how long sugars are meant to stay stable for

[litto-miss-loz]

Hey all,

I get confused with all this adjustin and that but just wanted to ask this question.

See if you get your basal and bolus right then how many hours will your sugars stay stable for ??? should it be until u next eat??? or will it eventually drop if u dont eat for a while?

:S

 

[aymes]

I think you mentioned on another thread that you're doing dafne, I bet they'll explain thsi better than me!

If your basal is right then in theory you should stay stable continually. Your basal should match the continuous basal rate of glucose given out by your liver so if you take meals and bolus insulins out the the question you should stay at the same level.

However in practice things like exercise, alcohol, stress etc will all have an effect on your blood sugars so it's unlikely that you would stay level continuously if you chose not to eat!

The bolus insulin will then be matched to what carbs you have eaten, so you can work out how much those carbs will raise your blood sugar, and how much insulin is needed to bring it back down. Most bolus insulins last for around 4/5 hours so after this time you would expect to be back at about the level you started on (assuming your basal is right!)

It's all quite a lot to get your head around but it will eventually become second nature, like I sat I'm sure on dafne they'll explain it in a far more straighforward way!

 

[rossi_mac]

I know what you mean, confusing.

How I see it is it should stay pretty level, maybe drop of a bit, but there are so many damn variables anything can happen. I did a basal test a few weeks ago and I stay pretty steady for about 6 hours, but was dropping slightly, well I was driving around and doing stuff, so that could have helped it drop, stress can make it go up so I guess my advise would be get 1 shot working right for a typical day at a time, then move on to the next one. I was always told to get the basal one right first, if you end up correcting every few hours it gets tiring depressing and you don't know what's going on!

You could always try a bit of a no carb diet to help you see what your levels are doing, when I did this basal test I had some egss, fish and salad to eat to keep me going.

Anyway best of luck,

Rossi.

 

[Northerner]

... Most basal insulins last for around 4/5 hours ...

You meant bolus there aymes, just thought I should clarify! My levels are stable on my basal - I only drop if I've had too much bolus for the food/alcohol/activity, as aymes says.

 

[aymes]

Oops, yes I did mean bolus, I've corrected to make sure it's clear!

 

[sofaraway]

Yep if basal is set right your blood sugars should stay level between meals. I think what alot of people who use pumps find out is that their basal needs can vary quite alot though. So it's quite hard injecting basal insulin to get a perfect match, but most of us can get it near enough.

 

[litto-miss-loz]

thanks all

btw just wondered see when u go on the dafne course, do u all inject infront of each other? lol

 

[tracey w]

Hi,

you just do what you feel comfortable with. On my course all of us bar one injected in front of each other as we all inject in public when eating so no difference. One lady did not feel comfortable as never injected in public and she went to the toilets. Like i say its what suits you. 🙂

 

[aymes]

Hi,

you just do what you feel comfortable with. On my course all of us bar one injected in front of each other as we all inject in public when eating so no difference. One lady did not feel comfortable as never injected in public and she went to the toilets. Like i say its what suits you. 🙂

Similar experience here, it got to lunch time and everyi=one just got their kit out and started testing and injecting. At that point I wasn't injecting in public but I figured I'd join in, have always injected in public since, found it quite liberating actually. But I'm sure there wouldn't have been an issue if someone had wanted to do it in private.

 

[NiVZ]

Hello,

On my DAFNE course we all injected in front of each other.

NiVZ