Finger pricking people or bgl testing people who don't use a libre

[mum2westiesGill]

How often do you test?

I test on waking, before meals and bedtime or if I don't feel right the latter which isn't too often at the moment because I seem to have lost some of my hypo awareness.

My DSN has said not to bother testing 2 hours after food to keep things simple for myself

 

[Deleted member 25429]

I test before food , two hours after and any other times if I feel I need to

 

[mum2westiesGill]

I test before food , two hours after and any other times if I feel I need to

Hi @Freddie1966 and thank you for your reply.
Is your testing 2 hours after food to see what impact the food has had?
My DSN has said for me to not test 2 hours after food to keep things simple for me - I don't know if I should worry about this or not.

 

[Deleted member 25429]

Hi @Freddie1966 and thank you for your reply.
Is your testing 2 hours after food to see what impact the food has had?
My DSN has said for me to not test 2 hours after food to keep things simple for me - I don't know if I should worry about this or not.

I do test just to give me peace of mind . My insulin requirements are low so to correct anything either way doesn’t take a lot of good/insulin so I’m lucky

 

[Kaylz]

I'd be concerned at your DSN's suggestion of such little testing seen as you've lost hypo awareness, sticking to her suggestion could leave you in a dangerous position in my opinion as testing is the only way you'll pick them up seen as you don't have the confidence or knowledge to be able to use the Libre to it's full potential

 

[mum2westiesGill]

I do test just to give me peace of mind . My insulin requirements are low so to correct anything either way doesn’t take a lot of good/insulin so I’m lucky

So "to give you peace of mind" I will think about this because I could just carry on testing 2 hours after and ignore my DSN advice - I'm thinking that it doesn't cost anything to do an extra finger prick and just to check on things

 

[mum2westiesGill]

I'd be concerned at your DSN's suggestion of such little testing seen as you've lost hypo awareness, sticking to her suggestion could leave you in a dangerous position in my opinion as testing is the only way you'll pick them up seen as you don't have the confidence or knowledge to be able to use the Libre to it's full potential

Yes I'm thinking I will carry on with the 2 hours after a meal testing just to keep an eye on things. I know about testing if you don't feel right but are there any other times when you would test?

 

[Deleted member 25429]

Added to all of this if I’m driving then it’s a legal requirement

 

[Sally71]

You have to decide when you think testing would be useful for you. Testing is only useful if you do something with the information, if you’re just testing because you think you should then it’s a waste of time.
We used to do mealtimes and bed time and then only in between if we thought something was wrong; my mum thinks this is too often (I wouldn’t recommend her way of dealing with it though lol) and there are clearly many people who think this isn’t often enough. I personally have never seen the point of doing a 2 hour post meal test, all it tells you is that you’ve gone up, but you know that because you’ve had food, and if you’ve carb counted correctly then it should come down again before the next meal without you needing any further corrections. So if it were me, I wouldn’t worry about not doing them.
You are not me though, and you clearly are not comfortable doing so few tests. If you don’t have much hypo awareness and want to carry on doing the extra tests just to feel safe, that’s a good enough reason isn’t it?
Try it for a bit and see. If it gets to the point where you find all of the testing a bit of a nuisance and don’t really know why you’re doing it, or if it makes you more stressed, then stop the extra ones. If you find it helps you to be more relaxed and less stressed though, then carry on!
Also, if you were thinking about experimenting with prebolusing to see if you can reduce the spike, then you need to see what’s going on between meals so you’ll need the 2 hour test then.

 

[pm133]

How often do you test?

I test on waking, before meals and bedtime or if I don't feel right the latter which isn't too often at the moment because I seem to have lost some of my hypo awareness.

My DSN has said not to bother testing 2 hours after food to keep things simple for myself

When I was finger pricking, I was testing 4 times a day as well. That was also on recommendation from my DSN.
I only tested more than that very occasionally - if I felt a bit iffy or needed to use my car.
More than that and you can get a bit obsessive. Sore fingers also become an issue.

As an aside, once I started using the Libre I leapt to testing about 30 times a day but that has come down quite a bit now that the novelty has worn off. I'm probably averaging about 18 times a day now. Can't ever imagine doing that with finger pricks!!!!! 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

I increased my finger pricks to between 10 and 16 a day prior to getting Libre because I wanted the information that I knew more testing would provide .... essentially, how to stop my levels spiking so high by pre-bolusing and gain better understanding and control and it worked pretty well but wasn't sustainable longer term.
Even prior to that testing strategy the minimum I would test would be about 7 times a day mostly because with a low carb diet the protein would cause BG drift which would need a correction about 2 hours after eating.

 

[Paulbreen]

Your DSN is giving you bad advice, libre or finger pricking you should be testing as you have been doing, I think diabetes is a physiological issue to you as much as it is a physical disease from all I have read on your posts. occasionally testing outside your standard AM, 2 hours after meals and PM will help relax you that you are where you would like to be.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Your DSN is giving you bad advice, libre or finger pricking you should be testing as you have been doing, I think diabetes is a physiological issue to you as much as it is a physical disease from all I have read on your posts. occasionally testing outside your standard AM, 2 hours after meals and PM will help relax you that you are where you would like to be.

Thank you @Paulbreen

 

[Inka]

If you’re losing hypo awareness @mum2westiesGill that’s potentially serious. If you deal with that now you should be able to regain your awareness. To deal with it, you avoid going below a higher minimum eg set your lowest target as 5 or 6.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

If you’re losing hypo awareness @mum2westiesGill that’s potentially serious. If you deal with that now you should be able to regain your awareness. To deal with it, you avoid going below a higher minimum eg set your lowest target as 5 or 6.

My target range is 5mmol - 8mmol

 

[Becka]

Your DSN is giving you bad advice… occasionally testing outside your standard AM, 2 hours after meals and PM will help relax you that you are where you would like to be.

I would disagree with this, and quite strongly. Advice is not universal but has to be targeted to each individual's situation. We do not have the same experience and understanding of Gill that her nurse does to say whether advice specifically for her is bad.

As Gill said, the reason given to reduce testing is "to keep things simple for myself." And based on her threads that seems an impression I can understand. You can have too much information that it makes it difficult to manage.

One of the reasons that there is a general aversion to type 2s self-testing is the worry it causes, and the potentially dangerous side effects of people obsessing over tiny difference and potentially prioritizing the numbers over their health. And there have been plenty of threads on here that demonstrate that.

I am not saying that applies to Gill, but too much information can be confusing to anyone, especially if trying to make macro changes from micro information, because each item will contradict the previous. So while reducing testing for someone on insulin is not ideal, it can be better to put aside everything but the essential monitoring to focus on getting things under control generally. Once you have that then you can start reintroducing more testing to add more finer control.

But based on Gill's threads, I do not think all the testing she is doing is currently giving her peace of mind. And as well as diabetes needing to be managed physiologically, it is also needs to be treated psychologically. Which is why mental well-being is a part of the diabetic review. And it feels to me that this is an important reason why the nurse suggests reducing the tests. Bouncing between low and high levels is quite rightly worrying, as well as difficult to manage addressing both at the same time. So getting things to a good middle place will allow her to relax as well as avoid the dangerous extremes. Which would then be a much better mental state for testing and micro managing without all the extra pressure.

That is just the overall impression I get. I am sorry, Gill, for talking about you like this rather than to you, and if any of that is wrong.

 

[Paulbreen]

I would disagree with this, and quite strongly. Advice is not universal but has to be targeted to each individual's situation. We do not have the same experience and understanding of Gill that her nurse does to say whether advice specifically for her is bad.

As Gill said, the reason given to reduce testing is "to keep things simple for myself." And based on her threads that seems an impression I can understand. You can have too much information that it makes it difficult to manage.

One of the reasons that there is a general aversion to type 2s self-testing is the worry it causes, and the potentially dangerous side effects of people obsessing over tiny difference and potentially prioritizing the numbers over their health. And there have been plenty of threads on here that demonstrate that.

I am not saying that applies to Gill, but too much information can be confusing to anyone, especially if trying to make macro changes from micro information, because each item will contradict the previous. So while reducing testing for someone on insulin is not ideal, it can be better to put aside everything but the essential monitoring to focus on getting things under control generally. Once you have that then you can start reintroducing more testing to add more finer control.

But based on Gill's threads, I do not think all the testing she is doing is currently giving her peace of mind. And as well as diabetes needing to be managed physiologically, it is also needs to be treated psychologically. Which is why mental well-being is a part of the diabetic review. And it feels to me that this is an important reason why the nurse suggests reducing the tests. Bouncing between low and high levels is quite rightly worrying, as well as difficult to manage addressing both at the same time. So getting things to a good middle place will allow her to relax as well as avoid the dangerous extremes. Which would then be a much better mental state for testing and micro managing without all the extra pressure.

That is just the overall impression I get. I am sorry, Gill, for talking about you like this rather than to you, and if any of that is wrong.

I wonder what your qualifications are for such a long condemnation, firstly I would point out that like me Gill is a long term T1 and while she does have some experience of diabetes and I would also say she knows HER diabetes better than her DSN and probably her consultant too she is here looking for advice and help. My consultant is one of the most well known endocrinologists in Germany and said in our first meeting that I will know more about my personal condition than he ever would. I am reading Gills posts every week and have often shared my thoughts.
I see Gill is carb counting and blousing based on her carb intake for a meal, just that fact would be a reason to check BG after eating as is very easy to over Bolus, I do it all the time. I have more than 40 years of T1 and I’m fully aware we are all different but sharing experience helps someone make a decision.
And I still say the DSN gave bad advice not to test

 

[Inka]

My target range is 5mmol - 8mmol

If you can avoid dropping below the 5s for a few weeks, you should find your hypo awareness improves. It has to be consistent and for a good period of time but it does work.

 

[Inka]

Just to be clear - it’s not so much what your target is, it’s the not dropping below the 5s that will help 🙂

 

[Kaylz]

And I still say the DSN gave bad advice not to test

I totally agree, it's utterly ridiculous especially seen as Gill is experiencing loss of hypo awareness, I tested a lot more when going through it myself given it can be extremely dangerous and testing is the only way to pick up on it! (Hope your keeping well Paul) xx