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I am

1:7g for breakfast
1:10g for lunch
1:9.5g for evening meal.
 
Thank you for further information Northerner. I have a slice of burgen bread every morning for breakfast!! 10 carbohydrates, 4 quick acting to cover (and 1 or 2 for luck)! I have no more than 25 units of quick acting during the day, and 24 background, so yes I suppose I take very little.
 
pazza said:
Thank you for further information Northerner. I have a slice of burgen bread every morning for breakfast!! 10 carbohydrates, 4 quick acting to cover (and 1 or 2 for luck)! I have no more than 25 units of quick acting during the day, and 24 background, so yes I suppose I take very little.
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We are almost identical! That's what I have for breakfast too! Sometimes I have a little jam on it if I am going out for a run 😉 The only real difference between us is that I have less background insulin, but I am a bit of a freak where that is concerned - I was originally on 20 units of lantus, and it has been as low as 3! Currently it is 8 units.🙂
 
We have never been told to alter anything - we started at 1u per 10g carbs and have carried on with that at all mealtimes. We have never been properly through corrections either, but when we had a problem early on with my lad forgetting his Lantus one evening, we were told to apply corrections at a rate of 1u per each 4mmol over 8, ie 8-11.9 1u, 12-15.9 2u etc etc. So have you all just fiddled with ratios when your levels haven't been where they should be or have you been told to alter them?
 
Sadly, Tina, once we're out in the cold, so to speak, it can take a lot to get the professionals up to speed on our own perculiarities, so it's best to try and understand your lad's patterns and whether 1:10 leaves him high or low at times, in which case you can work the corections into the equation and try to adjust the ratio to cancel out the expected correction.

They SHOULD teach every diabetic to do it but they don't. It's the whole basis of MDI to take advantage of the flexibility.

So write evrything down, corrections included and see if you can rework the ratios as if the corrections were given 'up front' and you shoudl be able to find a better ratio for each meal.🙂

Rob
 
This is my lad who doesn't even test his BG for weeks at a time, so at the moment couldn't even begin to guess where we are. I know he's running high at the moment as he has been through a spell of not using his novorapid, or only occasionally, so I usually tell him 2u higher than his dinner truly is. I don't have a clue if we are anywhere near, but he isn't having hypos, so I know he is still high rather than low.
 
It has definitely been a great advantage enjoying maths
 
You need to get his team involved Tina. Until he starts to accept that he's diabetic and needs to test, inject and all the rest of it, you're going to need professional support.

Ratio adjustments are fine tuning. Without testing and injecting he's heading for a fall. I hope you can get the DSN to speak to him.

Rob
 
I am a bit peeved as I sent a long email a couple of weeks ago to his DSN and have heard nothing. I have phoned before and have had to leave messages and chase them up before a call back, so thought an email would be better where I could write all my worries down. He had been really messing with it a few weeks ago and we had two spells of him being just like he was before diagnosis, sleeping all the time, dry lips etc, and last week I refused to let him go out for some Pepsi Max until he tested and told me what it was. I told him I could see all the signs and wanted to know his result. He did test, and told me it was just over 17. I told him to go and buy the drink then have a decent amount of insulin, which he did. I have only today learnt that he fibbed about the 17 though, it was 23.4. No wonder he was so sleepy. I did tell him it was obvious to me he wasn't taking enough Novorapid, to which he said he keeps forgetting (yeah right!) so I have gone back to telling him every evening meal what the units are (and adding a couple here and there to help bring him down) and he is now using his insulin again, though still 'forgetting' once or twice a day. I dread to think what his next HbA1c is. We are meant to be getting a home 'educational' visit end Oct/early Nov, but haven't had a call at all. Of course it will be hard anyway as he will lie through his teeth, and go mad if I say anything. I, of course, only know half of what I do through sneaking a look at his monitor and pens, which isn't good either. At least at the moment he seems well and lively, so I am not as worried as I was a couple of weeks back, but he definitely needs someone to get through to him.
 
You could try a phone call/email/letter to the department and find out what the situation is. You do need to nip it in the bud because it will become a habit and he will suffer badly in the long run. He won't give a flyign fig right now but regrets later don't make things better.

I don't envy you the fight you have but I can't emphasise enough how important it is.

Don't be shy of banging down doors to get some help. They might be busy but they're paid to provide support.

Rob
 
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