Having a job with diabetes.

[Lewisthediabetic]

Hi everybody I'm new to the forums so I would like to say a quick hi and I hope your all okay with your diabetes. I have a question. I've always under injected or ate something sugary to raise my blood Sugar levels before work or doing exercise. I've recently got an apprenticeship working at aldi so now I find myself under injecting and eating a chocolate bar before work so I don't have to experience a low yet it still doesn't always work, ill still end up experiencing a low 2 hours usually into the shift but other times I can get upto 3 hours and have a break and yet eat another chocolate bar to not have a low for the next few hours I'm in work. Obviously it doesn't stay high it slowly goes down while I'm working but I'm wondering, is it bad to do this 4 times a week for work?

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Hi everybody I'm new to the forums so I would like to say a quick hi and I hope your all okay with your diabetes. I have a question. I've always under injected or ate something sugary to raise my blood Sugar levels before work or doing exercise. I've recently got an apprenticeship working at aldi so now I find myself under injecting and eating a chocolate bar before work so I don't have to experience a low yet it still doesn't always work, ill still end up experiencing a low 2 hours usually into the shift but other times I can get upto 3 hours and have a break and yet eat another chocolate bar to not have a low for the next few hours I'm in work. Obviously it doesn't stay high it slowly goes down while I'm working but I'm wondering, is it bad to do this 4 times a week for work?

Hi Lewis, under injecting is the worst thing you could do for your future health
If you have a look in the pump forum there's a sticky at the top of the page.
You need to sort your basal insulin out so you can hold steady numbers between meals. I'm assuming that you are using basal bolus routine.
A couple of good books to invest in are using insulin and think like a pancreas.

Ps welcome to the forum 🙂

 

[Maryanne29]

Hi

Welcome to the site. I've not been using it very long but am finding everyone very helpful.

What you're saying doesn't sound ideal but I can see what you're trying to achieve. Others may have suggestions to try but I think you should talk to your diabetes care nurse or GP.

Good luck with the apprenticeship. 🙂

Maryanne. Type 1 for 54 years and managing OK

 

[Copepod]

Welcome to the forum, Lewis. Congtratulations on your apprenticeship.

If your basal / long acting insulin dose is correct, then it shouldn't matter if you don't eat for a few hours. If you do need a boost, then a couple of sweets eg jelly babies, would be better than chocolate, not least because they can be kept in pocket without melting. Obviously, if you're on bimodal insulin twice a day, it's much more difficult to cope with irregular meal times, energy output wtc.

 

[Redkite]

Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂

Actually I think you're taking a reasonable approach but you need to be doing more BG testing to see if it's working. We have to balance three things - insulin, food (carb) intake, and exercise/activity. So it's reasonable if you are going to be doing more strenuous activity to either reduce your insulin and/or have a snack. The amount of reduction and the size of the snack will depend on your BG levels. You don't want to overdo it and end up too high, and you don't want a hypo, so the only way is to test more frequently. It may well be that you can see a pattern in your BGs which will enable you to set an optimal insulin ratio for workday breakfasts, and an appropriate ratio for non work days. In fact this is what we do for my son - he needs less insulin on schooldays than at weekends.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi Lewis

Welcome to the forum!

Sounds like your apprenticeship is pretty strenuous. A chocolate bar might be OK if you are looking for a relatively rapid raise in your levels, but as you probably know it's not really quick enough for anything below 4 because the fat in the chocolate slows down the absorption of the sugar.

As to whether or not your current approach is working for you or storing up potential problems for the future I'd agree that some more testing would be very helpful. You've not said exactly what you are doing, but would you be able to test every couple of hours during a shift a few times to get a feel for things?

Are you reducing your doses by a set number of units? Or a percentage of the overall dose?

It might also help you to keep some detailed records so that you can compare what happens on different days. Either pen and paper... Or there are a bunch of different apps if you have a fancy phone 🙂

 

[HOBIE]

Hi LewistheD. & welcome. As Mike said do a diary & test more so you can tell what works or you. Really good luck & keep us posted. Work is good for you & keeps you fit 🙂

 

[DeusXM]

It's bad for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, eating two chocolate bars a day gets expensive.

Second, you shouldn't stop hypos by artificially keeping your blood sugar high. High blood sugar is bad for you. Very bad for you.

Third, you're feeding your insulin. On this regime, you're going to put on weight very quickly and it's going to be a pain to shift.

 

[Estellaa]

i work random shifts, my method of madness is, give a much lower dose in the morning if i know im having a shift where it goes over my lunch and i dont get a break then i make sure ive had breakfast but give less insulin.
if i have a break i give a few extra units to the lower dose.
i work shifts where im in till 10, ive worked there for 2 years and hardly ever had lows.

 

[novorapidboi26]

As others have said............you need to pin down your background insulin dose......

I assume you are not fully educated on the ins and outs of dose adjustment etc.......your diabetic team [and US...🙂...].....can help you with that.....🙂

 

[Cleo]

Welcome to the forum lewis 🙂

Under injecting and topping up with choc bars is probably not the best thing that you can do ..... As others have said you need to sort out your basal - do you have a Diabetes nurse or dietician that you can talk to ? , or can you ask to go on a dafne course ? i understand that you work shifts and that your job is strenuous but there are other ways to deal with this (that aren't damaging to your overall health!) 🙂

 

[Lewisthediabetic]

Thankyou everybody for your advice and support im just a bit funked on what to do now then :/ i will create a diary for the next few days.a Thanks again. All this stuff is just confusing me i want good control but to be able to fully dedicate my work time into being fast and efficient.

 

[HOBIE]

Nice & possitive Lewis ! Let us know how you are getting on. 🙂