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Fingerprick tests, possibly a silly question...

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lauraw1983

lauraw1983

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Can I just ask, when you do your fasting morning BG test, should it be pretty much when you FIRST rise out of bed (or when still in bed?), or just anytime at all before you eat your breakfast?

Will a cup of tea before doing it affect it greatly or not? (no sugar obvs, splash of milk) Should it be before ANY food OR drink is consumed?

Thanks in advance 🙂
 
I can't function till I have had a cuppa
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So it would be afterwards for me unless I fealt ill or thought something is wrong.
 
I always test as soon as I have got up. I also discovered some time ago that if I don't inject when I get up my levels will begin to rise and continue until I eat, so I inject when I get up and usually eat my breakfast 15-30 minutes after getting up. 🙂

I test whilst I'm waiting for the kettle to boil! The milk in a cup of tea shouldn't make a difference unless you make it with all milk (yuk!)
 
Like Alan, I do my test while waiting for the kettle to boil. My levels certainly rise after I've had a cuppa (with semi-skimmed milk and one sweetener) because I've tested both before and after on a few occasions just to see what happens.
 
vince13 said:
Like Alan, I do my test while waiting for the kettle to boil. My levels certainly rise after I've had a cuppa (with semi-skimmed milk and one sweetener) because I've tested both before and after on a few occasions just to see what happens.
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That's more than likely due to your liver releasing extra glucose in the morning in response to increased cortisol levels rather than the tea:

(Wikipaedia) The amount of cortisol present in the blood undergoes diurnal variation; the level peaks in the early morning (approximately 8 am) and reaches its lowest level at about midnight-4 am, or three to five hours after the onset of sleep.
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I tend to do mine first thing, before I have breakfast but after I have showered and dressed.
 
I am first thing as well, but that's just routine.............at the weekend I would normally wait till before I eat, but I do suffer from DP, so my BG is normally higher then.......
 
What a good question! Interesting to read everyone's replies.
I keep my testing stuff by my bed, so pretty much always do it within a minute of getting up.
Interesting what Northerner has written about cortisol. I HATE doing morning basal testing because I don't function unless I've had my tea and toast!
 
When I do a fasting test (which is pretty infrequently), it's before I have anything to eat or drink.

Andy 🙂
 
Another who tests pretty much as soon as I've got downstairs, before the first swig of coffee. Showers come after breakfast so that (if levels are higher) I can inject, then shower, then eat which allows more time for Novo to get going than just my usual 20-30 minute wait. If levels are on the low side I'll only wait more like 15mins, but if I eat straight after breakfast bolus I tend to end up higher mid-morning.
 
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As my testing kit is in a bumbag hanging from bedpost (or beside my head if in a tent), I usually do my fasting test & long acting insulin dose before getting up, although sometimes go to loo first. Sometimes partner brings me a cup of tea before I get up, if I'm going to work later than him; if I'm working before him, then I bring him tea. Then have short acting dose in kitchen downstairs when I've decided what I'm having for breakfast - usually cereal and yogurt, unless one or other has been finished by you know who!
 
It is generally the first thing I do whilst sitting on the edge of the bed, usually wondering if anyone will notice if I get back in as it's so warm lol I didn't know about the rise in cortisol at about 8, that would expalin why, after a lie in, my sugars are higher than I would have expected. x
 
It goes like this in our house, out of bed, glasses on, to loo, to kitchen to put kettle on, to meter in living room. On MDI at that point I would have had Lantus. Make coffee, shoot for brekkie, make brekkie and eat it. On pump, test and bolus for brekkie. Back in kitchen make coffee and brekkie, eat brekkie.

No way could I wait to test before rushing to the loo!
 
Wake up. Yawn. test. Sarah goes downstairs to make coffee and breakfast. I inject humalog and lantus.

Then I go downstairs to join sarah and we bring coffee and breakfast back upstairs to bed, where both are consumed. It's the only civilised way, surely ? 😉:D

Rob
 
Robster65 said:
Wake up. Yawn. test. Sarah goes downstairs to make coffee and breakfast. I inject humalog and lantus.

Then I go downstairs to join sarah and we bring coffee and breakfast back upstairs to bed, where both are consumed. It's the only civilised way, surely ? 😉:D

Rob
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Where can I get one of these 'Sarahs'? :confused: 😉
 
Northerner said:
Right, I'm off down the park first thing to bag a few mallards! :D
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Any further advice will have to be conducted strictly by PM ! 😉:D

Rob
 
As soon as I wake I test, failure to eat and inject within 1/2 hour sees my blood levels soaring🙄
 
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