Can anyone advise on how to avoid treating a hypo and waiting 15 minutes when my food is ready?

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mum2westiesGill

mum2westiesGill

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
We all have our own ways and mine is that I'm happy testing and injecting when my food is in front of me.

I tested last night when my tea was ready and found I was hypo so had to treat it and wait 15 minutes - my food was going cold. Is there a way I can avoid this? My hubby suggested testing 15 minutes before my food is ready then if I'm hypo I can treat it.
 
I'd say it would depend how low you were, if just below 4 I would've popped a couple of my Lifts and eaten right away with a reduced bolus xx
 
Interestingly I had to do exactly that this morning because I bolused for breakfast then got distracted. I simply ate a Dextro tablet and then ate my breakfast.

If you’re about to eat anyway and have a hypo, then you don’t need to wait 15 mins. Have some glucose and eat your meal.
 
We just reduce the meal bolus by 15g and eat straight away, assuming there’s enough carbohydrate in the meal to bring you up again. We have an advantage with the pump though that we can tell it to drip the bolus in slowly and not all at once. Have some glucose and then get on with your meal sounds like a good idea.
 
Sally71 said:
We just reduce the meal bolus by 15g and eat straight away, assuming there’s enough carbohydrate in the meal to bring you up again.
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Yes I would always reduce the meal bolus by 15g following a hypo.

Sally71 said:
Have some glucose and then get on with your meal sounds like a good idea.
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The Insulin advisor would be showing that I'm hypo so if I did this at what point would I enter the meal carbs into the Insulin advisor to get my meal bolus advice? Would it be after my meal in which case the Insulin advice would be based on my after meal test?
 
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Inka said:
Interestingly I had to do exactly that this morning because I bolused for breakfast then got distracted. I simply ate a Dextro tablet and then ate my breakfast.
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Inka said:
If you’re about to eat anyway and have a hypo, then you don’t need to wait 15 mins. Have some glucose and eat your meal.
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I know this is the same thing I asked @Sally71 about
The Insulin advisor would be showing that I'm hypo so if I did this at what point would I enter the meal carbs into the Insulin advisor to get my meal bolus advice?
 
I never use a bolus calculator @mum2westiesGill but I think if I did,I’d eat my glucose (that’s the priority) and enter a made-up lowish normal blood sugar to get the bolus amount. That way the advisor will simply calculate the carbs according to your usual ratio. So, as an example, if I was 3 I’d eat my glucose and, say, enter my blood sugar as 5 on the advisor.
 
The MySugr bolus advisor won't calculate when you're hypo. This is when I would do my own calculation, and as others say, chew a Lift or two before starting the meal.
 
Yes if you tell it you're hypo it won’t calculate a bolus. I'd just put the carbs in (less a few if that's what you’re doing) and not enter a BG amount. It will complain but you should be able to override that and then it will give you bolus amount for carbs only.
 
It sounds like your calculator is being over-helpful? If you have a hypo and about to have a Carby meal just tuck in with no wait. Have a Dextrose tablet as well if the meal won't have enough carbs or has a high level of fat which slows carb absorption.
 
This is what I would do:
Never inject insulin on a low. Never ruin a meal by letting it go cold.
Eat the meal. If it does not contain rapid acting carbs I might add fruit juice or similar which can be taken with the meal.

Check BG soon after the meal and then inhect a reduced dose of insulin. Iust calculate the carbs needed fot the meal and calculate the correction using the BG value before the meal. Add this negative number to the calculated dose to reduce it.
 
leonS said:
This is what I would do:
Never inject insulin on a low. Never ruin a meal by letting it go cold.
Eat the meal. If it does not contain rapid acting carbs I might add fruit juice or similar which can be taken with the meal.

Check BG soon after the meal and then inhect a reduced dose of insulin. Iust calculate the carbs needed fot the meal and calculate the correction using the BG value before the meal. Add this negative number to the calculated dose to reduce it.
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Yes, I think that's what I do.

Regardless, if you're low and the food's ready then obviously eat it and take some insulin as soon as is convenient (maybe just after eating, or part way through the meal). The idea of correcting the hypo with dextrose tablets and waiting (allowing the food to go cold) seems quite wrong.
 
I usually just have a small hypo treatment to start to lift levels asap (say 5g carbs.... 1 JB or Lift tablet) and then eat straight away. I don't use a bolus calculator so can't advise on how you might get around that.
 
I think Gill injects just after the meal normally, not just when hypo pre-meal.
Take hypo treatment. Maybe wait a minute or two to give that a head start, but not the full 15 minutes.
Eat meal.
Follow Sally's advice above, enter meal carbs less 15g and no BG reading.
If it won't let you do this, follow Inka's advice and enter a made up mid range number.
Inject calculator's figure for food only, if it gives a correction then ignore that bit!

I think your husband's advice also good!
 
Sally71 said:
I'd just put the carbs in (less a few if that's what you’re doing) and not enter a BG amount. It will complain but you should be able to override that and then it will give you bolus amount for carbs only.
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I always work out carbs amount before eating then if bg is ok I can carry on and get bolus advice then inject then eat but if I'm hypo would you put the carbs in for bolus advice after eating (less 15g for the hypo treatment and also less maybe 15g of the meal carb amount)?
 
silentsquirrel said:
I think Gill injects just after the meal normally, not just when hypo pre-meal.
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You're right I do inject just after the meal but only if I'm eating out or having a takeaway or obviously when hypo pre-meal.

So 1
silentsquirrel said:
Take hypo treatment. Maybe wait a minute or two to give that a head start, but not the full 15 minutes.
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Then 2
silentsquirrel said:
Eat meal.
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Then 3 and after eating
silentsquirrel said:
Follow Sally's advice above, enter meal carbs less 15g and no BG reading.
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to get bolus advice and inject.

If it complains when you enter carbs and no BG reading it does complain but you can override this.

silentsquirrel said:
I think your husband's advice also good!
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Thank you I will let him know.
 
I’d just drink a carton of orange juice and tuck in, then bolus afterwards
 
mum2westiesGill said:
🙂



So when I bolus afterwards would you just enter the carbs for bolus advice and not test?
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I’d probably test just to check it had gone up, but I wouldn’t do any correction advised I’d only bolus for the carbs in tea (not the orange juice) and minus 10-15g for the slow carbs
 
Lucyr said:
I’d probably test just to check it had gone up, but I wouldn’t do any correction advised I’d only bolus for the carbs in tea (not the orange juice) and minus 10-15g for the slow carbs
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So you wouldn't bolus for the 15g of fast carbs ie the orange juice and also minus 10-15g of your meal - in total 25g-30g
 
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