Question if your blood sugar is say 80 before a meal would you still take your fast acting and wait 15 mins or take the fast acting and eat? If you wait aren't you going to drop to low? thanks
If my BS is 80 before a meal, I would just bolus and eat. The insulin would kick in by the time the food started getting digested. The rules of bolusing and eating are not hard and fast.
I don't do the whole "wait 15 min" thing unless i'm over 250 (and then its more like "wait 30 min"). I usually won't know exactly what I'm eating until I have it right in front of me. I find that I can calculate carbs better if I actually see my food. However IF I did usually wait 15 minutes, I would probably still do it at 80. I doubt 15 minutes would make me drop a significant amount
Now, when I'm at 50 before eating, I'll eat first and THEN take my insulin.
Normally when I have a reading below 100 before a meal I choose my type and quantity of carbs very carefully and do not bolus at all.At those times I will only bolus if I choose to treat myself to some carby foods. Doing this, I have gone for several days without using any fast acting. Of course, I have to consider my activity level when doing this. Generally the only time I go low is when I wait to long to eat. It seems to me that controlling BG is more than simply calculating carbs and dosing with insulin. I must eat and food will raise my BG. Exercise and insulin will bring it down. If I am careful about my food selection and activity I can control my BG with very little insulin. I have worked very hard at this and over the last month have stayed pretty solidly between 70 and 105. Yes, I've been beyond that range a few times, but I have been able to determine why and act accordingly. Less carbs and less insulin makes life a lot simpler. I have also been able to decrease my basal by 4 units.
For me, it depends on if the 80 is a stable 80 or if the 80 is trending down. It would also depend on what I was planning to eat. Like Randy, for me, life is much simpler with fewer carbs and less insulin. Fewer swings and more stability.
If I were eating a meal with any significant carbs, I would dose and eat right away. I've been there done that for a holiday meal where I bolused before a meal when I was on the lowish side and waited the 15 minutes to eat...only to crash and burn before I even finished eating.
You'll get tired of hearing this, but there really is no one right answer because everybody is so different. Your body probably won't react in the same way as my body in the exact same situation. And there are so many variables that come into play.
Yes, I would bolus, wait 15-20 minutes and then eat. 80 is about as perfect a before meal blood sugar as you can have. The insulin takes about 15 minutes to start acting; that is why we take it ahead of time.
Thank you everyone.
Yeah, I had an endo tell me that too. For myself, as well as many others, if we bolus and eat right away we will go high. YMMV.
I would bolus and wait 30-45 min in the morning...but any other time of day I would bolus and eat.
That's for darn sure! The true test is what works to keep us in range...at least as often as possible for a Type 1!
I'm like Zoe, if I don't pre-bolus I'll go higher than I like for sure.
I had an endo respond in horror when I suggested I wait fifteen minutes after bolusing. Sometimes I think doctors are more scared of lows than Diabetics are - but then the cynic in me just thinks it's a part of the whole cya attitude of the medical profession. If someone dies from a low or causes a car accident or whatever they don't want to be responsible!
I saw my PCP today for a non D-related issue. She asked what my BG was; I was in the mid-70s, and commented that I had just eaten a skittle because I was driving. She waved me off and said... oh, it depends what you're used to, I'm usually in the 50s. Love it when docs get it!
Wow, cool! A Type 1 doc?
Maybe DHF should offer grants to Type 1's who want to go to school to become docs, endos, cde's or counselors!
LOL I always bolus and eat, lol I'm to much on the go to wait around 15 minutes, BUT eating as soon as I bolus doesnt really effect me, it's all trial and error and what works best for you. There is no right or wrong answer, we've all been there and had to find our own way with managing this, and what works for us.
Actually the occassional times I do bolus and wait a bit to eat, lol I aways end up higher 2 hours later. Go figure. Thats the crazy thing about this, NONE of us behave the same way.
hahaha That WOULD be cool. No one really truly gets it, unless they've lived it. My CDE when I was ■■■■■■■ and moaning about her messing up my basals was trying to tell me it was PERFECTLY ok to be 180 2 hours after eating, lol Im like WHATEVER. Needless to say, as soon as I left, I put my basals right back to where I had then. Crap happens with D and so do lows, I'd rather have the occassional low, treat and overall really good control, than run higher and not have lows.
I would still wait at 80 unless I had that feeling I was dropping down or if I had been running low all day... it's still not predictable for me what will happen in any case. I generally will not wait the full 15 minutes if I'm lower- I usually wait between 5-15 minutes.
If I'm lower than 80 I may not wait or I may not take insulin at all if I'm in the 60's and it's my first meal- I'm eating a low carb diet and my first meal is generally quite low with 6-7 g of carbs or so. For the evening meals I seem to need more insulin even if the carbs are lower sometimes.
When I was in the hospital my endo told me to eat right after injecting, but my sugars were spiking like crazy from the high carb meals and his partner told me to weight 15 minutes before eating. This does complicate things quite a bit for me as I'm sometimes preparing something to eat and I have to do it quickly.