How long before a meal do you take insulin?

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rebrascora said:
4 is a normal BG level, so you shouldn't be frightened of it, but on insulin levels in the 5s are probably a bit safer. Personally I think fear of hypos can be more debilitating than actual hypos. I used to lose sleep over the worry of having a hypo at night. Now I go to bed and sleep straight away and have really sound sleep. If my levels drop too low, I wake up chew a JB or two and I am back to sleep within a minute. Gaining the confidence to deal with hypos has been key in being able to manage them well although obviously preventing them is best wherever possible. I mostly live on my own, so I am pretty independent and for me that means learning to manage my diabetes in all situations and experimenting on myself in order to learn how to manage things well.
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Your right I have only ever had one it was bad took too much insulin for pasta straight away fought it for an hour and half I think this is where this all stems from
 
Ingressus said:
how do you know what units to inject if you are at 8 and waiting for it to come down
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We are talking pre meal here. At 8 I will probably need an extra unit on top of my food bolus using a correction factor of 1 unit drops me 3 mmols but if it is in the morning then I will probably need 2units because of Foot on the floor. To be honest now that I have Libre I don't worry too much if I give myself a little bit too much insulin because I can always have a jelly baby or a date (got some left over from the festive season) or a prune or an apricot to slow the drop if I get to 5 and I am still dropping fast. A JB will sort that out before it hits 4 for me. It is important to note that the fastest absorption of glucose is through the mouth, so chewing your glucose tablets or JB or whatever else you use really well before swallowing, will enable that glucose to get into your blood stream quicker than a couple of chews and swallowing. Once you get confident of just how quickly fast acting carbs get into your system, it is much less frightening. It is also important to note that Libre will take much longer to register carbs raising your BG levels than a finger prick, so don't rely on the Libre if your levels do drop low. Always double check recovery with a BG meter and finger prick.
 
Haha! Especially up here in Consett 😉 ....
 
Just to be clear, I found my first few hypos terrifying, and I think they are especially so when your body has been used to high levels for a while and then you have a sudden drop because it chucks out a load of adrenaline on top of the hypo symptoms which makes me feel far worse, than the hypo itself. Once your body learns not to panic so much, they are easier to deal with. I still usually get hypo symptoms at low 4s most of the time particularly if I am concentrating/looking out for them, so it doesn't seem to have eroded my awareness but just makes the hypos so much less scary when you don't have all that heart pounding, sweating and feeling like you are going to faint/die due to the adrenaline rush.
I think it may also be that my low carb way of eating allows me to drift along in the 4s and 5s for half the day without worrying about them going up and down too much. Going high is much more of a frustration for me.
 
Ingressus said:
I have got all those symptoms jus thinking about tonight :rofl:
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If it is any consolation, I feel like that when I have to attend a party. 🙄 And unfortunately I am serious. I will cry and hyperventilate and get into a right state.... Thankfully all the ones I had to attend over the festive season were cancelled for one reason or another.... Phew!
Sometimes the mind will just not behave reasonably or rationally!
 
I’ve been finding my ‘best bet’ times have been changing with the seasons for a year or so. Currently either 10 or 20 mins seems long enough for breakfast and lunch (up a bit… down a bit…). Whereas it used to be 30 mins for several years, and has been as high as 45-60 mins for breakfast in the past!

I have to watch for hypo dips in the short gap between eating and the start of carb digestion these days. Not helped by the Dex lag!
 
rebrascora said:
If it is any consolation, I feel like that when I have to attend a party. 🙄 And unfortunately I am serious. I will cry and hyperventilate and get into a right state.... Thankfully all the ones I had to attend over the festive season were cancelled for one reason or another.... Phew!
Sometimes the mind will just not behave reasonably or rationally!
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Hi Barbara sorry to hear that what is it that worries you? I'm not a big party fan corner of a pub with a roaring fire suits me
 
Ingressus said:
Hi Barbara sorry to hear that what is it that worries you? I'm not a big party fan corner of a pub with a roaring fire suits me
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Simple answer is "people" and social situations! I can manage one or 2 but more than that and I am really struggling even though it is family and friends. Totally stupid but all my self confidence evaporates as I am getting ready and if I do actually manage to get there, I am so up tight, I struggle to make conversation. I am I suppose naturally a bit of a loner and as I get older, that becomes easier. Give me a herd of horses any day and I am happy, people are just scary!
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
I’ve been finding my ‘best bet’ times have been changing with the seasons for a year or so. Currently either 10 or 20 mins seems long enough for breakfast and lunch (up a bit… down a bit…). Whereas it used to be 30 mins for several years, and has been as high as 45-60 mins for breakfast in the past!

I have to watch for hypo dips in the short gap between eating and the start of carb digestion these days. Not helped by the Dex lag!
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That’s really interesting. I used to inject 30 mins in advance for breakfast but now find 10 mins is fine, and sometimes I bolus right before eating and that’s not as bad as it used to be. I’m worrying it’s getting older that’s causing this not the seasons!
 
Inka said:
That’s really interesting. I used to inject 30 mins in advance for breakfast but now find 10 mins is fine, and sometimes I bolus right before eating and that’s not as bad as it used to be. I’m worrying it’s getting older that’s causing this not the seasons!
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Do wonder same Inka, but still find insulin usage goes up & down with changing seasons.
 
Inka said:
That’s really interesting. I used to inject 30 mins in advance for breakfast but now find 10 mins is fine, and sometimes I bolus right before eating and that’s not as bad as it used to be. I’m worrying it’s getting older that’s causing this not the seasons!
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Mine seemed rock steady from when I first experimented for about 5-6 years… But started to wobble… and once it had it has never seemed to settle! 🙄

Of course it’s not really a stable comparison because there have been multiple changes of tech, sensors, and different insulin pumps (with different algorithms)… not to mention the ongoing goalpost chasing of insulin sensitivity and basal pattern tweakery!

Mine seem to lurch up a bit then back down again of late. perhaps a few months of one thing, then a change. Got down to 5-10 mins, now back up to 20-30. :rofl:

Plus ca change and all that!
 
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