BG not under control

[Duane Charles]

Sorry, me again. I’ve been checking my BG between 4 and 6 times a day depending on when I’m eating. I obviously haven’t got this under control yet because my readings have been down as low as 1.2 (something seriously wrong) and as high as 20.8. Apart from an experiment with a chocolate bar the other night, I’ve managed to lay off the sweet stuff. The only thing I haven’t done is make a food diary to see what I’ve eaten and what it does. I forgot to ask yesterday about a dietician, but will do next week when I have a face2face appointment. Apart from the diary, is there anything else I should be doing. I have increased my fluid intake, maybe not sufficiently though.

 

[rayray119]

Hi I'm not type 2 but might be able to offer some advice you said you managed to lay of the sweet stuff however it's not all about suger its carbs that bg as they turn into glucose when we eat them) what other foods are you eating?

 

[Duane Charles]

Breakfast is either porridge or sausage in ciabatta. Meals which are often eaten after midnight because of work, tend to be small portions of rice or pasta with chicken and veg. I’m also drinking about 1L of clear fluid a day, which is good for me.

 

[rayray119]

Breakfast is either porridge or sausage in ciabatta. Meals which are often eaten after midnight because of work, tend to be small portions of rice or pasta with chicken and veg. I’m also drinking about 1L of clear fluid a day, which is good for me.

Ah. that might be it then porridge, bread, rice and pasta are all high carb food.

 

[dalebyrne88]

A few pointers 1 litre is too low for fluids intake and definitely sounds like you are having quite a few carbs and possibly causing you to have spikes and then crashes on your blood sugars.

I think you need to work out a plan for your foods and limit your carbs and try to monitor your levels for a few days.

 

[Duane Charles]

Uh that might be it then porridge, bread, rice and pasta are all high carb food.

There was me thinking that I was doing well with food. I’ll have to go back and look carefully at all the labels. As said in a previous post on another part of the forum, I’m not a “leaf eater” (salads included)

 

[rayray119]

There was me thinking that I was doing well with food. I’ll have to go back and look carefully at all the labels. As said in a previous post on another part of the forum, I’m not a “leaf eater” (salads included)

It's okay to make mistakes we can learn from then.


It's fustates me that not all people are told it's carbs that effect bg not just sugar.

 

[Duane Charles]

A few pointers 1 litre is too low for fluids intake and definitely sounds like you are having quite a few carbs and possibly causing you to have spikes and then crashes on your blood sugars.

I think you need to work out a plan for your foods and limit your carbs and try to monitor your levels for a few days.

I’ll continue to monitor my levels before and 2 hours after as I have been doing. Because of the lateness of my evening/early morning meal I’m waking to do my “after” test, which could be sometime between 2 and 4am. I’m usually awake around 9ish and then take my morning reading without getting out of bed. The monitoring is purely voluntary as I wanted to find out 1) if the medication was helping and 2) what I should or shouldn’t be eating. Plus I’m trying to push for confirmation that I don’t have pancreas damage.

 

[Duane Charles]

A few pointers 1 litre is too low for fluids intake

Unfortunately, I have never been a great drinker. When I got married back in the late 80’s, my ex wife who’s a nurse, pointed out my poor fluid intake and suggested problems later in life. I believe she was taking kidneys and I guess there’s still a possibility of issues there because of it.

 

[Duane Charles]

It's fustates me that not all people are told it's carbs that effect bg not just sugar.

The DN did suggest more fruit and veg in my diet. I’m also sure they’ve mentioned about pasta, rice and bread as you’ve said. Perhaps it was done when I was pre-diabetic and I’d not taken it in.

 

[rayray119]

The DN did suggest more fruit and veg in my diet. I’m also sure they’ve mentioned about pasta, rice and bread as you’ve said. Perhaps it was done when I was pre-diabetic and I’d not taken it in.

Ah okay I have seen others that had thought it was all about suger as well and to be honest before being diagnosed so did I(although being type 1 I don't have limit carbs I just need to be aware of how Manny I'm eating so I can does for it)

 

[Duane Charles]

Ah okay I have seen others that had thought it was all about suger as well and to be honest before being diagnosed so did I(although being type 1 I don't have limit carbs I just need to be aware of how Manny I'm eating so I can does for it)

The other thing is I’m trying to find out if I’m T3c rather than T2 and therefore might need a different regime in my treatment, hence the regular tests.

 

[rayray119]

The other thing is I’m trying to find out if I’m T3c rather than T2 and therefore might need a different regime in my treatment, hence the regular tests.

I'm afraid I can't advise you on that because I'm afraid on that as I'm not sure what the produce for testing for that is.

 

[Duane Charles]

I'm afraid I can't advise you on that because I'm afraid on that as I'm not sure what the produce for testing for that is.

The question has been asked of my GP and I’ll be asking again when I have a face2face appointment next week. It’s so I can eliminate that and concentrate on everything else. Also because this is all “new” to me I’m still struggling to cope with it all mentally, emotionally and physically

 

[snowball12]

So sorry you are struggling. I have been diagnosed 12 years and still struggle mentally and emotionally with my Diabetes. Just wanted to you to know that you are not alone. Try not to be too hard on yourself. You will get there

 

[rayray119]

The question has been asked of my GP and I’ll be asking again when I have a face2face appointment next week. It’s so I can eliminate that and concentrate on everything else. Also because this is all “new” to me I’m still struggling to cope with it all mentally, emotionally and physically

Perhaps you try finding lower carb alternatives for the porigae, rice ,bread and pasta and see if that helps

 

[Duane Charles]

So sorry you are struggling. I have been diagnosed 12 years and still struggle mentally and emotionally with my Diabetes. Just wanted to you to know that you are not alone. Try not to be too hard on yourself. You will get there

Also causing issues at work, not too sure that they understand how this is affecting me

 

[RJN123]

I would recommend that you get a trial Libre 2. It is free from Abbott’s website, and you can use it for two weeks. Combine that with a food diary and you will get a pretty good picture of what causes highs and lows (and hopefully what doesn’t!). It will also be a good starting point for a discussion with your GP or dietician. You may not need to cut out all your usual carbs, but possibly reduce/tweak them. I still eat pasta, but only two handfuls vs four before, brown rice but smaller portions and more of the meat/veg, a half pizza and a tomato salad instead of a whole. Rather than a butty, I now do a cooked breakfast with an extra egg, and only one or a half piece of toast etc etc. This version may not work for everyone, but it has been fine for me, and the Libre “experiment” will give you some indication of what your worst triggers are, and what you need to avoid or tweak.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

Hello @Duane62,

By all means get a free trial Libre 2 from Abbott; but I suggest don't use it just yet. Let's see where your GP gets to and take the advantage of Libre 2 as part of the "next phase" of your investigations.

Concerning waking yourself during the small hours for that 2nd reading - you probably have now gleaned enough data to allow you to have a meaningful dialogue with your GP and perhaps pause the small hours BG check. It's a conflicting balance: on the one hand you are now motivated enough to want to understand what is going on (which is brilliant, by the way) but constantly disrupted sleep patterns are far from good for any of us. The lack of sleep can lead to elevated stress and stress (in any form) can and usually does lead to raised BG levels. Also it leads to tiredness during the day with consequent potential for poor decisions and a tendency to make us irritable with ourselves and others.

Well done with your concious effort to drink more clear fluids. There is clear evidence that excess glucose in the blood stream can be helped by having a high level of hydration. Ideally, now you've taken hold of this aspect and are making a determined effort to improve your hydration level it would be even better if you could increase your clear liquid intake further. Regarding porridge: it is one of those foods that affect individuals very differently. If your daily tests show that usually you don't get a big spike 2 hrs after then you could well be someone that manages porridge well. I say usually because, as I have previously mentioned diabetes management does not always go smoothly and sometimes some seemingly inexplicable big change in BG occurs and that "rogue result" has to be ignored when trying to see patterns of BG behaviour.

Finally you said in your opening post "I obviously haven’t got this under control yet". Please be reassured that in effect none of us get our D under total control; we just hope to manage it as best we can. There are so many factors that can affect our BG that full control is not possible and striving for that perfection can lead to "burnout". We seek to manage our D as best as we can for our peace of mind and when in normal ranges we generally do feel a great deal better (we also should have far less anxiety about some of the dreadful medical secondary difficulties that diabetes can bring about).

 

[Duane Charles]

I would recommend that you get a trial Libre 2. It is free from Abbott’s website, and you can use it for two weeks. Combine that with a food diary and you will get a pretty good picture of what causes highs and lows (and hopefully what doesn’t!). It will also be a good starting point for a discussion with your GP or dietician. You may not need to cut out all your usual carbs, but possibly reduce/tweak them. I still eat pasta, but only two handfuls vs four before, brown rice but smaller portions and more of the meat/veg, a half pizza and a tomato salad instead of a whole. Rather than a butty, I now do a cooked breakfast with an extra egg, and only one or a half piece of toast etc etc. This version may not work for everyone, but it has been fine for me, and the Libre “experiment” will give you some indication of what your worst triggers are, and what you need to avoid or tweak.

Thank you for this suggestion, I’ll leave it until after Christmas as I don’t think I’d get it before then.