I started my Levemir last night 6 units. I usually wake up at 7am. I just woke up it's 5am my blood sugar right now is 70. So here I am awake and don't know what to do. I'm suppose to eat 15g of carbs this morning and take my first 1unit of Novolog. What do I do? Do I still take the Novolog right now before breakfast? Do I eat then take it? Do I treat this 70fasting with low blood sugar treatment? What do I do? I'm so nervous
I would treat the 70 as a low blood sugar and then at 7 eat breakfast and take novalog.
Hope this helps.
70 is really borderline low. I would just eat and take my insulin and not worry about treating the 70.
Well it had dropped to 62 within 15 mins so I decided to do as Tan said, I treated and then at 7am it was back at 94 so I took my novolog and ate. This was also my first time with my Novolog and my 1 hr blood sugar was 228 for 15g of carbs :-/. Guess I'll follow the advice I was giving on here, and continue the 1unit for 15g of carbs for about 3 days and if it's still high adjust it. It's all so scary I hate being over 200 it freaks me out.
Yes I already decided to use 4 tonight instead. Because I went to bed at 171 and woke up at 5am at 62 so that a 109point drop...So i'm for sure reducing the units for that one. Thank you everyone for your advice.
Sounds like you got through your first morning really well, Denise!
A couple comments/questions: What and how much did you use to treat the low? That might have contributed to the 228 afterwards. Also, I would recommend generally checking at 2 hours instead of 1, because that is closer to when we peak. Checking at one in addition if you have enough strips is useful information, especially at first, but be sure the number you log is the 2 hour number to make consistent data.
Finally, I would recommend that instead of going down from 6 units Levemir to 4, you just go down to 5. When you're insulin sensitive 1 unit is a significant difference and if you decrease it by 2 you may just end up high.
Keep up the good work!
Well I treated it with 2 glucose tablets and it took it up to 120 then by the time I ate it was at 94. I was thinking about just taking it down to 5unit at night. But what if my blood sugar isn't 171 or high like that at bedtime say it's 120 or 130 then wouldn't 5 just do the same as the 6 did to the high number? thanks
Sorry I didn't realize you just started. First, I would stay in close contact with your doctor. Second, before I make any changes with my dosages I would try to identify a trend. I don't think one day is enough to see a trend. At this point I wouldn't worry too much about highs (200's) because your trying to find out what your dosages should be. Once you see the trend then you can start fine tuning your dosages to get your BG into normal range. It may take you a few weeks to figure it all out or like some of us the rest of our lives:).
Test a lot and find out what the trend is and then make adjustments.
Thanks. Well as I mentioned in other post I have no health insurance so had to go to a volunteer doctor place where I was prescribed the insulin. They basically gave me a base line and I work from there because there is no way for me to get in contact with these doctors. I go once a month to this clinic wait in a long line and then I get to see a doctor :). But I'm not going to change my novolog for a few days unless I see a trend like you said. But I am going to lower the night time levemir because I really don't want to have another low in the middle of the night I have slept awful the past few night because of anxiety over this, I'm hoping 1 down like Zoe said will help prevent this. Does anybody have an 15g carb lunch ideas or suggestions? I'm having a hard time figuring out meals. Thanks so much everyone.
Not necessarily. It's important to just make small (one unit) changes and stay with them for a couple days. Just to reassure you a bit, waking up at 70 isn't too low. Some people treat anything under 70, but I only treat under 60. the 70 (which went down to 62) is pretty borderline. With long-acting insulin you will not get exact consistent results. I would consider anything between 70 and 110 to be accurate basal. So, as Jim says, if you kept to the same dose, tomorrow could be fine, but I don't think it could hurt to reduce one unit if nothing else to make you feel more comfortable. If you are concerned during the night you can wake up and test (it will also give you more useful information to log).
Just FYI, once you get your basal and bolus stable you will want to learn to correct. I for example had a similar number at bedtime - last night: 166, so I corrected and woke up at a perfect 106 this morning. But you are not there yet.
Denise, there is nothing wrong with a snack before you go to bed, try 8-10 carbs before bedtime or a handful of nuts to steady your BS if you are not comfortable with where you are before sleeping. I will say that I can go to sleep with a BS of 140 and wake up in the 70's and then another night go to sleep at 100 and wake up at 110. I like Zoe treat 60 as a low. But you might not feel well at 70ish and I might not have any low symptoms at all. Everyone is different...keep testing. As you become more comfortable and familiar with your trends you will get your rest back.
15 grams for a meal is tricky...Is this what your doctor has suggested?
I would shop around for different breads. Do you have a Trader Joe's where you live? I buy sprouted wheat bread and it is 7 grams per slice. Make sure that you eat a protine and a fat with your meal to hold you over. There are also low carb tortillas.
EX. Sandwhich turkey or chicken breast, 1 or 2 slices of bread, 1/3 of an avocado on top, plus lettuce. (Protine, carb and fat all in one) add a side salad low carb and fat for dressing. If you have only one slice of bread eat cup fresh berries, plus your salad.
Stuff a meduium tomato with chicken or tuna salad, cut up cucumbers and add lettuce, scoop onto a slice of toast.... 15 grams is hard for a meal....I eat 15 for a snack.
Your children are to stinkin' cute btw.
Remember, also, Denise that for now you are trying to do a 1:15 ratio, so that doesn't mean you are limited to 15 carbs. To accurately test that ratio you just want to stay as close to multiples of 15 as possible. So it's fine to have a 30 carb lunch or dinner.
Well because I hadn't been able to see a doctor for awhile I had no carbs at all in my diet, so I'm slowly putting them back in. At what number would you usually eat my blood sugar is 127 right now and I'm starving but I'm afraid if I eat since I'm still trying to figure out everything that I will go super high if I eat at a number I'm at right now. And thank you KML for comment on kids :).
If you are hungry eat. Take your Novolog and wait at least 10 to 15 minutes before you take your first bite. This should prevent you from going to high. Check one hour after you eat. If you are high, take a brief walk with yours kids or clean...then Test 15 minutes after your walk, eat a handful of nuts....See how you do with that.
why eat a handful on nuts after I eat? Wouldn't the walk bring the blood sugar down and then the nuts bring it back up?
An easy walk will lower your BS, the nuts will steady it, preventing spikes and lows.
Do not eat the nuts right after you eat, eat them only if you need them after your walk. For example, if you are 90-115 after your walk and you have a while until dinner nuts are a nice snack option to keep you steady and satisfied.
Thank you.
I think you might be making things a bit too complicated, Denise! 127 is not high so go ahead and eat when you're hungry. Again, down the road you will learn to add corrections to your bolus. I wouldn't necessarily test at one hour and then go walking if it's a bit high. The idea is to see what your blood sugar is at two hours and if you do a lot of exercise before that you won't get an accurate indication at two hours of how your insulin dose affected your blood sugar. Right now you are doing testing; gathering information. You want your two hour number to tell you exactly how the insulin and carbs combination affected you. Then you write that down and continue to do that a few days until you get a picture of how a 1:15 ratio works for each meal. Don't overthink it or drive yourself nuts!
Lol I over think everything...that would be my anxiety.
Like Zoe said, your not limited to only 15 grams of carbs per meal...your I:C ration is 1:15...so for every 15 grams of carbs you eat, you take 1 unit of insulin, so if you eat 30 grams of carbs...you'd take 2 units.
Don't worry to much about running high while testing to find your ratio's. You want ACCURATE information and unfortunately to get that sometimes your numbers have to run higher than we like. My endo when I first went on MDI told me...test the rations for 3 days and then adjust ONLY by 1 unit up or down as needed until you get to a ratio that works.