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Advice please

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Now all those replies are very helpful and reassuring. Thank you.
 
I am learning as I go. But I don't know what I need to know until I hit some brick wall of confusion or panic. I am so glad that this forum is here to help.
 
Gwynn said:
I am learning as I go. But I don't know what I need to know until I hit some brick wall of confusion or panic. I am so glad that this forum is here to help.
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Keep posting, glad you’re feeling better about things.
 
The ONE thing about diabetes it is essential for healthy survival to know - is never stop asking questions about it, Gwynn !

None of us knows everything!!
 
Gwynn said:
I am learning as I go. But I don't know what I need to know until I hit some brick wall of confusion or panic. I am so glad that this forum is here to help.
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I think that's probably true for all of us, from those who are newly diagnosed to those who've been living with this for decades. There isn't a single person on here with all the answers.
 
pm133 said:
I think that's probably true for all of us, from those who are newly diagnosed to those who've been living with this for decades. There isn't a single person on here with all the answers.
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Nor anywhere else.
 
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I realise that I know so little. Very humbling.
I realise that the human body is incredible. Very humbling.
I realise that there are kind lovely people out there. Very humbling.
I realise that I am just one lone tiny person in one huge World. Very humbling.
I realise that in reality I am not really in control. Very humbling.

I will certainly keep asking questions and posting what is going on and I will certainly let you know when they finally come to a diagnosis. It has been over 2 months now since I was admitted to hospital. Surely they must have the blood test work back by now.

I had no idea, but should have realised that my body would need time to 'wake up' in the morning. By sheer chance I had been waking up quite early and testing at least one hour later. Except, yesterday when I got up late at 5:45 am and tested before 6am. I was very shocked and worried by the first very low reading. Several of you helped me understand and the next two readings at 6:30am and 7:am were fine. But the initial panic that I felt was horrible.

I have been obsessing and worrying about everything, trying to control everything whilst knowing nothing and learning fast. It seemed to work and maybe it will going forwards, to some extent. It has all made me feel very fragile amd very alone. This is where your forum has helped me so much. I no longer feel completely alone and you are there with your own experiences and understandings to help me where you can.

Good on you all !

Very humbling.
 
Reading this morning 5.1.

What did I do differently? Nothing except waiting 1 hr after waking before taking the reading.
 
Gwynn said:
This is where your forum has helped me so much. I no longer feel completely alone and you are there with your own experiences and understandings to help me where you can.
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Glad you have been finding the forum helpful @Gwynn

Keep us updated with how things are going and keep asking questions 🙂

Part of learning to live with diabetes, for me, is learning to strike the balance between being kind to yourself when things don’t work as expected, and learning when to try to apply more focus and experimentation to improve results in a certain situation.

‘control’ is a tricky word, because there are so many things that can affect BG that we don’t directly influence, but we can gradually learn how to work around many of those, and just roll with it where our diabetes throws a spanner in the works 🙂
 
This becomming even more confusing to me. If any of you can shed some light on things then I will be very grateful.

Test at 3:45pm right hand. Result 8.0 surprise as carbs were well controlled.
Retest at 3:50 left hand. Result 7.3
Retest at 4:00 right hand. Result 6.3
Retest at 4:10 left hand. Result E-3
Retest at 4:12 left hand. Result 6.1

Is my pancreas suddenly intermittently playing up/working ok?
Is my test machine suddenly intermittently playing up/working ok.
Is there some new factor I am unaware of.

I believe that testing is very important but the result just minutes apart are very different. I decided to do several retests just to gather more data and to see if there was any trend or consistent error.

Help I feel like a pin cushion
 
Those are all normal @Gwynn The first two are just variations of the same thing (the meter has a margin of error) and the ones in the 6s are most probably your blood sugar decreasing slightly naturally just as it’s supposed to.

Blood sugar naturally goes up and down throughout the day. Meters have a margin of error, and you’ll rarely get exactly the same result with multiple tests in a few minutes.
 
Is a variation of 1.7 within 30 minutes normal? If so, it wouldn't take very long to get into trouble without realising it.

I am not sure what this tells me. Had I taken some insulin because my BG was higher than expected (advice was given to do so in this situation) then I might have got into difficult waters quite quickly.

So do I sort of ignore the meter readings or rely on them but take multiple readings each time.

I cannot rely on how I feel because I feel fine all the time. Best not to leave it until a hypo appears too.

Today was like all the other days. No extra carbs. No less carbs. Well balanced. All consumed at precise times. So there was no expectation of any significant variance. And a 1.7 difference is significant.

Rats, I am back in panic mode again.
 
Well all meters have a plus or minus margin of error of 15% anyway - so what actually is/was your correct BG?

Truth is - none of us know!! We all have to live with that. If the meter suddenly tells you after eating carbs that you are in double figures when you've been around 4 or 5 for hours previously - then yes, looks like you needed some insulin for that - so have some now.

One sole occasion of double figures seriously cannot kill you anytime soon.

If it's 20+ and stays there for long it can - but still slowly.
 
As people have mentioned, blood glucose meters are only accurate to within 15%. So if your blood sugar is 7, the meter can show anything between 6 and 8 and be accurate. Add on top of that, different fingers are different samples, and blood sugar is constantly changing so even testing 5-10 mins later can give a different number (I’m told to test after 10-15 mins if I’m low to see if my blood sugar is fixed). All that means that a change of 1.7 in 30 minutes is completely normal.
 
And yet I had not eaten or drunk anything in the 30 minutes of testing or the two hours before.

I wasn't worried that the higher reading would kill me but the effects of too much insulin incorrectly taken based on one higher reading.

In the end I decided that 6.1 to 6.3 is probably right and did nothing. A variance of 1.7 is higher than %15 (I think).

Looking things up online suggests that the blood glucose level is unlikely to change significantly rapidly with no input of food or drink.

So was a change of 1.7 in 30 minutes with no food or recent food significant? It dropped 1 point in 5 minutes according to the meter.

I am still confused. Things will always vary but surely not by such a large amount in such a small time frame?

Sorry if I sound a bit off I am a panicked and concerned
 
Gwynn said:
And yet I had not eaten or drunk anything in the 30 minutes of testing or the two hours before.

I wasn't worried that the higher reading would kill me but the effects of too much insulin incorrectly taken based on one higher reading.

In the end I decided that 6.1 to 6.3 is probably right and did nothing. A variance of 1.7 is higher than %15 (I think).

Looking things up online suggests that the blood glucose level is unlikely to change significantly rapidly with no input of food or drink.

So was a change of 1.7 in 30 minutes with no food or recent food significant? It dropped 1 point in 5 minutes according to the meter.

I am still confused. Things will always vary but surely not by such a large amount in such a small time frame?

Sorry if I sound a bit off I am a panicked and concerned
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It’s 15% either way, so 30% pretty much. Your blood sugar looks to have been naturally dropping in that time too.
 
Every single one of those readings is within 15% of 7. Nothing to be alarmed about or unexpected! Remember readings are ISH, so they are all 7ish.

Readings are not just affected by food, lots of other factors involved, including stress! - and stress can put people up or down......
 
Gwynn said:
And yet I had not eaten or drunk anything in the 30 minutes of testing or the two hours before.

I wasn't worried that the higher reading would kill me but the effects of too much insulin incorrectly taken based on one higher reading.

In the end I decided that 6.1 to 6.3 is probably right and did nothing. A variance of 1.7 is higher than %15 (I think).

Looking things up online suggests that the blood glucose level is unlikely to change significantly rapidly with no input of food or drink.

So was a change of 1.7 in 30 minutes with no food or recent food significant? It dropped 1 point in 5 minutes according to the meter.

I am still confused. Things will always vary but surely not by such a large amount in such a small time frame?

Sorry if I sound a bit off I am a panicked and concerned
Click to expand...
Was your last meal fatty by any chance as, fatty meals can sometimes make blood sugar rise over a longer period.
 
Gwynn said:
And yet I had not eaten or drunk anything in the 30 minutes of testing or the two hours before.

I wasn't worried that the higher reading would kill me but the effects of too much insulin incorrectly taken based on one higher reading.

In the end I decided that 6.1 to 6.3 is probably right and did nothing. A variance of 1.7 is higher than %15 (I think).

Looking things up online suggests that the blood glucose level is unlikely to change significantly rapidly with no input of food or drink.

So was a change of 1.7 in 30 minutes with no food or recent food significant? It dropped 1 point in 5 minutes according to the meter.

I am still confused. Things will always vary but surely not by such a large amount in such a small time frame?

Sorry if I sound a bit off I am a panicked and concerned
Click to expand...

@Gwynn There is honestly no need to panic about those readings. I’ve often tested my non-diabetic friends. They have 4.8s, 6.9s, 7.8s - anything within the normal range. Their blood sugar goes up and down within the normal range. That is.....normal.

You say you were told to use insulin if you were high? 6 or 7 is not high. 8 isn’t high. 15 would be high but you’re well away from that. You’re eating carbs and your body is behaving normally at the moment.

You seem to be thinking that blood sugar should remain basically the same figure - but it doesn’t.

My advice if you’re not taking any insulin is to test less. It’s clearly stressing you unnecessarily.
 
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