Just wondering who has problems eating out. I rarely do. Went to lunch with a friend. Had NE clam chowder…about 3/4 cup, and six oysters on the half shell. Figured 30 carbs. With corrections, I have now bolused for 286 carbs–for 3/4 cup of soup. I left the four chunks of potato in the bowl.
WHAT DO RESTAURANTS DO TO FOOD??? I have made decadent chowder and oyster stew—with cream, of course–at home and bolused perfectly. Oysters? Come on.
Do I look at food in a restaurant, decide it is 30 carbs and then multiply by 9.53? Can I ever eat out without all this stress?
Are you sure there’s not an issue with your pump? Could they have served you a sugared beverage instead of a diet one? (that one happens to me surprisingly often). Even if they used potato flakes in the broth, I can’t imagine 3/4 cup being more than 35g. The oysters would be nothing unless there was a sweet/tangy sauce over them. I do OK eating out for the most part, but I do try to go to places and choose items that I can look up in the directories like Calorie King. It’s not perfect, but pretty close.
This is where afrezza shines. I spent a week this summer on the river in San Antonio eating all the random tex mex I could handle, didn’t even try to count carbs… Just tooted the whistle and went on my merry way. Think I got up to 170 once when I ate a bunch of pizza. I’m not sure it’s superior when you actually know how many carbs you’re eating— but when you’re eating out or otherwise on the go it is a vastly superior method.
I am very insulin sensitive, My A1C is 5.5. I use a pump.
How did the afrezza shine? Because it is fast acting? I tend to react longer to food–been T1 for 53 years. Fats prolong my body’s reaction to insulin absorption. When I eat at home and make the food, I can eat everything I want. Eating out is different.
It shines because you pretty much don’t have to know how many carbs you’re eating… All you need to know is “this meal would require somewhere between 1-4 units of insulin.” Or “this new would require somewhere between 4-8 units of insulin.” The margin of error is enormous…
You’re right with slower foods like a big ribeye or pizza or something, timing becomes more tricky… But precise dosing with carb counting like your pump shines at becomes an almost irrelevant concept with it. It just works.
Not sure what happened to you, @Sue27. Did you correct using the pump or syringe? How long did it take you to bring the BGs back into range? The size of your food and insulin mismatch is a mystery.
I would agree with @Sam19 that Afrezza offers more freedom with insulin dosing and eating out. I’m headed out for a 5-day trip and just packed some more Afrezza doses. I normally limit my Afrezza usage to corrections. It’s a magnificent correction mechanism, especially when combined with an intramuscular insulin injection.
I wouldn’t have bothered to measure it for one thing, id have ordered a whole bowl-- I’d eat the soup… Then 23 minutes later ( came up with that with trial and error) I would inhale an 8u cartridge (the units aren’t comparable to injected bolus)…
The beauty being, I didn’t have to decide exactly what I was going to eat before I ate it… If I was still hungry I could have ordered more, or something additional and just added more insulin later…
I’d check my bg two hours later, if it was elevated, which would surprise me, I’d inhale a 4u cartridge without eating anything.
People struggle with this concept because they can’t accept that he units aren’t comparable to bolus and they’re rigidly trained to consider precise carb ratios-- but that’s just not how it works with afrezza…
In contrast, if I was dosing with novolog… I’d have to look up New England clam chowder on my lose-it app… Then I would have to figure out exactly how much I was going to eat… Then Probably average 5 or 6 different nutritional information readings subtract fiber from carbs just to have a wild guess how many carbs there might be. Then I’d bolus. Then I’d sit there hoping and praying my food showed up…
Then if it showed up too early I’d sit there while it got cold until it had been 20 minutes since I bolus we before I started eating it. Then I’d test one hour later, and two hours later… And quite likely end up doing a correction bolus at 2 hours then spend the next two hours after that watching and hoping my bg came down to where it belonged.
Totally new concept, and no one has talked to me about Afrezza. I have seen some things, but did not look closely.
SO being rigidly trained to consider cab ratios… Do you wear a pump and correction bolus with Afrezza?
Really interested. Would appreciate information. Please, though, no long link to scientific papers. I need plain.
No there is no pump… It’s an inhaled insulin… It takes little cartridges of powdered insulin that are inhaled. The cartridges come in 4u, 8u and 12u strengths. The units aren’t comparable to injected insulin.
A 4u cartridge supposedly replaces 1 to 4 units of injected bolus, an 8 u cartridge replaces 5-8, and so on.
It is so fast that you take it well after eating… Which is the best thing ever. My bg stays flat, though occasionally if I eat slow foods I will see a spike 2-3 hours later… Which is easily corrected with a 4u cartridge.
To my knowledge there have been exactly zero cases of severe hypoglycemia caused by afrezza. It’d be pretty difficult to screw it up that bad.
Mostly, I wonder if your fantastic and amazing response to afrezza is more about 4 years of T1 and your young age. After 53 years to T1, things change…significantly, even for the super vigilant.
This Afrezza conversation is fascinating, but to your original question, restaurant food does seem to need it’s own rule book. After many years of trying to create some kind of systematic approach, I’ve resigned to just doing my best and keeping a close eye on dexcom. Eating out usually means extra work overnight.
Back to the original…
I am going to Europe for Christmas–used to go every year, but had a really bad run a couple of years back. Cannot STAND to be held back by D.
Rent an apartment, so I can cook, but will eat out. So today’s weird foray into the world of restaurant food has me wigged out a bit.
Thanks Lorraine, Nice to know I am not the only one.
