More help - great! Thanks. With very little carbs (ie. whatever is in a bit of chicken, salad, avacados an the like.. and maybe some wafer biscuits...), I was starting the day at about 6.5 and it didn't really go up above 7.2 or so, coming down nicely in late evenings to maybe 5.2 or so. Trying to add a few more carbs (coz I was worrying it wasn't enough) put the start point up a wee bit , and the higher readings (10-12) came 2-3 hours after eating (weetabix, chips..stuff I was trying out). If I don't need to eat them, I won't , but Im unsure of what to replace them with (specifically) if I need to. the one complication is that I have a wee spike a couple of hours after breakfast due to a particular steroid I am on due to transplant...but..with less carbs that figure is also less high. I shall certainly take your advice and try the same thing a couple of times at the same times to see if there's a difference. thanks so much.
At 2-3 hours after eating, I, personally, for me, wouldn't be happy to see a 10-12 - especially not on anything like a regular basis. High days and holidays could be argued, but never on a day to day basis, for me. Thankfully, I just don't see those numbers any more.
As others have said, there isn't any nutritional need to eat carbs, but I do accept they can be very yummy, and can make eating out easier, but those are the tolerances we each have to work out for ourselves, in terms of the bigger picture.
Many people find they handle carbs better at differing times of the day, with earlier in the day being commonly tricky. It's almost like whatever functionality many of us have to cope with carbs, it takes a bit longer to "wake up" than we would like. I appreciate when you are then compounding the situation with the impact of a necessary drug, it must be doubly frustrating. In your shoes, I might consider a couple of things:
Firstly, I would consider if I could cut myself a deal whereby I really cut the early carbs, but having scrambled eggs, or bacon or whatever for breakfast, so minimise the impact of the morning steroid, and see what that does. When my blood numbers were moderating, I found that my numbers came down in notches, as opposed to a gentle slope, and in line with that, I found that as my morning numbers notched down, so did the balance of the day. So, it was almost as if my morning numbers set the scene for the rest of my day. I hope that makes sense?
Secondly, if you do feel you are more insulin resistant (to your own, naturally produced insulin) in the mornings, I would consider discussing the timing of my steroid drug, to see if it could be taken at a different time of the day when it might be kinder to your bloods. Obviously, this is something to seek medical guidance on, as steroids are tricky things.
And thirdly, if your morning readings are markedly higher than your others, perhaps there is a tweak to your medication; perhaps even something different for the mornings, which could bring those into line. I completely appreciate you may want to take as few drugs as you can get away with, but it's also critical you protect your new kidney and all your other organs.
My father was an IV steroid induce diabetic in the latter stage of his life, so I can appreciate your frustration, but sometimes we get a bit of a package deal of conditions, as opposed to something in isolation. His illness was very different from your own, so I wouldn't like to draw too many parallels.
Good luck with it all.
