What do you do when your BG is already high and you haven't even eaten?

I know this has probably already been asked before. Exercise doesn't really bring my blood sugar down too much.. I am switching meds right now to a higher dosage...

Do you guys normally just eat something just small? I read you should still eat..

Mine was high to day because of relationship problems...

I place a high priority on keeping my blood glucose in range for a high percentage of time. If my BG is high, I don't mind missing a meal. Sometimes if I'm hungry and my BGs are too high, I'll eat an ounce of nuts. That won't increase my BG very much. But I'll still be implementing some tactic to bring my BG level down. Even if exercise doesn't seem to be working to bring my BG down, I would probably still go out for a walk. Nothing too strenuous but enough to get the blood flowing.

Since I use insulin, my situation is different than yours. I would probably use an intra-muscular injection to help bring my BG down.

Do your meds normally keep your BGs in check or does mealtime roll around regularly when your BGs are high? If that's the case, perhaps a talk with your doctor is in order. I don't think any diabetic should accept long-lasting high BGs on a regular basis.

thanks so much for the great replies.. I am sort in an interim right now. I am on meds that have not been working for a while.. I have a new endo and right now I am going on 2000mg of Met and 100mg of Januvia. (before we try other things like non-insulin injectables and than eventually insulin if they don't work).

So I am sort of in wait to see if the increase will work.. When I first took Januvia it took about a week (same with Met) and it worked for a month and than seemed to stop working... So I have to wait a month to see when the new combo will work..

And yeah, I am guilty that I eat things I should not at times..but I hardly eat ANYTHING.. I am wanting to be able to eat more but the BG is high so it will take experimenting.

The relationship may not go away right now.. My heart was just broken so I will be crying alot...

Oh, I am a vegetarain ... eggs are OK. But I seriuosly get sick of them.. I eat some cheese or hard boiled egg..

Lana, you are stating quite a few of your opinions as absolute fact. Something that is true for you may not be right for everybody. I don't happen to believe that coffee and all frozen foods are bad. Exercise has different effects on different people at different times. Let us know your experiences, and we'll let you know ours. We all want what's best for ourselves and others.

I eat something with no carbs, such as eggs with cheese.

I will look at the planned food and maybe avoid carbs, have eggs instead of cereal or meat without whatever carbs might go along with it. Back when I was on MDI, at things like Thanksgiving, I'd have a shot in my leg and run up and down the stairs 10x to sort of get things going again after the appetizer round.

It's important you quit all processed carbs, preserved food, packaged food, frozen food, fried food, junk food, fast food, low-fat food, and artificial or food substitutes and even coffee and gum if you want to manage your diabetes without having to take boat loads of drugs!

No it's not.

(Yes, insulin is a drug!)

No it's not (at least, in the colloquial sense)

When you don't use insulin there is little that you can do to bring down your blood sugars when they are high. You have just a few levers, you can do modest exercise and often you can bring down high fastings or after meal highs. And of course you can make choices about what you eat to keep your after meal blood sugars from going to high. But it is also important to keep things in context. Your A1c is listed as 5.1%. A fasting blood sugar of 100 mg/dl, while higher than a non-diabetic, is a blood sugar most of us would kill for. You should not beat yourself up over something perhaps isn't a realistic goal.

ps. Before I started insulin I would still eat I would just choose a very low carb choice.

Oh that is old Brian.. like years old. it is 7.2 now - fasting bgs have changed like 160s - it is rarely down below 140

I'm sorry, you should update your profile. If your fastings are up to the 160s then it does seem appropriate to be more aggressive in your treatment. If you have chronic high fastings almost no oral medications are effective with the exception of the new SGLT-2 inhibitors. Like you I also didn't find the medications as effective, most seemed to work magically for a couple weeks and then failed. If your blood sugars are being driven by the carbs that you eat and you find you are high after meals then eating lower carb and or increasing a mix of oral medications may be helpful. I just don't know in your instance.

I know it is frustrating as a T2. We are often not given insulin and if your blood sugar is high there is really just nothing in our toolbox to bring it down. Bernstein actually argues that every patient (and specifically T2) when diagnosed should be given training on how to use insulin because someday, probably not too long after being diagnosed, you will need to correct a high blood sugar. It isn't unreasonable to talk to your doctor about this.

yes, i know.. If my new current treatment does not work, than we are going to try some of the non-insulin injectables if they don't work than insulin. My dr is open to try whatever works..

I am saying as a T1 perspective but I would urge you to not think of insulin as a last resort if nothing else works. Insulin management is relatively straightforward and has few side effects. Once you learn how to use it, you are less dependent on your doctors for diabetes management. Balancing a complex drug mix is something much more complicated

I echo what Marty said -- insulin is not failure -- it is actually the most potent tool to achieving success.

I'm T2. I viewed insulin as a "last resort" -- complete failure and enfeeblement.

Boy how wrong I was! Switching to treating my diabetes fully with insulin and dumping all the T2 orals was the best thing I ever did. I'm healthier, happier, more energetic, and feeling better than I have in many years.

My a1c is now 6.0. I'm a tight controller. My goal is to get down to 5.5 this year.

And I pretty much eat what I want, within reason/moderation. Had my weekly In-n-Out Double Double treat for lunch today, never went over 140 postprandial.

Of course, there was all sorts of insulin involved :-)

Since most of my meals are extremely low-carb, I don't tend to have this problem, but that would be a good suggestion. Try having something like a piece of chicken with spices and some non-starchy veggies for that meal. (That's my typical dinner, and it doesn't raise me much at all, which is exactly WHY I eat it for dinner.) Different things work for different people, but if you want a good meal to eat when you're high, that would be it.

Thanks! I will keep that in mind.. It isn't really a last resort for me.. I am ready to do it. But I agreed with her suggestion to try other drugs first..

thanks Lana. I did cry but now I am calm.. There is going to be a separation for a while have no idea how long... But it may not be over yet meaning the relationship is not done. On hold. :) But don't know what will happen really.

Sometimes I exercise to try to get it down, sometimes I just eat and bolus a correction as well. If I'm super high I will correct and then do mild activity or more depending on the situation and or wait it out until I'm down to a reasonable bg to eat. I already eat low carb so I don't change what I eat that much but I may reduce carbs too.

thanks!