MYSUGR APP

[mum2westiesGill]

This is what comes up now if you try and enter a carb amount without a blood sugar entry

 

[Sally71]

Yes it’s programmed to always correct your blood sugar every time you bolus and doesn’t like it when you just want to calculate for carbs. Presumably if you press continue you can override the message? It is a good idea to test first usually, and it will adjust your dose accordingly depending on what your blood sugars are, but there are some occasions when you just want to bolus for carbs only.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Yes it’s programmed to always correct your blood sugar every time you bolus and doesn’t like it when you just want to calculate for carbs. Presumably if you press continue you can override the message? It is a good idea to test first usually, and it will adjust your dose accordingly depending on what your blood sugars are, but there are some occasions when you just want to bolus for carbs only.

Hi @Sally71 and thanks for your reply. Do you think the new programming is ok?

If a correction is needed I make sure I only correct 4 hours apart

 

[Sally71]

It works the same as a Roche pump I think, and we were told to always test before any food and it will work out the corrections for you. If you want to eat again less than 4 hours later it either won’t add a correction or will reduce it because it knows you still have some active insulin left.
I think it’s something like if you test and eat again within 2 hours it won’t add any correction on, from 2-4 hours it adds half the calculated correction, after 4 hours it adds the full amount of correction. The only time I wouldn’t test is for example if you are for some reason bolusing/injecting for your main course and pudding separately (e.g. if you are eating out and don’t want to calculate for your pudding until it arrives in front of you, so that you can see how big it is). You’ll probably be eating the pudding within an hour of the main course and you know the bolus calculator won’t add a correction within that time because the first dose of insulin is still working, so no point giving it a BG number if it isn’t going to do anything with it anyway.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

It works the same as a Roche pump I think, and we were told to always test before any food and it will work out the corrections for you. If you want to eat again less than 4 hours later it either won’t add a correction or will reduce it because it knows you still have some active insulin left.
I think it’s something like if you test and eat again within 2 hours it won’t add any correction on, from 2-4 hours it adds half the calculated correction, after 4 hours it adds the full amount of correction. The only time I wouldn’t test is for example if you are for some reason bolusing/injecting for your main course and pudding separately (e.g. if you are eating out and don’t want to calculate for your pudding until it arrives in front of you, so that you can see how big it is). You’ll probably be eating the pudding within an hour of the main course and you know the bolus calculator won’t add a correction within that time because the first dose of insulin is still working, so no point giving it a BG number if it isn’t going to do anything with it anyway.

Do you know what happens if you're just doing a 2 hr after meal test

 

[Sally71]

Does the app just help you to calculate insulin, or does it track all your blood sugars and do something else with the information? If you’re just doing a test and aren’t going to eat anything, do you need to use the app? If you do this test and you are high and put it in the app to see if you need a correction it wouldn’t give you the full amount after 2 hours, I think it would probably give you half because some of the insulin you had with the food is still working.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Do you know what happens if you're just doing a 2 hr after meal test

You wouldnt need to use the bolus adviser then would you?

 

[mum2westiesGill]

You wouldnt need to use the bolus adviser then would you?

No

 

[rebrascora]

You wouldnt need to use the bolus adviser then would you?

Mike, it looks like Gill may have started using a strategy of eating her evening meal and then bolusing for it as a "correction" at some point afterwards, but just using MySugr to calculate the "correction" rather than carb counting the meal itself. This has an obvious flaw of only calculating for the glucose which has been broken down from the food and made it's way into the blood stream at that point, so the correction calculated by the app is only based on the BG at that moment and not the carbs which are still digesting.... as well as obviously meaning that her BG will go high before insulin is injected and then probably stay high because not enough insulin has been calculated to deal with all the carbs in her system. I think this strategy may be because she has been away from home for a break and eating out a lot making carb counting difficult......
....... Hopefully I got that right Gill? ..... Please say if I have misunderstood.
It is what I have picked up from reading your recent posts anyway.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Mike, it looks like Gill may have started using a strategy of eating her evening meal and then bolusing for it as a "correction" at some point afterwards, but just using MySugr to calculate the "correction" rather than carb counting the meal itself. This has an obvious flaw of only calculating for the glucose which has been broken down from the food and made it's way into the blood stream at that point, so the correction calculated by the app is only based on the BG at that moment and not the carbs which are still digesting.... as well as obviously meaning that her BG will go high before insulin is injected and then probably stay high because not enough insulin has been calculated to deal with all the carbs in her system. I think this strategy may be because she has been away from home for a break and eating out a lot making carb counting difficult......
....... Hopefully I got that right Gill? ..... Please say if I have misunderstood.
It is what I have picked up from reading your recent posts anyway.

@rebrascora you're 100% correct there. I think in future if I'm eating out or having chinese takeaway I will just take a wild guess of carbs maybe on the lower side of carbs - what do you think?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Yes I think that’s wise Gill. Eating out or takeaways often means making your best guess, and then reacting later to how things are going (which is much easier when you can keep an eye in things with Libre).

Often I will have a vague guess in my head of what a meal out might be and will take maybe half that about 5 minutes before it’s expected to arrive, then add the other half later (plus or minus any adjustment if it’s bigger or smaller than expected on arrival).

Mostly I find it easier to wait until it’s in front of me though, and dose based on what it looks like when it arrives 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

@rebrascora you're 100% correct there. I think in future if I'm eating out or having chinese takeaway I will just take a wild guess of carbs maybe on the lower side of carbs - what do you think?

That is all any of us can do. It is not possible to know how many carbs are in food when we eat out, so we use our judgement along with perhaps assistance from Carbs and Cals to make a best guess and err on the cautious side.... ie underestimate the carbs a bit rather than over estimate. Levels can then be corrected at the next meal,

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Yes I think that’s wise Gill. Eating out or takeaways often means making your best guess, and then reacting later to how things are going (which is much easier when you can keep an eye in things with Libre).

Often I will have a vague guess in my head of what a meal out might be and will take maybe half that about 5 minutes before it’s expected to arrive, then add the other half later (plus or minus any adjustment if it’s bigger or smaller than expected on arrival).

Mostly I find it easier to wait until it’s in front of me though, and dose based on what it looks like when it arrives 🙂

@everydayupsanddowns how long later would you take the other half? Also would you test again when you take the other half?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

@everydayupsanddowns how long later would you take the other half? Also would you test again when you take the other half?

Well, pretty much as soon as I knew (or guessed) the extra carbs or anything up to 2hrs later. depending on what my sensor trace was doing at the time, and if it felt like a ‘slow’ meal (eg lots of fat in it)

I may well deliver the second part as an extended bolus on the pump. Seems to work well with big meals.

Never easy eating out. you can only try your best and be careful trying not to risk hypos OR big long avoidable highs 🙂

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Well, pretty much as soon as I knew (or guessed) the extra carbs or anything up to 2hrs later. depending on what my sensor trace was doing at the time, and if it felt like a ‘slow’ meal (eg lots of fat in it)

I may well deliver the second part as an extended bolus on the pump. Seems to work well with big meals.

Never easy eating out. you can only try your best and be careful trying not to risk hypos OR big long avoidable highs 🙂

So up to 2 hrs later would be ok but would it also be ok straight after you've finished eating?
Would you test again when you have the rest of the dose?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

So up to 2 hrs later would be ok but would it also be ok straight after you've finished eating?

Quite possibly. But there aren’t any hard and fast rules unfortunately. You would just have to make a judgement at the time based on your levels, and the type of meal, and how your BGs had been behaving recently / earlier that day, and how active you had been... and any of the other things that make this silly game so tricky 🙂

When I was on injections without sensors I used to use the 2hrs after approach. Sometimes more like 1.30.

 

[mum2westiesGill]

Hi @everydayupsanddowns when you have the rest of your insulin would you also do a test?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi @everydayupsanddowns when you have the rest of your insulin would you also do a test?

I did on MDI yes, but if I was wearing a sensor, I would use that instead