I found out I had diabeties in March 2012, went to the endo in April and he feels strongly that it is type 2 although I do not present as a typical type 2. I am not over weight, athletic running 25-30 miles a week plus weight training, a vegan and no bad habits. He stated that you just can’t get away from your genes! (dad is type 2.) endo told me to test before and after each meal and when I get up and before I go to bed. That’s 8 times a day. I call to get my test strips refilled and tell them I am checking 8 times a day and they say fine we will contact your dr and have them change the rx. The dr calls today and says why are you testing so much, you don’t have really bad diabeties. I understand this, I was doing what they asked me to do. If I don’t have the strips then I can’t test. Anyway enough ranting just wondered how often others test.
I think it is great that your endo wants you to test often at first. That's what you need to see where your blood sugar patterns are going. Once you got a good handle on the diet and exercise, you won't need to test that often. If you are always at a good number first thing in the morning but tend to screw up at lunch, then you just test at lunch. I started testing a lot and now tend to just test once a day, if it is off, more for that day.
The hardest thing to deal with is the diet.m I was already vegan before the diagnosis, now trying to add enough protein in each meal,is hard. I take 1000 mg os metformin a day and really focus hard on the carb counts. My worst time of the day so far is the afternoon. I get so sleepy and my sugar is higher then. I teach high school and being sleepy is not an option. I am a runner and have been for a couple years so as far as exercise goes I don’t know that I can exercise anymore unless i ride a stationary bike for like six hours a day. Then imwillmhave to eat a bunch more food.
The reason to test after every meal is that it allows you to see if you are experiencing dangerous spiking after meals. There is evidence that time spent over 140 is what causes deterioration in T2's. T2's can use this data to eliminate or reduce quantities of the types of foods that are causing the trouble. I would rather eliminate the before meal testing as opposed to after meal testing if I had to choose.
This is good information. My dr stated that I had to learn to find what works for me. I am starving at lunch and try to keep them meal small but filling. Being a vegan can make things harder. I am learning what makes me spike and what doesn’t. Keep the comments coming! This is very helpful!
Being a vegan can indeed make it tough to avoid foods that cause spikes. That's why frequent testing especially at the beginning is so important. Luckily I like meat and veggies neither of which spike me.
Believe that there is too much "noise on the data" to trust fingerprick results anyway.
My benchmarks instead are my A1c percentages, blood pressure and weight, which I have monitored at the health centre.
Plus, I also think the assessment of the whole clinical picture: A1c, lipids, kidney function, etc does take some interpretation, which I am happy for my physician to do.
In any case, the cost of testing strips is prohibitively expensive.
Before going in to see my Dr. I download my meter readings and print out data for him to look over. One of the stats is the overall average. I then convert the average to A1C. It has always matched almost exactly. Interestingly the average of the last 30 days has proven to be the best predictor, despite A1C supposedly being an average of the last 3 months. I think if you test often enough the "noise" averages out. I find the positive reinforcement of good tests are a powerful motivator to keep on my diet and not cheat.
Strips are expensive, and my insurance doesn't pay for them. I use Wavesense meters which have reasonable prices on strips and order them over the internet. My last strips cost 28 cents, which helps.
I tested quite a bit early on so I could fine tune my diet. Since my diet is now pretty much set and my D is stable, my average number of tests/day has fallen from nearly 8 to less than 4.
sorry about the diagnosis. I was diagnosed at 24 when I was running 5ks in 20 minutes. it sucks.
to answer your question i test when I wake up, mid-morning, pre-lunch, 2hrs post lunch, maybe before dinner, and before bed if I remember and more if I go for a run or something so around 6 times a day
Hi - I test several times a day, even though my doc tells me "you really only have to test in the morning." If I only tested in the morning, I'd be a lot more frustrated and depressed than I already am, given that my blood sugar is ALWAYS highest in the morning when I wake up. I test when I wake up, before lunch, try to test two hours after lunch, and before dinner/insulin in the evening. My doc 'indulges' me (lol) by writing my prescriptions for 100 test strips per month. I haven't yet seen an endo, but it's something I may consider...
It is the hardest to remember to test when i run. My spikes often occure during long runs and then later, sometimes the next day, I am low. I am also finding it harder to run at the same speed and intestity as I am adjusting to the meds. This is a bummer. I really like to live an active lifestyle and this is slowing me down. I feel like I lost control of my life after diagnoses and now am trying to take control of an untamable beast. Some day the beast is happy others not so much, and heaven forbid you feed the beast!
I am looking to the future about how often I will test and I am leaning more toward, Out of bed, mid morning/pre lunch, after lunch as this is when I spike, and before bed. Also pre exercise and post exercise. I feel like this may be a manageable day of testing. My endo states " this is not a science experimant, don't treat yourself that way." Although I kind of like the whole science experimant idea. I like knowing what is going on in my body.
It is a science experiment and I too kind of like that idea. It all boils down to using the tools available(testing) and applying logic to the results in the hopes of improving our condition. I like analytical thinking, others probably hate the idea.
I'm an engineer, and I like having data to analyze, so I like to test and track food carefully. That said, strips can get expensive and the frequency and timing of my testing varies depending on the particular "problem" I am working. In the first year post-diagnosis I was working on the over-all glucose levels, so the early morning test was important, but once that settled down I began to work on reducing spikes, and focused more on after-meal tests. Now I'm focused on testing around exercise and the food intake associated with that. Some days I test a lot, because I want to get a good picture of what's happening, other days I test just twice, because I'm sticking to my routine and I know, from earlier testing, that it works.
I helps to be a creature of habit. Once you find a pattern that works, and the blood tests become consistent, you can stick to that and test less.
I just got a letter from the company that sends me my test strips. I've been diabetic since 1998. They said I could send in my own log. I did. Mine is a log that was prepared by my endo (assistant professor of endo at UAB) or someone in his department. Apparently they didn't like his log, so sent me their blank one. OMG. Indicated was a blank to fill in the time of day I tested. huh? What has that to do with the price of potatoes? If I ate lunch at 11:30, what good is it to test at 3 in the afternoon. Me thinks this is our government at work. I'm to give a questionaaire to my doctor. One question is, has the patient improved? Again. What? I don't have a bad cold, hon, I'm diabetic. I probably need to play their silly game or I may not get anymore test strips. In a perfect world, I would test before each meal and exactly two hours after I begin a meal, but I can't alway do that. I'm active. I don't live in an institution yet where meals are seved at specific times and I'm home twiddling my thumbs two hours later. Can't test in a car or if I'm volunteering, which I do nearly every afternoon.
Yvonne
hi, when I was in a hospital I was tested 3 times, at 9am ,12 and 6pm,
that was enough to decide if I need medicine.
now I test in the morning before breakfast, 1X a day.
I get lazy and will test fasting only for a while. Testing strips "pile" up so then I test 6 times a day, or maybe 3, for a while until I start getting lazy again.
My desire is to test 6 times a day, but my physician will only give me an Rx for 3 times a day. If I want to consistently test more often, then I will have to get a meter that has really inexpensive strips. Walmart is supposed to have a Relion one that has really inexpensive strips.