Hi can anyone help me with how to test blood sugar and why.
I am type 2 so unsure how much this will help?
Beginning with why. Trying to manage type 2 without testing to see what is going on in your blood glucose levels is like trying to fly a light plane through the Alps in a blizzard with no instruments. You might land safely but the odds are against it.
My blood sugar has been high for over a year now. I can’t get it down.
It was 100 I got it to 70 now it’s up to 80 again.
Is that your HbA1c or is it blood glucose levels in mg/dl? If it is mg/dl am I right in suspecting you only test your fasting blood glucose and don't test often? Actually, all of those numbers are fine if that is the case. Maybe you don't have a problem at all. If testing after meals never leads to results over 140 mg/dl (~8mmol/l) then ignore the ideas I suggest below.
But if that is A1c you need to have a close look at your way of eating. You might also need to discuss a possible need for medication or insulin with your doctor if dietary adjustment does not lead to swift improvement.
I’m losing weight Iv lost a stone which usually lowers it so I’m concerned.
Weight loss if necessary helps but is not the main goal. Your menu might be OK to lose weight but still need adjustment for better blood glucose levels.
Doctor keep swooping my medication to no change.
Any advice on testing appreciated , I am a massage therapist so I do worry about pricking my fingers and hygiene:/
Sorry about the wall of text; I am trying reduce how often I post links.
First, how to test. Do not use an alcohol swab to clean the test site unless there is no other choice. Repeated use of alcohol over time for that purpose will dry out the site and may cause skin problems.
If possible wash your hands in warm soapy water, rinse well and shake them to get the circulation going. Check your lancet-holder; it should be adjustable. Mine is a Soft-clix, made by Roche and is usually painless. That brand has an excellent reputation among the diabetics I know, but any good lancet device should do the job. I get an occasional tiny sting and it lets me know if it's getting blunt sometimes, but I tested over 5000 times in the first four years after diagnosis, before I stopped counting, without any trauma. That's from a guy who was, and is, needle-phobic.
Start with the second lowest setting (1 or 1.5), hold it firmly against your skin on the side of a finger near the tip. Don't flinch when you release the button. The button releases a spring-loaded tiny needle which makes a tiny hole in your skin and instantly retracts. Using the side of your finger-tip has two advantages: there are less nerve-ends than on the pads, and it doubles the number of test-points so you can rotate through the positions.
Massage gently (milking a cow) until a drop of blood forms sufficient to put on the test strip. If this setting doesn't provide an adequate quantity, move the lancet setting up one notch for the next one. If you got a large sample and it hurt a little, go to the lower setting.
And that's all there is to it. Sometimes it helps to shake your hands a little more, or warm them up if it's cold.
The manufacturers advise changing the lancet needle every time; I change mine when I remember or if it gets a bit blunt. I have never had an infection as a result of doing that, nor have I ever heard of it happening from the people I talk to on the web. You do what you are comfortable with, subject to doctor's orders.
How often to test. Any test is wasted if it neither informs nor confirms some information. The tests prescribed by your medics are designed to help them analyse your progress, to assist in their decisions for your treatment - but they do very little to help you personally manage your diabetes. The doctor wants to see your "static" numbers, not the ones that might be very high or low as a result of the carbs you ate, or ignored, at your last meal.
And that's why I add those one-hour post-prandial (after-eating) tests - they help me directly. They are the "dynamic" numbers that showed the direct effect of the food I ate and the exercise I did. I call them one-hour, but the real term should be "peak" or maximum "spike"; mine is one-hour but you'll have to find your own. I don't think the timing of the spike is as important as it's peak level and duration.
Think about it logically. Why would a spike of 10(180) affect you any differently if it occurred at 30, 60, 90 or 120 minutes? It's duration would be a factor - but post-prandial timing of the actual peak should be irrelevant. It still got to that peak, no matter when it occurred.
So, I learned to find my peak. That is slightly different, but reasonably predictable, with different foods and meal mixtures. Drinks, like OJ, spike me very quickly within 30 minutes and drop just as quickly. Which is why some people use them as hypo treatment. Starchy carbs, without much fat, will spike me in 30-45 minutes. But add fat - and it's about 60 minutes. A normal meal combining moderate fat, protein and low GI carbs leads to a peak at 45-75 minutes for me, and so on. That's why I settled on using the 1hr post-prandial test as my guide, but I occasionally do a 30 minute one if the food was low-fat and high-GI.
What to do with the results. Start with whatever you eat now.
Eat, then test after eating at your spike time and if BG’s are too high then review what you ate and change the menu next time. Then do that again, and again, and again until what you eat doesn’t spike you. You will get some surprises, particularly at breakfast time. The so-called "heart-healthy" breakfasts are NOT for most type 2's. Similarly, you will find variations through the day - the same thing will have different effects at breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. But I can't say how they will affect others - only how it affected me - which is why we all need to test ourselves.
As you gradually improve your blood glucose levels, review the resulting way of eating to ensure adequate nutrition, fibre etc are included and adjust accordingly.
Then test again.
Test, review, adjust, always towards better and better blood glucose levels.
And no - you won't have to test so intensively for the rest of your life. As time goes on and you build your knowledge you won't need to test as often because many of your results will become predictable as your numbers improve. You will be building your own personal Glycemic Load database. As that happens you can reduce the intensive testing to "maintenance" levels. I still do two or three fasting tests and several one-hour post-prandial tests randomly each week. Just to be sure that things aren't changing. I may do a few more if I am adding a new dish to the menu or trying a new restaurant. But I no longer need to test after every meal or snack.
