Help with numbers please

[CoventryTrev]

Evening everyone.
I,m new to diabetes and have been self testing since yesterday.
Can you help me with blood glucose numbers please?
I've been advised to test four tines a day to start with and the results range from 7.5 to 13.6.
I've read they should be between 5 and 7, is that correct?
Could they be higher at the moment as I've just had surgery to have my pancreas removed.
Doc has me on tablets at the moment to see if they control the diabetes.

Thanks.

 

[Leadinglights]

I don't know if this would apply in your situation but for for Type 2 which you are not then 4-7mmol/l before meals or fasting and no more than 8-8.5 2 hours after meals.
I would have thought that as Type 3c with no pancreas you would be having insulin and maybe other meds so I don't think those blood glucose levels would necessarily apply.
You need to check with your doctor really.
Other Type 3cs may be able to help.

 

[soupdragon]

It's good that they've asked you to monitor to see how your levels are. If a large amount of pancreas has been removed then insulin is likely to be needed.

However I've also been told that after operations blood sugar often rises. For me that hasn't lasted very long, though.

I've been on insulin from the start. They did mention at one point hat I might be able to manage with tablets but I've not got enough pancreas left for that to work.

I hope your recovery is going well. If and when you need insulin there will be lots of support here for you.

 

[SB2015]

Evening everyone.
I,m new to diabetes and have been self testing since yesterday.
Can you help me with blood glucose numbers please?
I've been advised to test four tines a day to start with and the results range from 7.5 to 13.6.
I've read they should be between 5 and 7, is that correct?
Could they be higher at the moment as I've just had surgery to have my pancreas removed.
Doc has me on tablets at the moment to see if they control the diabetes.

Thanks.

Hi Trev

People without diabetes will usually have levels between 4-7 before they eat. i was given that target after a few weeks from diagnosis with T1, and worked to that but The action of our insulin is a bit fickle at times along with weather, other meds, illness, … so it is not always possible to stick to that.

Having expected to achieve perfection with this and caused myself too much grief, I now work to 4-10 as in range and aim for 70% time in range.

Talk to your team, gather information and maybe keep a food diary,focusing on the number of carbs you are eating at each meal. This will help you and your team monitor what is happening. As others have said it depends on how many beta cells you have left as to whether you will need to inject insulin.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Great to hear you are being encouraged to self-monitor your BG levels @CoventryTrev

Historically for T2 the recommendations were to aim for 4-7 before meals and no higher than 8.5 at 2hrs after meals for as much of the time as possible.

For T1 (and type 3c is often treated more like T1 as I understand it), the recommendations are 5-7 before breakfast, 4-7 before other meals, and no higher than 9 by 2hrs after meals.

These are only generic suggestions though, and ideally your clinic should give you personalised recommendations and guidelines.

 

[Docb]

Would not be worrying too much at this stage about whether your readings or good or bad or normal or abnormal.

Were I your GP (and it is something I could never be) I would be thinking... this chap has lost much of his pancreas so it would be a good idea to find out how well whatever is left is performing. One way of doing that is take some blood glucose measurements and give you a monitor to do do it. So far so good. I think I might then have suggested how and when to take them!

My suggestion would be as follows. The most important thing is to get a note book and write everything down. Then every day, take a waking reading and a last thing at night reading. These will give some sort of baseline. Then each day, pick a meal and test before eating and a couple of hours after eating and note down what you ate. These results will give you some sort of indication of how your system now reacts to food intake. I would also make a note of anything odd going on with your digestive system in case your surgery and impaired any other function of the pancreas. After a month or so you should be able to go back to your GP with information he can act on. Also by that time you will have a good understanding of how your system is now working and will have some inkling what treatment plan might be worth going for because by then you will probably be more clued up than your GP when it comes to Type 3c and its workings.

My caveat is that if in your testing you get high readings (high teens and twenties) then don't wait a month, get back to your GP PDQ.

Good luck and I am sure things will sort themselves out and before long you will be here offering ideas to others who have undergone pancreatic surgery.

 

[trophywench]

I should ruddy well say that BG increases following surgery - took mine a couple of months in total to calm back down again fully, after I broke my kneecap and had to have it all pinned and wired back together again. All a huge trauma to your body, so it objects. Can't blame it for that! - none of us is keen either. 😉

You'll get there - I think @eggyg did OK with tablets for a while after her pancreatic surgery, before needing insulin - but I may be misremembering that.