I should be testing how many times?

I have Type 2 which is easier to control by Diet and Exercise. I am about the same. Still Dieting and Exercising.

Test 4 times a day. You are testing to much. If your pretty much in cotrol, just relax and Diet / Exercise in moderation.

I think if i dealt with Hypos i would test every hour…Those lows scare the heck out of me…I am on a pump now so i test when i wake, before a meal for correction. 2 hrs later in case i miscalculated my carbs. so that is 7. then before bed makes 8. if i am high check 2hrs later n correct . couple times a week i check the DP. i am always high…hhhmmm and correct…ok i lost count. but medicare allows 4 to 6 times. 6 times u must proof it to them with a log book. Thank God my Endo clinic is generous with samples…My opinion is to test and test some more, that is the only way you will know how your body reacts to certain foods.

Let me guess… You have a Nurse/CDE that was trained in D management, but she’s in her fifties? Or only works with Type 2s, no pediatric experience? Don’t even deal with the nurse. She needs to go back to school. Ask the endo for a preauthorization to override insurance so you can get the strips you need. We have always been prescribed 10 to 12. Now endo upped it to 15 a day.

I’m testing 6-12 times a day and justing recently was told by my GP that maybe I have a OCD. Sometimes a box of 100 strips will only last a week I have also had other health professionals tell me only to test 4 times a day before main meals and bed. I have been on the pump now for 5 months and trying to keep bsl in target range so with being so low I like to know what is happening. The other night had a 1.8 so think I tested about 12 times in 2hrs as I freaked out and didnt want to go low again over night. I think every other diabetic I talk to tests about the same as me.

You should test when you feel you need to, I think it’s great you are concerned about your levels…it shows you are trying to control your diabetes. Sometimes I’ll test 3 times a days, sometimes 15 if my sugar acts up. Totally normal!

I test up to 15 times a day. I sometimes test every 2 hrs. I just have had too many lows and extreme highs to not know where I am so I can eat or correct. Also, it helps me to determine a reduction in insulin or increase. Eating I always test prior and every 2 hrs for at least 6 hrs.
My insurance pays for a large amount of test strips and my doctor writes a prescription for the Max. amount per month. He never questions me.

Younze make me laugh and you aren’t even trying to be funny…

If you think you have better control by testing 36 times a day, go for it. We know that diabetes is as much a mental disease as a physical one. If you are mentally not able to deal with it, basically it will kill you but if you are willing to take the extra step or two, you may just live to a ripe old age of 53…

Testing more than six times a day for a type 1 is assuming that you have better control than someone testing six or less times a day. Sorry but I have to call BS on you guys. First off, normal blood sugar can not be clearly defined so how can you reach it? And my God people, trying to attain artificial “normal” blood sugar by testing and using even an insulin pump is not possible. The CGM’s are a step in that direction but even if they made them lab sensitive with Glucose levels exactly on the money they will never be able to track glucose levels in what you all call “Normal” manner.

Now I will admit that if you are a uber active person then testing more than six times a day is essential because of the dangers of going low, thus children would need to test more often, but that is not most diabetics. For the most part, testing more than six times a day is wasting strips since it takes 2 to 4 hours for insulin to take effect you are always going to be higher in the post prandia and if you are on the pills for a type 2, then you can expect to never be on the money. Again, don’t misunderstand me. Just because you are a type 2 doesn’t mean that only once a day is sufficient all of the time. Being sick, more or less active than normal, feeling in the dumps etc are all reasons to test but these are not the norms.

So for younze that think that somehow you are doing better by pricking your fingers 300 times a month, keep kidding yourself and keep up the good work because you will never know that you can get the same resulting A1C readings by cutting back to half that rate of testing…

So in short, you ain’t freaking normal, trying to be normal is a sickness. Oh take it from a teenager that grew up, pushing the kids like you are doing will only give them a reason to rebel later. At some point they will cast away the bondage of testing 10 times a day and stop it all together if only because they know that it will make you nuts…

Ok, I am done PO’ing the anal retentives here…

Ken

It’s up to every individual person to decide what’s best for them. All insulin pumpers are encouraged now to test 8 or more times a day. And for those checking the effects of specific foods or just their meal/insulin timing in general, testing before the meal to calculate the dosage and checking an hour or two post-prandial is perfectly reasonable. I’m a veteran with this, too, as are many of the others who suggest more frequent testing. It’s not an '‘oh you silly children and newbies’ issue (you need to check your condescending attitude). Testing more often has brought my A1c out of the teens and into the fives over the years, so YMMV, but it’s not fair to tell ANYONE they’re testing too often. Normal glucose control is impossible, perhaps, but better control is certainly possible and preferred…and achievable through more frequent testing.

Mel, what I am saying is that testing at once an hour for an insulin dependant diabetic is useless unless, and this is a big unless, you are sick with things like diareaha and throwing up and you are watching for lows. Lows do not increase the A1C but rather decrease it. So those that are testing to control their diabetes by testing every hour is running the risk of killing themselves by running too low, unless they are wacked and doing it to feel like they are under control when in reality they are actually out of control. I figured it out, and to do a test every 2 hours would take no more than 8 tests.

8 AM Waking and Breakfast
10 AM PP
12 PM Lunch
2 PM PP
5 PM Dinner ( i know that is three hours but lets be realistic)
7 PM PP
10 PM Bedtime / snack
12 PM PP if you so choose…

How can you test any more than that?

Ken

Well, some people would also be testing pre-/during/post- exericising, so there’s another option. Some are doing 3am checks. Some would test before eating and bolusing for a snack. Some (like I had to) would be watching both 1 hour and 2 hour PPs for some other reason (ratio checking, pre-conception, pregnancy, etc). I don’t eat breakfast upon waking, so I test when I wake before my morning coffee and then again for my breakfast bolus an hour or so later. Then there are those who would choose to test when they think they’re low or high and need to choose a corrective action… I could go on, but you’re assuming that someone is starting with good control and certain stable schedule. The point of frequent testing is to bring someone who doesn’t enjoy that stability to a place where they can begin testing less often because they’re confident about their treatment strategies.

The point of testing, no matter how many times you test, is to gather information. There are days where I test 6 times, some days when I test 12 or more. It depends on what I need at that particular moment in time. Does everyone need to test as much as everyone else? Dunno, that is up to them and their doc

I guess I don’t understand how testing more will make you run low unless bad decisions are being made, which really has nothing to do with the testing but has to do with the interpretation of the results. More information about how our bodies react allows us to make more informed decisions about what we need to do in a particular situation thus improving our interpretations.

I know there are some people out there who “like” to be hypo (been a couple of discussions here about it) and there are diabulemics, but I have to believe that most people want to be as close as possible to that “normal” range. Why not use all the tools available to do better?

Yes, it is about gathering information but there is often too much info especially when it comes to testing and dosing. Now pumpers can use the bolus wizards to help prevent overdosing but what can a person with Type 2 do? Pop another pill? Yes, they can test three or four times a day and give them to their doctor but what good is that unless they want to go on insulin and a lot of type 2’s see insulin as a failure rather than a therapy. So what is wrong with testing daily for them?

Mel, you spoke of the exact same things I was saying. There are exeptions to the testing no more than 7 or 8 times a day but most of the people here that say they test 10 plus times a day are not saying that they are doing this by exception but rather that they do this daily. I concur, if they are excercising then that would add two tests per day unless they are excercising more than once per day. The point I am making is that if you test 10 times per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year, then you may need to see another doctor that has you sit on a big couch because you are obsessed with your disease and not living life to it’s fullest because you are too worried that your Blood Glucose is going to stray beyond the 80 - 120 range.

That is not living with diabetes that is living FOR diabetes.

Ken

and yet I manage to do that and keep track of kids, work, have friends, hobbies, give my kids all my money… hmmm, it does seem that I have no life outside of the big D

The original poster is a T1, as am I, so I was posting from that perspective.

But for a T2, can once a day testing let you know if your medication levels are correct for fasting and meals? I’m curious

Wow, it’s funny to think I posted this over 2 years ago. (;

Guess what? I still test about 12 times a day.

Sometimes I catch lows below 30 with those tests, so I’m considering them to be pretty damn necessary. I would, I’m sure, have had hypo seizures or unconsciousness by now if I didn’t test as frequently as I do.

This is what works for me, and I will keep doing it until there is a cure.

hehe… still topical after all these years…

This is what works for me, and I will keep doing it until there is a cure.

That just about sums it up

You are correct it cannot give you the information on a single test. A lot of T2 only test once a day or less and look at the state they end up in.

A T2 has options when they are high; they can exercise (a walk can do wonders), or they can adjust their next meal to reduce the carbs so the insulin they are producing can lower their blood glucose. Effectively a T2 produces a fixed amount of insulin and how they use that is up to them but they cannot sensibly assign it unless they test.

The issue with both T1 and T2 diabetics is that the vast majority do not care for themselves as they should and since all health systems focus on the majority the guidance is focused on them.

LOL, what do you expect when newbies come aboard… we see the old post and don’t even realize they are old posts. I like this site, but I am not sure about how much I like it. Discussions seem to get lost in the fray and following topics is tough to do. I think if I had to create the site that I would have taken it on a different angle with the forums, but hey, who am I but a newbie trying to figure out the logic and structure of the site…

Take care friends. I hope that I am not too much of a bull in a china shop with my comments.

Ken

It is imprortant to test, however it is only a snap shot. You may have highs and lows, however the a1c is the true test of control since this is an average of 3-4 months. If you are comfortable getting immediate feedback for control purposes and changing you eating habits over time by knowing what foods trigger highs, I suggest you get a continuous glucose monitoring system. This will give you immeidiate feedback and averages which will help you make necessary life changes re- diet and exercise for tight control.

David

I am a T2 and after reading some of the discussions on this site I have started testing more (4-6) times a day. This is for a couple of reasons. 1-I am in the process of trying to lose some weight (12 lbs so far!) so I need to make sure I am not going hypo. 2-to help me figure out what type and how much carbs I can handle. 3-y’all have convinced this nurse to change her thinking about target numbers so I am trying to drop from highs around 180 after meals to 140.

While it’s true that we can’t adjust for what we eat by using insulin, like Tribbles said, we can adjust our next meal, not have that snack we were thinking about, or get up and move.

The more information one has the better one can plan.