Hi Sprogladite
Don't be hard on yourself, that was a tricky meal to start carb counting with. My best advice for practicing carb counting and testing ratios is to go simple, really simple. I used M&S ready meals when I was doing it mostly because I couldn't use my right arm or stand for very long so I couldn't really slave over a hot stove, but the principle is sound (what an excuse
🙂). At this moment you don't know your ratios so that's one unknown so you want to rule out as many of the other unknowns as possible. By simple I mean stuff you can weigh and be almost certain about the carb value (the wet weight and dry weight of pasta got me several times), don't guess, weigh is my mantra for the first stages. It's overwhelming enough without adding in the extra layer of horror around estimating skills (mine were shocking, they're now pretty good
😉). So boring old chicken, a baked spud and some veg, or more exciting flavours but with controlled amount of carb.
Start on one unit of insulin to 10 grams of carbohydrate and then see where that gets you. Don't panic on the correction front, think of this as an experiment, correcting with a hair trigger will stop you from getting where you need to be. In fact unless you're going extremely high I wouldn't correct at all for the first week. You need to see how your body is reacting to the insulin and the food, but that has to be your choice. Now this is the hard bit, and even though I'm saying it like it's easy believe me when I say I really understand it isn't, distance yourself from the emotion of the blood sugar levels, if you feel the panic about a double figure, breathe and tell yourself it's OK. I know your brain knows it's not OK and you want it to be lower, but the way to get that is control and you'll get it if you can chew on that leather strap and take the pain for a little while. Consider this a totally fresh start, the most valuable thing you can do is to understand how your body works with insulin, because in my experience that's the key to it all. Getting into a cycle of correction is easy to do, but really hard to get out of I know, but if you can convince your brain to stop reacting so quickly you'll be able to see a pattern, and when you can see the patterns you can find an action that will work. You can always post readings here and we'll help you interpret and adjust, there's a lot of experience here and we're always happy to help
🙂.
Now for my cheerleader bit (imagine I have pom-poms

). After 23 years of poor advice, you're here, feeling vulnerable and frustrated, the important bit if that is "you're here" putting yourself on the line and giving it a whirl. That's mettle if ever I saw it. Don't let that little shrivelled pancreas get the better of you!