Accu Chek Combo and hypo question

[sam4]

Hi all
I had a problem with a couple of combo blood machine handsets, and now I have a new one I think I have a problem, but just wanted to see if anyone else had experienced this?

For example when I test my glucose and it is say 3.2mmol, it will flash up and advise say take 18g carbs. I then cannot enter into the 18g carbs into the bolus advisor by pressing the right key to tell it what carbs i have eaten, and it takes me back to the main menu.

When at the main menu and I go into bolus advice, any carbs entered there it wants to give me the full amount of insulin, not taking into account the hypo I just had,

I have posted a quick video below if anyone might be able to help me with this? It sounds slightly confusing.

Thanks.

 

[Sally71]

it's telling you to eat carbs because you are hypo, so you shouldn't be taking any insulin with them, because the whole point of the carbs is to bring your blood sugar back up to normal, and taking insulin as well would only drop it back down again. That's why it won't let you enter them. It's just trying to be helpful and is basically saying "you're hypo, you need some glucose quick!" but you don't need insulin as well in that instance and it isn't expecting you to try to bolus any. Hope that helps 🙂

 

[SB2015]

I also found this confusing at the start, but as Sally says the meter does not need to know about the carbs as they are just being used to get you back on target.

I wanted a record of what I had done so that I could get a measure of how many jelly babies to use from different levels. I just write it down until I had it sorted.

 

[sam4]

Ah great thanks for the replys.🙂

I was just sure that before my BG machine started playing up I could enter some carbs, such as if it recommended to eat at least 18g carbs and I had something for example 30 carbs, that it would then work the total amount of insulin required from my low BG reading to match the extra carbs. but maybe not haha

 

[Sally71]

Ah great thanks for the replys.🙂

I was just sure that before my BG machine started playing up I could enter some carbs, such as if it recommended to eat at least 18g carbs and I had something for example 30 carbs, that it would then work the total amount of insulin required from my low BG reading to match the extra carbs. but maybe not haha

No it has never worked like that, if you are hypo then it won't let you do a bolus, for safety reasons. Although you can get round that, just go to the Bolus Advice from the main menu and put the carbs in, you'll get a warning that you should blood test first but you can overrule that. Be aware though that it won't take your last BG reading into account and will calculate the amount of the bolus purely on the number of carbs!

Ideally you should sort the hypo out before you even think about taking any more insulin, I realise that this isn't always convenient though! If my daughter is low at a mealtime, instead of giving her extra glucose plus her meal, I reduce the carb count of the meal by 10 and put it on an Extended bolus of 30-60 mins (depending on how low she is and what the food consists of), so that she'll come back up just by eating her meal and doesn't need any extra sugar. As long as the meal itself contains enough carbs of course!

 

[SB2015]

I like that idea Sally. I have sat for 15 min with a meal back in the oven whilst I sort a hypo. However next time, so long as I am not too low, I shall try your strategy. Thanks.