I am a new diabetic for 3 months on the pump. I test about about 15 times a day. Is that excessive, how often do people normally test. I guess maybe I am trying to get all my trends. I test about roughly once an hour.
Hey Rich,
At first I was testing that much too, and I still do if I am really active or eating at a party and trying to guess everything. I think once you start seeing patterns you will be able to eliminate some testing, but in order to have good control I would probably say you wouldn’t be testing less than 8 times a day. That is my minimum…usually I test about 10 times. I can sometimes not test before lunch because I know pretty much exactly what’s going on after testing for breakfast since I eat the same things usually.
Good luck!
I’m probably around 8 times a day. When I was pregnant with my children, I tested constantly, trying to keep my blood sugars low.
Honestly, I think you’re over doing it, but I know why. The whole unknown with starting the pump and such. If you test before meals, 2 hours afterwards and before bed, you should be alright. I also test when I feel “off”, just in case. After nearly 14 years of diabetes, I’ve lost the symptoms of a low.
Good luck!
hi Rich, I test about 8-10 times a day. If it’s been more than 2 or 3 hours, I want to know. here’s another discussion on the subject with lots of replies
https://forum.tudiabetes.org/topics/how-often-do-you-check-your
and here are the results from a poll Manny did a while back
8-10 for me too–unless I am ill or such–then more–also have cgm–but its not accurate enough to safely does insulin from (but great at catcing sneaky lows)
Thank you!
Welcome to being Diabetic! What does your doctor (Endocrinologist) suggest that you test? I am assuming you are type 1. You want to establish a base line pattern of how your body reacts to different foods and exercise. I would with a purpose and at appropiate times not because you feel like doing it. Such as 2 hours after you eat a major meal …test…perhaps before doing some exercise and after …test… Just so you can get an idea of how your body is reacting. If you are feeling “loopy” or sluggish …test… So you know when you feel this way again it the reason maybe you BS is High or Low.
Just remember if you are insured depending on the plan you may be allowed a certain about of test strips a month. Test strips are not cheap. Discuss with your doctor how you should test to determine trends.
Test with a purpose and with a game plan. This will help the doctor to determine a plan for you…
PLEASE TAKE TIME TO EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT DIABETES. Don’t leave everything up to the doctor. You have to live with this not the doctor. Sometimes the doctor doesn’t know what he may be doing. You are your own best advocate.
On a good day 10 or so. On a bad day 4-5…Depends on if I’m working or not, and weather I accidently leave my kit at home like I’ve been doing lately. Although I do have CGMS too so that helps a good deal if I do forget my kit.
Rich,
I test 7-8 x a day. I’m not on the pump. I was on CGM - continuous glucose monitoring - using a Dexcom for a year. I used that to give me an education about carb grams, insulin and me. I used Bernstein’s book to learn more. Since I was a professional to begin with and had been teaching about insulin and diabetes since 1952, I was able take some short cuts, but learning about my own body’s reaction to food could not be short cut. Write it all down, write down your estimation of what you ate each time you eat, and, if possible, add on a Dexcom for at least awhile.
I test 8-10 times a day. Some days are more if they are very out of the ordinary (for example, if I’m really sick or extremely active). I think testing every hour is a bit excessive, but many type 1s I know who are aiming for good control need to test 8-10 times a day (every few hours) in order to achieve it. I find I test not so much to spot patterns since I don’t really have trends (or at least none that last more than a day or two before changing!), but more so that if I’m high or low I can get back on track as soon as possible.
Hi Rich, I test my son 11 to 13 times per day, but part of that is because he’s only 3 and can’t really tell me (yet) if he feels low or “off” – he’s learning, though. He’s come to me and his daycare provider a couple of times to tell me he “wants juice” and every time we find he’s low. I test him regularly at these times: 1) first thing in the morning, 2) before each a meal or snack (he eats 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks, so it’s 5 or 6 times per day, depending), 3) before he goes to bed, 4) once in the middle of the night, and 5) anytime he seems like he may be low or high because of symptoms like irritability, pale skin, fussiness, etc. That adds up to about 7 to 10 times daily if he doesn’t have symptoms of lows/highs, and on average more like 11 or 12. So yeah, I’d say that 15 times a day is probably excessive.
Here’s where you could potentially cut back on testing, though – if you’re testing hourly, you’re probably testing during times that you are digesting food and/or your insulin hasn’t peaked from a pre-meal bolus. My son’s endocrinologist told us that most of the time, any test done less than 2 hours after eating was little more than a wasted test strip (unless you’re ill and trying to monitor your BG because the illness is throwing off your ability to eat and/or sending you unusually high). The information you’re getting from those post-meal tests is basically meaningless, because you don’t know the rate at which any given meal is being absorbed and processed into glucose entering your blood stream, and you also don’t know the activity level of the insulin you took ahead of that meal. You could have a reading of 160 an hour after you eat and think that’s about right, but if your meal is only 2/3 digested at that point, you could potentially go a lot higher during the next hour given that your bolus probably won’t reach peak activity for another half hour to an hour. Or, the meal could be mostly digested by then and you still have a fair bit of insulin on board, which could mean you’re going to go low in about an hour. The point is, you can’t tell from a reading 1 hour postprandial whether you’re on the way up, or one the way down. It usually takes about 2 hours to digest the average meal, maybe 2 1/2 if it was a high-fat meal, so you can feel pretty confident if you test at 2.5 hours after eating that your BG isn’t going to go any higher, particularly since that’s about the time your insulin reaches its peak activity.
So I’m thinking that you may want to scale back a bit and let go of any tests you’re doing within 2 hours after meals. Make sense?
I test at least 10 times a day and have tested upwards of 20 times trying to figure out trends between meals, post meal, and while exercising. I was never given specific instructions when to test, other than “before and after you eat” and “before you go to bed”. I have since picked up a Dexcom and I am gradually decreasing my fingersticking as I gain confidence in the CGM.
I test 10to 12 times per day. AND I wear a CGM system. You can’t test too much. But I consider testing much less useful if one does not record and review the information. You learn a lot more if you know what your BG levels are in relation to food on board, exertion level, stress, etc.
Record keeping and analysis is what counts!