For a few months now ive been feeling as though my blood sugar is high yet when i test it has usually been in the region of 3-6 and vice versa,i can feel really hungry but when i test its nowhere as low as it feels.Does anyone else ever feel like this,ive told my specialist about it and he wants me to see someone about carb counting which i know nothing about.When i was diagnosed in 1973 the Drs tried to educate me about lines which is probably the same as carb counting Does anyone else remember trying to convert food to lines and can anyone tell me if it is difficult with the carb counting.Thanks.
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Feel high,But was low.
- Thread starter whitty
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Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hi Whitty, you're not alone in getting confused signals from your blood sugars - I do too at times! I often feel very low when my levels are perfectly normal, but it is usually because it is a long time since my previous meal and I realise I am actually hungry, not low! I don't tend to get many highs, so again I think that feeling 'odd' must mean I'm low, when in fact I'm high.
Carb counting is not at all difficult, so do press you DSN for some education on it. As I've never really known any other method, I can't imagine trying to work out my insulin any other way - go for it!🙂
Carb counting is not at all difficult, so do press you DSN for some education on it. As I've never really known any other method, I can't imagine trying to work out my insulin any other way - go for it!🙂
Cate
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hi Whitty,
I didn't use lines, but used exchanges, which I *think* were more or less the same thing. An exchange was 10g carbs, I remember getting a sheet from the dietician which explained that an exchange was an egg sized boiled potato, 6 chips, 1 thin slice of bread, 7 fl oz milk, 3 fl oz fruit juice, 1 apple, 10 grapes, etc etc.
I don't find carb counting especially hard but I've been doing it for years so it's second nature now
If you find it hard it might be worth subscribing to eg weightlossresources.co.uk, you enter the food you're eating and it gives you the nutritional values for it, including the carbs. I've been a member of it pretty much since I started pumping, though I only tend to use it now if I'm eating out and need a rough idea of carbs in whatever I'm eating (hurrah for iPhones lol).
I didn't use lines, but used exchanges, which I *think* were more or less the same thing. An exchange was 10g carbs, I remember getting a sheet from the dietician which explained that an exchange was an egg sized boiled potato, 6 chips, 1 thin slice of bread, 7 fl oz milk, 3 fl oz fruit juice, 1 apple, 10 grapes, etc etc.
I don't find carb counting especially hard but I've been doing it for years so it's second nature now
If you find it hard it might be worth subscribing to eg weightlossresources.co.uk, you enter the food you're eating and it gives you the nutritional values for it, including the carbs. I've been a member of it pretty much since I started pumping, though I only tend to use it now if I'm eating out and need a rough idea of carbs in whatever I'm eating (hurrah for iPhones lol).
Thank you northener,i see DSN on weds so i will ask her to get things moving.That sounds very much like lines cate,pretty hard for me to grasp,at the time i was 12 and just wanted to eat like my friends and did so most of the time.Which led to hospital a few times.Does anyone remember CLINITEST tablets.They were used to test urine because home blood testing was not available then.I remember trying to con the specialist in those days.I would turn up for appointments armed with my sample which was always negative.I thought i was doing well until a letter arrived and the specialist said he was puzzled at first as to why my urine was always negative but my bloods were always high,then they found out i was using tap water instead of urine.He really went mad at me.If i only knew then what i know now.
Red Pumper
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hi Whitty,
I was diagnosed in 1979 and I do indeed remember 'lines'. Same as an 'exchange', one 'line' is equivalent to 10g carbs.
Carb counting is basically the same as counting lines. The main difference is that in the old days counting lines was just a way of making sure that the same amount of carbs were consumed at the same time each day.
With the MDI therapy and pumps that we have today, carb counting is used so that we can eat a less constrained diet and adjust our insulin dosage to match our carb intake.
It's not difficult, it just takes a bit of practice.
I was diagnosed in 1979 and I do indeed remember 'lines'. Same as an 'exchange', one 'line' is equivalent to 10g carbs.
Carb counting is basically the same as counting lines. The main difference is that in the old days counting lines was just a way of making sure that the same amount of carbs were consumed at the same time each day.
With the MDI therapy and pumps that we have today, carb counting is used so that we can eat a less constrained diet and adjust our insulin dosage to match our carb intake.
It's not difficult, it just takes a bit of practice.
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