T2 new to insulin - help!

[Morag]

Hi everyone,

I am 30 and was diagnosed with T2 nearly 10 years ago, I've spent most of that time not controlling my diabetes. I am on insulin as I'm planning to have kids in the near future. I only started it yesterday but now I'm questioning how do you carb count if you go to someone's house for dinner?

Thanks in advance!

Morag

 

[Inka]

Welcome @Morag 🙂 What insulins do you take? When at friends or eating out, you’ll need to estimate the carbs. Always underestimate as it’s better to be a little high than to go low.

 

[Morag]

Welcome @Morag 🙂 What insulins do you take? When at friends or eating out, you’ll need to estimate the carbs. Always underestimate as it’s better to be a little high than to go low.

Thank you! I’m on lantus and novorapid. I have what feels like a very stupid question but if I’m out for dinner, am I able to take a different insulin injection for main course and dessert?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Morag

I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve slightly tweaked your username to that members don’t confuse you with various Diabetes UK staff members (I’m a rarity in that I’ve been here so long the DUK suffix wasn’t a habit!)

Thank you! I’m on lantus and novorapid. I have what feels like a very stupid question but if I’m out for dinner, am I able to take a different insulin injection for main course and dessert?

That’s what I would do. You do have to be a bit careful, because the two doses will be ‘overlapping’ and working at the same time (sometimes called ‘stacking’, which can mean their action is stronger. Additionally, bigger meals can digest more slowly over a longer period, so it cam take a bit of experimentation, and you might choose to delay or split the second dose into 2 parts until you see what’s happening (and how well you guessed the first course!)

Above all, enjoy the meal and company. It’s only once in a while, don’t let diabetes put a dampener on your evening 🙂

 

[Inka]

Thank you! I’m on lantus and novorapid. I have what feels like a very stupid question but if I’m out for dinner, am I able to take a different insulin injection for main course and dessert?

Yes, that’s what I always do. When out, I don’t inject until the food is in front of me, and then I only inject for the food that’s in front of me, eg my main meal. If I then order a dessert, I wait until it’s in front of me, then inject for the dessert. I don’t test my blood sugar before injecting for the dessert because I know I’ve recently eaten my main meal so it will probably be a bit high, but that doesn’t matter because I’ve already injected the insulin to cover that. So, when injecting for my dessert, I simply estimate the carbs in the dessert and do an injection for those. I also do this for longer meals, eg Christmas Lunch.