Helping Partner

[Liquidgloss]

Hi Everyone, my partner has had T2 for a few years. Every now and then he/we would make an effort to manage the condition. However, because his health seemed ok things would gradually slip and we would be eating all the wrong things again. Recently though, his health didn't seem to be good I decided to test his blood sugar and it was 19.2!! Thats it I thought. So now I am testing him 4 x daily and once got it down to 7.1 I am keeping a food diary too but blood sugar hovers around 11-12.8. Anyway, we are going to keep on trying. When is the best time to do the blood sugar tests? There is so much I dont know and I thought that reading about other peoples diabetes journey along with tips and hints would be good. Thank you

 

[Bruce Stephens]

When is the best time to do the blood sugar tests?

Immediately before meals (so as far away as possible from the last food) and roughly half way between meals (when you might expect the readings to be highest, so around 2 hours after eating) are the usual recommended times. (And on waking up, if that's some time before breakfast.)

(That's a lot of testing, so in practice you'll probably do some tests some of the time. Testing before a meal and a couple of hours after that meal can help show what that effect that particular meal had, so there's less value testing after a meal if you didn't test before it.)

 

[trophywench]

Just like this

Test, Review, Adjust

Managing blood glucose levels for type 2 diabetes. Learning how to achieve long term control by testing and diet.

loraldiabetes.blogspot.com

 

[Drummer]

Do you do the cooking? Try lowering the carb content of meals.

 

[Liquidgloss]

Thankyou for your advice Drummer. I will definitely lower the carbs. Gently trying to encourage more exercise. Little steps!!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

welcome to the forum @Liquidgloss

I really hope your husband appreciates your efforts... sometimes it can be hard to know how to support someone with diabetes, withoit feeling like you are nagging, but it soinds like you are doing an amazing job.

Carbohydrates are certainly the food groip that will be having the biggest impact on your husbands Bg levels and checking before and then again 2hrs after the first bite of a meal can be a great way to add valuable information to your food diary, and help to understand the numbers - particularly if you can add an estimate (doesn’t have to be too precise) of the grams of carbs involved. That way you can try the same meal again, but perhaps reduce the carb (rice / pasta / potatoes / whatever) by 25% or so, and see what effect that has on the outcome

This ’etiquette’ guide has some good ideas on how to open up some diabetes conversations too.

http://behavioraldiabetes.org/xwp/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/BDIAdultEtiquetteCard.pdf

 

[ColinUK]

Test on waking
Test as he’s about to start each meal
Test roughly 90 minutes after starting the meal
Test before bed

That’s a lot of testing but it’s worth it to get a better picture of which foods have which impact.

 

[Liquidgloss]

Thank you ColinUK. I appreciate your advice. We are already beginning to see which food sends the reading higher!