Everyone is diffferent but I never liked sweet stuff so eating a few glucose tablets is a good idea to correct a low. If I use bread or crackers which I like I would eat a very large amount. find something starchy that you do not particularily like to correct lows so you don’t over do it.
Thanks, Kelly.More useful information I’m going to print out! Thanks for the carb recommendations, I’m going to write down some examples of carbs so I can see what I’m eating and how it correlates with my Apidra dose and the resulting BG. I guess I’m on a fact finding mission! My first mission tomorrow though is to go buy more test strips (At $39 per 50 strips…owwww!) because I’m testing like crazy both for information and to alleviate my fear of fast acting insulin.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the help so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel…well, not entirely, since it seems like with diabetes the rule is YMMV and all our wheels roll differently!
Dear Zoe.
This is very good news now you have the tools to do the job.
Since your pancreas is still working quite a bit this is not a panic situation. so you have to find out you total daily dose TTD of insulin that you need to keep you BG close to the normal range without too many lows.
Then you can inject 50% of your total daily dose as lantus and keep the rest for bolus before meals. Injection in two parts like Gerri said is a good idea since the lantus does action does not correspond exactly to the rotation of the earth. why should it? some people typically less than 24 hours and some more. So spliting the dose is a good idea.
The insulin to carb ratio is tricky as it may depend a bit on the carb. I can match 75 grams of pasta severely undercooked and still crunchy with 10 units of insulin quite well but the equivalent carbs in bread would be at least of 3/4 of a day with no control. eventually you could develop standard meals and know how much insulin each meal needs. again start with a low carb situation so you will not need too much insulin and the errors hopefully will be small. when you are an expert you can increase the carbs as long as you do not gain weight. There is such a thing as an insulin carb vicious circle.
If someone is experiencing a dangerous low, fast acting glucose is needed immediately. You can’t wait for bread or crackers to take effect.
Could be that my lows are relatively mild and that this is not the case for many diabetics. sorry.
Am glad your lows are mild. Man, how I hate the lows (40’s & a couple in the 30’s) I’ve had.
Thanks, Anthony. I am mostly retired, but work part time. I cannot even imagine how people balance diabetes with careers, especially in the early adjustment phase. I don’t hink any of you are promising me it will get effortless but it does sound like it has become somewhat routine for many of you?
It keeps changing & we all keep adjusting & readjusting, but it becomes routine (though not an enjoyable routine). You will figure this out & won’t be in panic. Deep breaths, one step at a time. Keep your carb lows, your doses correspondingly low & mistakes will be less dramatic & more easily corrected. Eat on a pretty regular schedule, space your meals to around 4 hours apart to have balance & to prevent stacking of insulin. Keep testing & recording.
Mostly, relax & keep breathing.
If you are afraid of using Apidra because of lows, you could ask your endo for Novolog or Humalog instead. Taking it two hours later would be pointless; at that point, you would be taking your blood sugar and giving a correction for the number, not bolusing because a lot of your food would have been digested. You can take it before, prebolus by fifteen minutes or take it shortly after eating.
That is also great, diabetes + stress = early death. it’s like trench warfare stressful but routine. You will become a veteran at this don’t worry.
I was down to 65 after 2 hours of very light rowing around our community trout lake full of big ones caught 5 lb. some advantage of living in siberia water stays cold but bass are ok too none here too cold. 65 very unpleasant imagine 40.