Hi again .. I feel stressted as I don’t know my ‘ratios’ and would like to go swimming tomorrow, but very anxious as I COULD get the dosage wrong

[Upset Racoon]

and have to eat too near the time I am due to swim and would unfortunately have indegestion so would have to miss out on it.

For example .. today I had two slices of sourdough with eggs and half a avacado … I dosed 7 units for that. it started around 9 and climbed to 12… will try to attach a pic. Was that the wrong dose ? would the avacado make it a meal that would need to be spilt ( really hope not !! just can barely get my head around a dongle dose, not a mixed one !!
then later in the day .. it was high .. dosed 2 .. didn’t come down .. about half an hour later dosed for a 53g carb mcdonald’s wrap .. i had 6 units instead of 8 as I considered those two units I had .. fault recebtky . It seems it always climbs to 12 .

Should I just dose 7 again for the breakfast I had today for swimming tomorrow and should that be ok … really not sure
I had my breakfast around 1:20 on today

I now wait 20 mins to eat instead of just 10 🙂

 

[Upset Racoon]

Closer look 🙂

 

[Inka]

No, I wouldn’t split the dose just because there was avocado in it. If you go swimming regularly, you could stick to the same time of day and the same meal beforehand. That would give you more confidence.

You should have been given suggested ratios to use. Are you counting carbs? How are you deciding how much insulin to have?

 

[Upset Racoon]

Hi Inka 🙂

That does seem a sensible suggestion … when I managed to go months ago I was just lucky .. I injected 5 units for peanut butter on toast.. after about an hour and a bit it tended to raise to 10 which suited me well for the exercise ( forgot what bread that was unfortunately!)

I think the diabetes team ( they .. aren’t that helpful unfortunately) much more valuable useful information and advice on here 🙂

They suggested 1:10 as a starting point … I feel I have been flowing the ratio 1:7… no idea though how that / if that changes in the day … My basil or currently 16…. now I have learnt generally that the higher it is the smaller the effect each unit of insulin will have compared to say under 10 … loads of guessing .. and hoping … and sometimes not feeling able to sleep till past 3 or 4 am as my incorrect dosage could catch up with me hours later ( horrible !)

I tried porridge .. I tried 8 units .. I had porridge with a nectarine which was about 42.9 g of carbs . I used the 1:7 ratio… but then I thought.. it’s at 9 .. so it climbed about 2 then fell too down .. So the next day I tried just six .. starting at the same level .. it climbed .. to 12 I think .. then got annoyed , it seemed to come down tk 9 again .. then I injected loads for one of my chocolate snack binges ( so again not confident to try that with the swimming , but would like to ideally though 🙂

Thank you for reading / helping, appreciated 🙂

 

[Inka]

I always try to be at least 9 to go swimming @Upset Racoon just to be safe and because I find I burn up a fair bit of glucose in the pool. I only go occasionally now but when I went regularly,I always ate exactly the same meal beforehand and then I knew things would be ok. It worked well.

I usually take a snack too, like chocolate if I’m a bit too low before I get in. I then take Dextro tablets into the pool area along with my meter and stop at intervals to test. That way I manage to stay in a good range.

Don’t aim for perfection. Do as well as you can and stay safe 🙂

 

[Lucyr]

I don’t take insulin before swimming, I eat something like a banana as I arrive at the pool, without insulin, and swim then eat a proper meal with reduced insulin after.

When I was swimming longer distances I would put orange juice slightly diluted in a water bottle at the end of the lane

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I tried porridge .. I tried 8 units .. I had porridge with a nectarine which was about 42.9 g of carbs . I used the 1:7 ratio… but then I thought.. it’s at 9 .. so it climbed about 2 then fell too down .. So the next day I tried just six .. starting at the same level .. it climbed .. to 12 I think .. then got annoyed , it seemed to come down tk 9 again .. then I injected loads for one of my chocolate snack binges ( so again not confident to try that with the swimming , but would like to ideally though 🙂

Sorry to hear how worried you’ve been about your doses. Give yourself real credit though. You are experimenting, adjusting, reacting to the results you get, considering the effects of things like exercise and ‘insulin on board’ and adjusting your apporach the following day.

These are all great techniques, and some of them are really advanced, and many people don’t start considering them for years! Your careful and methodical approach will work in the end, it will just take a little perseverance, and a little more experimentation and adjustment.

@Inka ‘s suggestion of trying to stick to the same meal and timing before swimming is a helpful way to slightly reduce the number of variables.

Try not to slip into frustration and ‘rage bolusing’ too easily. A few results in double figures during a short period of experimentation are nothing much to worry about in the grand scheme of things.

Another factor you could consider if you are seeing rises soon after eating, is to leave things well alone, and wait until 4-5 hours after the injection then check again. If you are more or less back to where you started before the meal then the dose itself is absolutely fine. If you want to take the edge off any high readings that may have happened in between, then you could leave a short pause between injecting and eating. Start with 5-10 minutes and cautiously increase it 5 minutes at a time. Don’t leave ot too long or you risk the insulin having top much of a ‘head start’ and dropping your levels low before the food hits.