Restaurant service

[Inka]

I'm another who is intrigued by this sliding scale system, so apologies for bombarding you with questions. When you test your bg do you calculate how many units of insulin to take purely as a result of that test (ie, so many units to bring you down to a normal fasting level,) or do you add on any units to mop up the food you are about to eat, and if so, how do you decide how many units? Or do you deal with the rise that the meal gives you when you next check your bg?

That’s exactly what I asked @Robin (glad I’m not the only one fascinated!) I think I asked on the other thread and it seems the answer is just to look at the meter reading not the upcoming meal.

 

[Leadinglights]

That’s exactly what I asked @Robin (glad I’m not the only one fascinated!) I think I asked on the other thread and it seems the answer is just to look at the meter reading not the upcoming meal.

It is hard to understand the logic and would seem a risky approach to achieving a stability in blood glucose levels. But it perhaps does work for the OP otherwise after many years they may be suffering complications as a result of unstable levels.

 

[Pwinnock13]

I do both especially if I am treating myself.

 

[Robin]

I do both especially if I am treating myself.

Thank you. If it works for you (apart from the odd hiccup in a restaurant, and we are all prone to those) then good.

 

[rebrascora]

It is still not clear if you hypoed because you had injected your insulin before going for the meal or as a result of basal dropping you too low or perhaps your previous bolus dropping you too low??

Am I right in understanding that you do corrections in between meals to keep levels reasonably in range and if so, how long after your insulin injection for the meal? (I imagine that could end up stacking insulin) Or do you just correct for any high levels at the next meal?

It might be helpful to know roughly how many times a day you test, on average..... assuming you don't have Freestyle Libre... and an indication of what sort of HbA1c results you get with this system?

Did the doctor give you some sort of sheet or table which tells you how much to inject depending upon your reading or is that something that you figured out for yourself?

It is amazing that so many of us have not heard of this method, although I am struggling to be convinced of how effective it would be at managing BG levels.

 

[PattiEvans]

I have been wondering if the described hypo was a result of basal being too high, or whether it was the result of bolussing ahead and then not getting the meal when expected. Without more information we can hardly help or even comment. I do wonder.

 

[Abi]

I would either make sure I had plenty of glucose tablets or quick access to a bar with sugary drinks, or not pre-bolus and risk a higher reading after food, for a meal in a restaurant. I do not know how those working in hospitality manage the demands of the job. I chose the third option once as had chosen a jacket potato - I love these sugar bombs so prebolusing seemed like a good idea. They made a mistake and brought chips instead. I had bolused about 30 minutes before and my partner was about to ask the waitress to change them for a potato- as I was about to swing for him!
I hope the original poster manages to find a way to better cope with this type of situation

 

[SB2015]

You have intrigued loads of us @Pwinnock13

Do you stick to a fixed number of carbs for your meals?
Thinking about your way of doing things, I realise that at home as we are now fairly adept at hitting our 30g of CHO at meals at home, so most of the time my only adjustment is based on my BG.

It still doesn’t solve the hypo, although I wonder if you had been a lot more active as you were away on holiday and that could have led to it. Whatever the cause the hypo treatment is needed. I find that irritating when it happens as my JBs really spoil things at the start of a meal. Another one is where the main meal is a lot fattier that usual and so the carbs don’t keep up with the insulin over a long meal, so I have been known to hypo during a meal. The joys of T1.

Glad that you have a way that works for you.

 

[Inka]

I do both especially if I am treating myself.

So just a different form of matching insulin to carbs 🙂 I know you must think everyone here is totally obsessed with asking you questions about just this one thing, but every person with diabetes is intrigued by someone who uses a different system. I’m sure you would be too if you came across a new, unheard method.

There’s a lot of discussion on here about people’s different strategies, different regimes, different targets. I think that discussion is both to try to identify practical tips that might work for others, but also because such discussion helps people go through their own systems mentally and revise them if necessary.Such discussion with others with diabetes also helps people not to feel alone.

So, people’s questions are genuine interest, nothing else - which is understandable really, isn’t it?

 

[Piglet]

My diabetes..... My problem..... I have never expected anyone and certainly not restaurants to jump to the tune of my diabetes. I always have a plan B, C and D. I always have a small bag of sweets in my bag for occasions such as this and never expect people to solve my issues. Maybe its because I have adapted to life with diabetes over the last 41 years.