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Corrections refresher please

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mum2westiesGill

mum2westiesGill

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
If a BGL is 14mmol what BGL would 1u to 2mmols correction drop you to?

If a BGL is 14mmol what BGL would 1u to 3mmols correction drop you to?
 
Gill, I'm not sure your question makes sense.

1u to 2 mmols is a ratio not a quantity.

Are you asking what 1 unit would do to a BGL of 14mmol if your ratio was either 1:2 or 1:3?

If so, the answer would be 11-12 mmol but a correction is only an approximation anyway. It might be more or less than that depending on a range of factors including the time of day you apply the correction.
 
Hi Gill. I am not sure what you are asking? Are you saying if you took a single unit correction when you were 14, what would those correction factors drop you to? If so, the first one should drop you to 12mmols (ie 14-2=12)
and the second (1u drops you 3 mmmols) so 14-3=11......

But that assumes your basal insulin is holding you steady during the 2-4 hours that that correction insulin is working which cannot always be guaranteed.
It also happens for some people that they need a higher correction factor at higher BG levels.... So whilst a correction factor of 1 unit drops someone 3mmols when their BG is 12 or under, they may need more insulin possibly 1u drops them 2 mmols or even 1:1 at higher levels like the example of 14 you mentioned.

Or.... are you asking how many units would be required to bring levels back into range from 14 with those 2 different correction factors in which case

1u drops you 2mmols means you would need 3 units to get you down to 8 .....14 - 6(2x3)= 8....
or 4 units bring you down to 6...... 14-8(4x2)=6

If 1unit drops you 3mmols then 2 units would get you down to 8 .... 14-6(2x3)=8
or if you went for 3 units .... 14-9(3x3)=5 so you would end up about 5 which might be a bit low for you.

Since you have a half unit pen you could look at those 2 options and think somewhere between 5 and 8 would be ideal so I will split the difference and use 2.5 units as a correction as being half way between 2 and 3 units

Of course this is all in an ideal world when diabetes plays by the rules, which it seldom does..... Diabetes is more biology than maths and therefore much less precise
 
It's correction factors which I was meaning not ratios.

My correction factor was 2.0mmol but my DSN advised that I changed it to 3.0mmol so that I'm not taking as much insulin if a BGL correction (eg BGLs over 10mmol) is needed
Screenshot_20210714-100542_mySugr.jpg
 
1:2 means one unit will drop you by 2 mmol/L
1:3 means one unit will drop you by 3 mmol/L

So if you are 14 and you want to be 6, that is a difference of 8
With a ratio of 1:2 bolus adviser will advise correction of 4 units (8 divided by 2)
With a ratio of 1:3 bolus adviser will advise 2.67 units (8 divided by 3) (presumably it will round to 3)
And so you can see it gives you less insulin for the same correction.

I think that’s what you were asking 🙂

The tricky bit is finding out what ratio works best for you, as with everything diabetes related it’s never that precise and some people even need different ratios at different times of the day or if they are very high - let your DSN worry about that though!
 
Gill, did you understand my post? Basically you keep subtacting 3 from your BG level until you get back into range and then count up the number of 3s you have subtracted to get you back to a nice mid range reading again...

So if your reading was 18-3=15 still too high 15-3=12 which is still too high so 12-3=9 which is just above your target range so subtract another 3... 9-3= 6 which would be a great number to end up on so that is 4 units of insulin you need to use to correct.
Just to double check.... multiply your correction unit of 3 by the number of units you have decided on, which is 4.... 3x4 is 12 so those 4 units will drop you 12 mmols if that correction factor is right for you. Subtract that 12 from your starting reading of 18 in this case (18-12=6) so your final reading should be somewhere about 6 once the correction insulin has taken full effect in about 4 hours.
 
Sally71 said:
1:2 means one unit will drop you by 2 mmol/L
1:3 means one unit will drop you by 3 mmol/L

So if you are 14 and you want to be 6, that is a difference of 8
With a ratio of 1:2 bolus adviser will advise correction of 4 units (8 divided by 2)
With a ratio of 1:3 bolus adviser will advise 2.67 units (8 divided by 3) (presumably it will round to 3)
And so you can see it gives you less insulin for the same correction.

I think that’s what you were asking 🙂
Click to expand...
Yes this is exactly what I've been trying to ask so thank you so much 🙂 - I'm hopeless at trying to work things.
On the pic of the bolus calculator set up I presume "1 unit of insulin lowers your blood sugar by 3mmol" is their way of saying "1 unit of insulin will drop you by 3mmol"
 
Last edited:
rebrascora said:
Gill, did you understand my post? Basically you keep subtacting 3 from your BG level until you get back into range and then count up the number of 3s you have subtracted to get you back to a nice mid range reading again...

So if your reading was 18-3=15 still too high 15-3=12 which is still too high so 12-3=9 which is just above your target range so subtract another 3... 9-3= 6 which would be a great number to end up on so that is 4 units of insulin you need to use to correct.
Just to double check.... multiply your correction unit of 3 by the number of units you have decided on, which is 4.... 3x4 is 12 so those 4 units will drop you 12 mmols if that correction factor is right for you. Subtract that 12 from your starting reading of 18 in this case (18-12=6) so your final reading should be somewhere about 6 once the correction insulin has taken full effect in about 4 hours.
Click to expand...
I understand this post more than your first post but where do you get the 3 from? Is that if the correction ratio / factor is 1:3?
 
Sally71 said:
1:2 means one unit will drop you by 2 mmol/L
1:3 means one unit will drop you by 3 mmol/L

So if you are 14 and you want to be 6, that is a difference of 8
With a ratio of 1:2 bolus adviser will advise correction of 4 units (8 divided by 2)
With a ratio of 1:3 bolus adviser will advise 2.67 units (8 divided by 3) (presumably it will round to 3)
And so you can see it gives you less insulin for the same correction.
Click to expand...

everydayupsanddowns said:
Perhaps your correction factor is too strong and should be 3.5 or 3.8?
Click to expand...

So in easy terms how would you work out a 3.5mmol or a 3.8mmol correction factor if you were 14mmol?
 
mum2westiesGill said:
So in easy terms how would you work out a 3.5mmol or a 3.8mmol correction factor if you were 14mmol?
Click to expand...

I would put it in my bolus calculator, and let it do the maths 🙂
 
mum2westiesGill said:
So in easy terms how would you work out a 3.5mmol or a 3.8mmol correction factor if you were 14mmol?
Click to expand...

But essentially it would be

Current BG - Target BG = Overshoot

Dose = Overshoot / 3.5 (or 3.8)
Click to expand...

So it depends where you are trying to get your BG back to? To 10? Or to mid-range?
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
But essentially it would be



So it depends where you are trying to get your BG back to? To 10? Or to mid-range?
Click to expand...
So if I was 14 trying to get back to 6 which I think is mid range on my 5-8 target

14 - 6 = 8
then
8 / 3.5 = 2.285714....units
or
8 / 3.8 = 2.10526.....units

but you're right just put it into the bolus calculator and let it do all the work
 
For my 5-8 target range my mid range is 6 or 6.5
5 + 8 = 13 ÷ 2 = 6.5

you see I can work out mid range targets now eeek!
 
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