Just going through my monthly review of "How can I make my diabetes better" in my head lol...
I have realised that since being on the pump I generally bolus at the table just before eating...
I am on Novorapid, should I be bolusing 15-30mins before do you think?
I really, really want to my next HbA1c to be under 6, so I am thinking this might be a step in the right direction...
Yes, I always bolus 15-20 minutes before eating. I'm on Apidra which is a tad faster but all three fast acting insulins take at least 15 minutes to act and so bolusing ahead can help reduce spikes.
Right will get into this habit..
How do you get on with Apidra? Been on it long? I have never really reviewed available short acting insulin, will speak to my endo about what I can get prescribed. Not that I have issues with novorapid, but if Apidra works quicker I would give it a go.
If it is working for you to bolus just before eating, then I would not change that. I can not wait 15 to 30 minutes after my bolus to eat, I'd never make it to the table. I use Novolog which is just another name for Novorapid. You have to find out your own timing, this is one of those your milage may vary things.
The question to ask is, how are your postmeal numbers? Any reason to believe that you should be bolusing 15-30 minutes before a meal, or can do without?
Well, another answer is "it depends." If you are a little high or low before a meal, your pump will calculate a correction in addition to your meal bolus. If you are high before a meal, you can also advanced your bolus to give the correction time to start acting even before the first bite hits the gullet. If you are a bit low, you can wait until the food arrives. Does that make sense? With a normal bloos sugar, I bolus about 15 minutes before eating.
But karen is also right. If your life is crazy, it can be some risk to bolus before that plate of food is right in front of you. And in the end, the timing of the bolus will have almost no effect on your blood sugar after 3 hours or so. You are likely to have more of an A1c benefit with improved carb counting (Gary Scheiner has a book "The Ultimate Guide to Accurate Carb Counting"), improved testing and correction regimes and perhaps limiting some carbs.
Makes perfect sense as always BSC..
I think I should be bolusing 15 mins before, so will give it a go..
My carb counting is always spot on, I use a set of digital scales, as it only takes a couple of seconds and removes the chance of error on my part :)
I was low carb for quite a while, but when I started the pump I found that I could bolus for whatever I ate (cheese cake, fruit, bread) and 90% of the time my sugars would be back to the normal range within 2-3 hours.
However I did find I was spiking much higher post meal, so am no working on getting carbs under 50g a day..
Fish, fish, pork, beef, eggs, cheese, greens and more fish anyone??
I agree with Karen that if you are low, bolusing early can be hair raising. I am the main chef (sic) @ home and MrsAcidRock is commuting and I'll be like "where are you?" but if she hits a rough patch of traffic and things get delayed, it's important to keep some 10-15G of carb "snacks" around:
although that might not be the best idea if you are doing 50G of carbs/ day?
Ha the ' Broon..
Didn't know you could get that in the states and there is me drinking mini cans of coke like a numpty ha..
Apidra is the only one I've been on; I used it for two years with MDI's and now for a year on a pump. It works a bit quicker, but what I like even more is that it has less of a "tail". It's pretty much gone in 3 hours which makes it easier to figure IOB and avoid lows.