂

Rob
 
Robster65 said:
It won't be long before you no longer see food, but just see portions of carbs and slow or fast acting.
Click to expand...

I actually just 'squeed' with excitement. This is EXACTLY my relationship with food and the best way I have seen it put. Plates of food just can't excite me because I don't really see flavours etc, I just see carbs and their GI!
 
Since not long after diagnosis, I started valuing food by its carb/? ratio. If I was buying sweets (for hypos mainly) I'd go for something with more 'bangs' per buck.

I love my food and am lucky that I eat good tasty meals, but it's still primarily a form of treatment.

Rob
 
Stick with MDI as it will get easier with time and soon it will become second nature to count the carbs and inject the right dose, as Tina says buy some digital kitchen scales as these are vital in calculating the carb value as accurately as possible.
 
Can't add tot the advice given. It sounds like you have made a good start and have lots of help here.
 
If you prefer using your book to reading packets, that's fine - do what works for you. If you find yourself low before a meal, then a jelly baby or two is ideal. As when starting with bimodal insulin, it's best to start with lower doses, which will mean slightly higher blood sugars at first.

One tip, which is completely unscientific, but has worked for me on many occasions, is to trust your instincts eg there have been times when I haven't injected before joining evening meal queue at a student hostel where I was living - and there were a couple of times where queue moved very slowly or one food dish ran out or there was a fire alarw, when I would have needed to eat my whole pocket full of jelly babies to use up the insulin, then not been hungry for tea.
 
Thanks for all your tips, BTW, I do have digital kitchen scales, and a calculator, it's just at first you don't know if you're giving the right amount! I always doubt myself, but it's been right so far. I have, over the past few days, been at a level-ish of around 9.0 so I think i'm doing the right thing with the humalog, but after reading all these threads, I think maybe my lantus needs upping a tad. I'll speak o my DSN in a day or so after I've got a few days to show her.
 
NMC - Glad it's going well for you so far, you'd know if your Lantus was right if you were able to miss a meal (and took not humalog) and your BG stayed pretty steady.

Many people take their bedtime/pre breakfast readings as a guide (since you don't usually eat much overnight!), but it can help to check using the day too. Shiv has posted a good link about basal testing on here before. Getting your basal right is pretty crucial if you are going to get your mealtime doses to behave themselves (something it took me over 15 years to work out!)
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
NMC - Glad it's going well for you so far, you'd know if your Lantus was right if you were able to miss a meal (and took not humalog) and your BG stayed pretty steady.

Many people take their bedtime/pre breakfast readings as a guide (since you don't usually eat much overnight!), but it can help to check using the day too. Shiv has posted a good link about basal testing on here before. Getting your basal right is pretty crucial if you are going to get your mealtime doses to behave themselves (something it took me over 15 years to work out!)
Click to expand...

Fifteen years !!!!!!😱
 
Yes.. er... well... I sort of knew that basal affected FBG and everything.. but I'd never really thought about the link to daytime bolus activity and/or come across a systematic way of testing whether basal was actually doing its job at various different points in the day until the last few years.

Needless to say, now I'm a regular-ish basal tester my changing basal needs have explained many a 'What on earth?!?!?' moment in the past. Just one unit too much or too little basal over the course of the day can lead to some very erratic bolus behaviours (requiring disproportionately large corrections/carb top-ups).

Daft eh!
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Yes.. er... well... I sort of knew that basal affected FBG and everything.. but I'd never really thought about the link to daytime bolus activity and/or come across a systematic way of testing whether basal was actually doing its job at various different points in the day until the last few years.

Needless to say, now I'm a regular-ish basal tester my changing basal needs have explained many a 'What on earth?!?!?' moment in the past. Just one unit too much or too little basal over the course of the day can lead to some very erratic bolus behaviours (requiring disproportionately large corrections/carb top-ups).

Daft eh!
Click to expand...
Oh My! I have sooooooooo much to learn. darn D !!!
 
A lot of what I now know, and practice, has come to me in the past 6-9 months and I've been playing this game for 33 flippin years!! 🙄

You've done absolutley the right thing in joining the forum at the start so you can get into the right routines from day 1.

Although, its still a huge guessing game much of the time but your guesswork becomes way better.🙂

Rob
 
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