Hi, another newbie recently diagnosed with diabetes.

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Inka said:
I’d test after two hours just to make sure you’re not going too low. You need to be cautious about cutting carbs when you’re on insulin @Alijp
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Oh ok, thank you Inka.

Lowest I've gone so far is 4.2 which I know is close to the mark. I remember I was feeling pretty hungry when I did that test because it had been longer than usual between breakfast and lunch, would that have any bearing on the lower BG level do you think?
 
If you are still taking insulin then some of the suggestions and indeed your own thoughts on your carb intake may not be appropriate and checking that you are not going too low would be a good idea.
What insulin are you taking and when as that will have a bearing on what dietary regime will be suitable and what level you should be aiming at.
 
It shouldn’t make a difference @Alijp The Lantus and Novorapid you’re using are what’s called a basal/bolus regime. The Lantus is a slow background insulin and the Novorapid is a fast meal insulin. In theory, someone on such a regime could skip meals (and, importantly, omit the Novorapid for that meal) and if the Lantus is at the right dose, their blood sugar should remain stable.

If you’ve had a 4.2, then I’d be cautious about cutting carbs more. Hypos can be very unpleasant and are best avoided as much as possible.
 
Leadinglights said:
If you are still taking insulin then some of the suggestions and indeed your own thoughts on your carb intake may not be appropriate and checking that you are not going too low would be a good idea.
What insulin are you taking and when as that will have a bearing on what dietary regime will be suitable and what level you should be aiming at.
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I'm on 5 units of Novorapid with each meal and 18 units of Lantus at midday at the moment but I have lost quite a lot of weight, a significant amount of it since I was in hospital 6 weeks ago.

The DN is ringing me tomorrow evening so I think it might be a good idea to discuss it with her I guess just in case it needs adjusting.
 
Inka said:
It shouldn’t make a difference @Alijp The Lantus and Novorapid you’re using are what’s called a basal/bolus regime. The Lantus is a slow background insulin and the Novorapid is a fast meal insulin. In theory, someone on such a regime could skip meals (and, importantly, omit the Novorapid for that meal) and if the Lantus is at the right dose, their blood sugar should remain stable.

If you’ve had a 4.2, then I’d be cautious about cutting carbs more. Hypos can be very unpleasant and are best avoided as much as possible.
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Funny you should mention the skipping meals thing with omitting the Novorapid because I have recently had both a Sigmoidoscopy and a Colonoscopy/Polypectomy within the last fortnight which meant I didn't eat for nearly 24 hours both times and yeah my sugar levels remained pretty stable in the 5's and 6's.

Ok, thanks, I will keep more of an eye on my sugars. We have a man with type1 at work who was pretty unstable in the early days of his diagnosis and I've seen him have a hypo a couple of times, like you said, pretty unpleasant and best avoided.
 
So I just did a BG test 2 hours after having a roast dinner consisting of chicken, carrots, peas, a couple of roast potatoes (cut in half so it looks like 4 roasties) 🙂, a small amount of stuffing, a couple of small Yorkshire puddings and gravy. My BG before I ate was 6.2 and two hours later was 6.7.
 
Alijp said:
So I just did a BG test 2 hours after having a roast dinner consisting of chicken, carrots, peas, a couple of roast potatoes (cut in half so it looks like 4 roasties) 🙂, a small amount of stuffing, a couple of small Yorkshire puddings and gravy. My BG before I ate was 6.2 and two hours later was 6.7.
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What you have to understand with injected insulin is that it isn't as fast as home produced insulin, so whilst a dietary controlled Type 2 would be happy with that 6.7 2 hours afterwards, your Novorapid has a 5 hour profile so it will continue to work for another 3 hours slowly lowering that 6.7 to somewhere near 4 or 5 which would be a good result if you were not on insulin, it is a bit low a level to go to bed on. Have you been given advice to make sure your BG is at a certain level before bed, usually about 7 or 8 and if it is below that, then to have a small carby snack like half or a whole biscuit to bring it up to that level? A digestive biscuit is usually about 10g carbs and they usually suggest that 10g carbs will raise your levels by 3mmols as a starting guide until you have experimented enough to find your body works slightly differently. So if you were on 5.6mmols at bedtime then half a biscuit should be enough as it would bring you up by about 1.5mmols to 7.1 ish but if you were in the 4s then the whole biscuit would be best.
 
Alijp said:
So I just did a BG test 2 hours after having a roast dinner consisting of chicken, carrots, peas, a couple of roast potatoes (cut in half so it looks like 4 roasties) 🙂, a small amount of stuffing, a couple of small Yorkshire puddings and gravy. My BG before I ate was 6.2 and two hours later was 6.7.
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I’d watch that blood sugar in case it drops further. Obviously it depends on the individual but I find roast dinner is digested fairly quickly so puts the blood sugar up quickly unlike some other meals. So it’s possible you might continue to drop either reasonably quickly or a slow drift down. Test before you go to bed and before that if you feel you need to as well. Don’t go to bed on too low a blood sugar. Have a small carby snack if needed.

Also, if you can keep records of what you’re eating along with your blood glucose results, that will be helpful if your doses need adjusting.
 
@rebrascora I think it’s hard to estimate where @Alijp ’s blood sugar will end up. One thing that could affect it is how far in advance of eating they injected. Eg if it was immediately before, I’d expect a higher ‘peak’ than 6.7 so I’d guess that there would be a few mmols drop to come. Like everything with diabetes, so much can affect it. All part of the fun 🙄
 
rebrascora said:
What you have to understand with injected insulin is that it isn't as fast as home produced insulin, so whilst a dietary controlled Type 2 would be happy with that 6.7 2 hours afterwards, your Novorapid has a 5 hour profile so it will continue to work for another 3 hours slowly lowering that 6.7 to somewhere near 4 or 5 which would be a good result if you were not on insulin, it is a bit low a level to go to bed on. Have you been given advice to make sure your BG is at a certain level before bed, usually about 7 or 8 and if it is below that, then to have a small carby snack like half or a whole biscuit to bring it up to that level? A digestive biscuit is usually about 10g carbs and they usually suggest that 10g carbs will raise your levels by 3mmols as a starting guide until you have experimented enough to find your body works slightly differently. So if you were on 5.6mmols at bedtime then half a biscuit should be enough as it would bring you up by about 1.5mmols to 7.1 ish but if you were in the 4s then the whole biscuit would be best.
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Hi, yeah, the DN did say to have my BG level around the 7 mark before bed but until the past week my levels had been rising during the night so I had been trying to keep them in the mid 6's but now they seem to be staying around the same level in the morning as they were when I went to bed. I will aim to get them around at least the 7 mark now though and see what the DN says tomorrow. Thank you 🙂
 
Inka said:
@rebrascora I think it’s hard to estimate where @Alijp ’s blood sugar will end up. One thing that could affect it is how far in advance of eating they injected. Eg if it was immediately before, I’d expect a higher ‘peak’ than 6.7 so I’d guess that there would be a few mmols drop to come. Like everything with diabetes, so much can affect it. All part of the fun 🙄
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I injected maybe 5 minutes before starting to eat but I will post what my bedtime sugar is for reference though 🙂
 
It's a little under 5.5 hours since I last injected and just done my bedtime sugar - 6.1
 
So I found out about half an hour ago that i definitely am type 2 diabetic. The plan going forward is to slowly move me from insulin onto metformin starting with one tablet per day.
 
Alijp said:
So I found out about half an hour ago that i definitely am type 2 diabetic. The plan going forward is to slowly move me from insulin onto metformin starting with one tablet per day.
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What was the deciding factor in the diagnosis?
You can hopefully now have a sensible plan for moving forward. Make sure you get good advise about the transition and what dietary regime you will need to adopt.
 
Leadinglights said:
What was the deciding factor in the diagnosis?
You can hopefully now have a sensible plan for moving forward. Make sure you get good advise about the transition and what dietary regime you will need to adopt.
Click to expand...

I had an Islet Antibody blood test done which came back negative.

I will probably be starting the transition towards the end of the week and the DN is going to ring me on Monday to see how it's going and yes, she gave me advice regarding watching my sugar levels and adjusting the insulin if necessary.
 
Alijp said:
So I found out about half an hour ago that i definitely am type 2 diabetic. The plan going forward is to slowly move me from insulin onto metformin starting with one tablet per day.
Click to expand...

Glad you have a Type diagnosis @Alijp 🙂
 
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