First post

[Jonsey]

Good morning.
I have been a type 1 for about 15 yrs, and have controlled it fairly well over the years, but the last few weeks not so good, getting very frustrated with myself, my diet is OK but can anyone help me with carb counting really struggling with this. For an example I checked my self before dinner I was 10.1 but level was going down fast so I had dinner of spaghetti bolognese didn't inject on that time was 18.57. Checked again before been at 21.55 9.4 had long acting 15u.
Woke this morning 20.6.
Never been that high for ages.
Thank you.

 

[Inka]

Hi @Jonsey 🙂

Sometimes a change of routine (ie lockdown) affects my sugars a lot, but at other times they become erratic for no apparent reason. It’s very frustrating, so you have my sympathy.

What in particular are you finding hard about carb counting?

With your spaghetti example, I’d have bolused before eating just like normal. Fast acting insulin isn’t actually that fast and takes a while to work.

With the overnight rise, if that was very sudden I’d probably change my insulin cartridge first. Then I’d consider illness - a cold, hay fever, etc - or stress. If things didn’t settle I’d set an alarm and see what my sugar was doing during the night.

 

[SB2015]

Welcome to the forum @Jonsey , I am glad that you have found us.

It sounds like what you were doing before worked for your usual activities, but no doubt things have changed over the last few weeks. I am not surprised that you had high levels if you did not deliver any quick acting for a spaghetti bolognaise eaten in the evening. Your background is only taking care of the glucose that you liver is dribbling out to keep you u ticking over, you need your quick acting whenever you eat any carbs.

There are a variety of carb counting courses offered (normally) . The one I followed was Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating (DAFNE). There is an online course called BERTIE. https://www.bertieonline.org.uk/. I have not tried this one but others have mentioned it on here.
These take you through the idea of carb counting and using this along with your carb to insulin ratio to work out the dose for each meal.

To find out the carbs that you are eating you could use the Carbs and Cals app which gives you photos of different portions to compare your meal to. I use this if I am out and about but not at home. Here we use the labels on the back of packets and weigh the food to enable us to work the total carbs for a meal

How have you worked out your quick acting doses before?
Do you use a carb to insulin ratio?
What insulins are you using?

 

[Jonsey]

Hi @Jonsey 🙂

Sometimes a change of routine (ie lockdown) affects my sugars a lot, but at other times they become erratic for no apparent reason. It’s very frustrating, so you have my sympathy.

What in particular are you finding hard about carb counting?

With your spaghetti example, I’d have bolused before eating just like normal. Fast acting insulin isn’t actually that fast and takes a while to work.

With the overnight rise, if that was very sudden I’d probably change my insulin cartridge first. Then I’d consider illness - a cold, hay fever, etc - or stress. If things didn’t settle I’d set an alarm and see what my sugar was doing during the night.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply, carb counting do u inject on carbs that sugar only. So I had 55g of porridge oats and 270ml semi skimmed milk and a banana. I gave my self 6u. Correct or should it been more.?

 

[stephknits]

Hi Jonsey, you need to count all carbs. Also, you need to know what your carb to insulin ratio is. Most people start on 10g of carbs to one unit of insulin. Do you know what your ratios are?

 

[Jonsey]

No not at the moment but I need to find out ASAP can you help me with this please.
Thankyou

 

[Inka]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply, carb counting do u inject on carbs that sugar only. So I had 55g of porridge oats and 270ml semi skimmed milk and a banana. I gave my self 6u. Correct or should it been more.?

You count the total carbohydrate. So, to use a simply example, if you had 2 Weetabix that would be 26g carbs (see nutrition panel on side of box). You then need to add the carbs of the milk you have with them.

As said above, you them apply your insulin to carbs ratio - that is, how much insulin you need for X amount of carbs. Most people start at a 1:10 ratio - ie 1 unit of insulin for every 10gs of carbs eaten.

You can work out your own ratio, but I’d get some idea by keeping a food diary recording the carb content of each meal you eat and how much insulin you take and your blood sugar before the meal and 2hrs after the meal.

 

[Inka]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply, carb counting do u inject on carbs that sugar only. So I had 55g of porridge oats and 270ml semi skimmed milk and a banana. I gave my self 6u. Correct or should it been more.?

There’s no ‘correct’ amount - only the correct amount for you as an individual 🙂 For me, I’d have had more than 6 units for that breakfast but that’s because I know my insulin to carb ratio for breakfast and know my blood sugar would go too high if I ‘only’ had 6 units for that.

What was your blood sugar before your breakfast and what was it 2 hours after?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

There’s a basic overview of carb counting here too @Jonsey

The nuts and bolts of carb counting

When you live with type 1 diabetes, carb counting is a great way of managing your blood sugar or glucose levels. It can give you more freedom and flexibility in what you eat when you're preparing meals at home, grabbing food on the go or eating out. Carb counting does take some time and effort...

www.diabetes.org.uk

Good luck with getting your head around it, and keep asking questions 🙂