Little bit high - do I correct or leave it?

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MarcLister

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Just took my blood sugar for my Levemir shot. Was 9.2 at dinner so I took an extra unit. Just measured 14.2. I'll take my 14 units of Levemir as usual but I was wondering if I should take some more Novorapid to try and get the blood sugar down for the morning. If I leave it I'll probably be higher than 7 come breakfast.

So do I take some more Novorapid, and if so, how much? I take 1 unit of Novorapid for every 10 grams of carbs if that helps. 🙂
 
Sometimes if im that kind of level before bed I will leave it or sometimes I will take a couple of units. It depends on what you feel most comfortable with really. Has it been long since your meal?
 
How long ago did you have your novorapid?

If it were me, and this is just me don't base what you do on that, it's not advice so do go with what your 'team' advise, and it was more than 4 hours after my novorapid I would probably correct. I know my correction factor is that one unit of insulin brings me down by about 3, but that will be different (often very) for everyone so you can only really base it on your experience.
 
Had my dinner at 8.30. Tested for Levemir just after midnight.
 
Viki said:
For me that would mean a 3am test :(
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:(

I don't sleep well so unless I'm awake already I won't bother. :D Plus my DSNs never told me to do that.

Maybe what happened the other night will happen again? Was 8.9 when I took my Levemir. Very happy with that and its in my range for the Levemir shot. Two hours later I woke up feeling quite bloody hot. Didn't feel hypo but I tested to be sure. 2.9 I tested at! 😱 That kind of thing has happened about 4 times now. Would like to know what is causing that massive a drop in just 2 hours.
 
I think it all really depends on how confident you are of a) your correction factor and b) your basal level.
Personally I correct a night time reading over 8.5 but I'm pretty confident with my basal rate and what corrections I need. If it's something you're not sure about then that's a lot of variables and as Viki said a visit to the 3am club could be useful!
 
I have no idea what my correction factor is. I'm fairly sure my basal is OK. Went from 13 Levemir to 14 over the last few days and felt that my blood sugars, when in range, were in the middle of the range and not 6.8 or 6.9. :D
 
MarcLister said:
Just took my blood sugar for my Levemir shot. Was 9.2 at dinner so I took an extra unit. Just measured 14.2. I'll take my 14 units of Levemir as usual but I was wondering if I should take some more Novorapid to try and get the blood sugar down for the morning. If I leave it I'll probably be higher than 7 come breakfast.

So do I take some more Novorapid, and if so, how much? I take 1 unit of Novorapid for every 10 grams of carbs if that helps. 🙂
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Hi Marc,
a useful site on these issues is in the link below. But its american so you might need to divide their bg numbers by 18.
http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_control_tips/corr_factor.php


hth
 
OK silly question time but how do I know for sure that my basal insulin is right? I'm taking 14 units of Levemir a night. What do I need to know to be sure I'm on the right line?
 
MarcLister said:
OK silly question time but how do I know for sure that my basal insulin is right? I'm taking 14 units of Levemir a night. What do I need to know to be sure I'm on the right line?
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if you wake up and do a test and miss breakfast... test again before lunch and if both readings are at a similar level you should have your basal right.
 
I did a Basal test in the summer, I woke up and tested (so long as you go to bed at normal levels I think) then I didn't eat any carbs for 6 hours and tested every hour (to keep hunger away I ate eggs bacon and fish!) If you don't drop much or go high it's good, or as Katie says levels stay steady all is good.

Having read this thread I corrected last night, I was 11.1 before bed and inject 2 units (I think my correction ratio is 1 unit to 2 and a bit mmol) and I woke up at 6.9 so not bad, cheers for spurring me on Marc!
 
katie said:
if you wake up and do a test and miss breakfast... test again before lunch and if both readings are at a similar level you should have your basal right.
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😱 I'll have to leave that until Thursday then. At home I take 1:10 but if it is Monday-Wednesday breakfast/lunch I switch to 1:30 because of the walking to the bus, working and walking around school and walking home from the bus. So if I fasted between dinner one night and lunch the next, missing breakfast out, I'd be hypo well before lunch.

rossi_mac said:
Having read this thread I corrected last night, I was 11.1 before bed and inject 2 units (I think my correction ratio is 1 unit to 2 and a bit mmol) and I woke up at 6.9 so not bad, cheers for spurring me on Marc!
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Glad to be of service! 🙂
 
MarcLister said:
So if I fasted between dinner one night and lunch the next, missing breakfast out, I'd be hypo well before lunch.
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That's a sign that your basal isn't right. Your basal should keep you steady without eating anything, so you should be able to skip/miss meals without hypo's or blood sugars rising. This is for normal activities, obviously if you did exercise then you might need to take on some carbs.

If your work days are much more active than your off days then you might need to consider a different basal dose for work days. It's something that I am thinking about at the moment, work days my blood sugars are very good but days off I tend to go high.

posted this several times before but I think it's a good article. It's about basal insulin, is fromt he US so will have to convert to mmol/l so just divide by 18.
http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/articles/insulin/getting_down_to_basals/1/
 
Thanks sofaraway. I'll give that a read. Might give my DSN a call and ask for her advice. 🙂
 
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