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hi everyone i am looking for an aswer please

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martyn keight

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
hi i am having problems with my diabetes , i am on novorapid insulin and cannot seem to control my readings, i inject 3 times a day once with long lasting -twice with fast, , the problem is how to control , as in when i take an amout of insulin whicch is not enought to bring my readings down ,how long till i can take the next lot of insulin ? if i wait 2 hours and thereadings are still very high i increase the amount of insulin but end up having an hypo, if anyone can help as i am perplexed my thanks for taking the time to read this,,, marty
 
Hi Martyn and welcome to the forum.

It is good to hear that you are using separate fast acting and long acting insulin.
You mention that you take one long acting injection. Is that in the morning or at night, and which insulin is it.

You say that you take your quick acting twice a day. This is usually used whenever you eat something, so it may be that you only eat two meals a day. Are you on a fixed amount for the fats acting Injections?

I found that once I had been taught how to adjust my quick acting doses to match my carbohydrates, I was much more able to manage my levels. I did a course called DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating) on which they eat with carb counting and also taught us hw to do corrections for when things haven’t worked out. It would be worth asking if you can be referred to an education course such as this.

Are you in the care of the specialists at the hospital or being managed by your GP? As you have Type 1 and are keen to find out how to improve your management, it would be usefu to ask to be referred to the Diabetes Specialist Nurses at your hospital (this is different from a Practiec Nurse who specialises in Diabetes).

Tell us a little bit more about the suppport that you have available to you.
 
hi sorry dont know your name but thank you for answering, my long lasting insulin is lantus. i went on the carb counting course but i am not well educated to which i am embarrased , and did not understan and was tottaly confused, i was told to keep upping it by 2-1 ratio that bit i do understand. but 2 hours later i check blood which still seems high i do the same thing again and end up having an hypo which really drains me , that is the bit i do not understand as i didnt know how long they take to wear off, thank you once again as really appreciate the help i also have support at the hospital and they just say i need to carb count which is the bit i dont know and understand,
 
martyn keight said:
hi sorry dont know your name but thank you for answering, my long lasting insulin is lantus. i went on the carb counting course but i am not well educated to which i am embarrased , and did not understan and was tottaly confused, i was told to keep upping it by 2-1 ratio that bit i do understand. but 2 hours later i check blood which still seems high i do the same thing again and end up having an hypo which really drains me , that is the bit i do not understand as i didnt know how long they take to wear off, thank you once again as really appreciate the help i also have support at the hospital and they just say i need to carb count which is the bit i dont know and understand,
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Hi Martyn, welcome to the forum 🙂 You shouldn't inject more insulin if your levels are high two hours after eating, as the insulin you injected with your meal will still be working in your system to bring your levels down - more insulin will bring levels down too much and you will have a hypo, as you are discovering :(

Using a fast-acting insulin it is often a matter of timing. When you inject and then eat, your food starts digesting and raising your blood sugar levels, but your insulin may be a bit slow to catch up with this. As a result, after two hours your food is probably fully digested, but your insulin hasn't quite caught up with it, so your levels may be high at this point. However, as the insulin continues working for about 4-5 hours it's quite likely that, after 4 hours, and with no extra insulin, your levels will be much better. I would suggest trying this and seeing what your levels are like at two and 4 hours - don't worry for now if your levels are a bit high at two hours, just wait and see where they are at 4 or 5 hours.

In time you will build up experience of how your body reacts to your different meal choices, and be able to improve timing your insulin injection so that the insulin is 'peaking' at around the same time as your food. This will take time though, so try not to be too concerned about seeing higher levels after two hours for now 🙂

Do speak you your nurse and ask her to explain again how things work - it can be very complicated, so don't feel you ought to be able to understand everything - if you're not sure, keep asking questions until it starts to make sense to you 🙂
 
martyn keight said:
a great big thank you, you have answered without making me feel stupid and so i understand and appreciate, i will talk with nurse next time and say that i have had it explained so i understand, i sincerely thank you once again, marty x
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You're very welcome Marty, glad I was able to help 🙂
 
martyn keight said:
a great big thank you, you have answered without making me feel stupid and so i understand and appreciate, i will talk with nurse next time and say that i have had it explained so i understand, i sincerely thank you once again, marty x
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There is so much to take in and it is all a very steep learning curve.
Just keep asking questions and people on here are only too happy to help.
 
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