locked thread

[Andy12345]

if you ate 10 jam doughnuts an hour of 2 later your bg would be very high but 4 or 5 hours later it could well be back to normal levels so you may think from that test that eating the doughnuts was fine

 

[Paul59]

first thing in the morning is unreliable due to the fact our liver produce glucose to enable us to get out of bed and start the day, its called dawn phenomenom and very unhelpful to diabetics, our livers dont know we have DB so carries on as usual, what we eat during the day is what gives us our blood glucose so monitoring what we eat is all that really matters for a type 2, if you tested late night 5 hours after eating it wouldnt tell you anything other than a baseline, theres little to learn from it

Great thanks for that, just what i wanted to know. Nite catch youalls amorrow.

 

[Andy12345]

night happy testing

 

[Andy12345]

im not saying dont test first thing and last, when i was new i tested about 15 - 18 times everyday

i also kept a food diary to compare against my bgs, if you fancy tht idea theres great smart phone app called myfitnesspal it helps you work out the carbs/fats/calories/vitamins etc in what we eat, its quite an eye opener

 

[Scandichic]

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php

codefree meter and strips off of amazon uk are the cheapest

Actually the best place to get the codefree from is
http://www.homehealth-uk.com/medical/blood_glucose_monitor_testing.htm
If you use the code I've attached and buy 5 pots of 50 (same price as 1 pot of 50 for accucheck from chemists!!!!!!) then they work out at £5 a pot. Meter is cheaper too. Don't pay vat if diabetic!

 

[jack412]

saved and I will post that in future

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

I agree about testing like crazy when you first get your meter like Andy12345 did. My understanding is that the 2 hour after a meal test is supposed to catch the peak, but every one is different. I seem to peak about an hour after I eat, but other people can be sooner than that or later. Just a suggestion, but what I did shortly after I got the meter was test my level, then eat a meal with moderate amount of carbs, then test at 1/2 an hour, then every 15 minutes or so until I caught the peak and until it went back to the pre-meal level. I did this a couple of more times, but with fewer tests, to verify where my peak is. Now I know to check about an hour after I eat to see what the peak is.

My general advice to @Paul59 is that you should not worry about testing too much the first week or so. You can always get more strips. For me, after a few months my frequency of testing dropped off significantly as I figured out what caused my blood sugar to go too high. Now I just check my prebreakfast level every few days and maybe a few random times, like after exercising or if I'm feeling odd. Checking my notes I see I used 22 strips the first full day of testing and I used 73 strips in the first week! By day 3 I had severely cut back on carbs after seeing what they did to my blood sugar levels. Sorry for so much writing, but I hope this helps.

 

[mo53]

Thanks for the info @NoCrbs4Me . I was interested in how many tests you did in the first week as I think I will need to order some more lancets and test strips. I ordered 50 but clearly I will probably need more sooner than I had thought.

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

You're welcome. Personally, I just reuse the lancets multiple times. I've never gotten an infection.

 

[Randburg]

basically you suck it and see

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php
Step 2: For the next few days cut back on your carbohydrates
Eliminate breads, cereals, rice, beans, any wheat products, potato, corn, and fruit. Get all of your carbohydrates from veggies. Test your modified meals using the same schedule above. See what impact you can make on your blood sugar by eliminating various high carbohydrate foods.

Hi Jack412,
Cant get to that site, is the link correct ? would like to read more

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

I just tried it and it worked for me.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

You're welcome. Personally, I just reuse the lancets multiple times. I've never gotten an infection.

I use mine once and then put them all in the kitchen steamer for half an hour. Then I use them again. I am still alive.

 

[AndBreathe]

I use mine once and then put them all in the kitchen steamer for half an hour. Then I use them again. I am still alive.

Squire - Have you considered it probably costs many times more to steam your lancet than to replace it?

 

[jack412]

I agree about testing like crazy when you first get your meter like Andy12345 did. My understanding is that the 2 hour after a meal test is supposed to catch the peak, but every one is different. I seem to peak about an hour after I eat, but other people can be sooner than that or later. Just a suggestion, but what I did shortly after I got the meter was test my level, then eat a meal with moderate amount of carbs, then test at 1/2 an hour, then every 15 minutes or so until I caught the peak and until it went back to the pre-meal level. I did this a couple of more times, but with fewer tests, to verify where my peak is. Now I know to check about an hour after I eat to see what the peak is.

My general advice to @Paul59 is that you should not worry about testing too much the first week or so. You can always get more strips. For me, after a few months my frequency of testing dropped off significantly as I figured out what caused my blood sugar to go too high. Now I just check my prebreakfast level every few days and maybe a few random times, like after exercising or if I'm feeling odd. Checking my notes I see I used 22 strips the first full day of testing and I used 73 strips in the first week! By day 3 I had severely cut back on carbs after seeing what they did to my blood sugar levels. Sorry for so much writing, but I hope this helps.

100 strips didn't last my first week
I think the 2 hr is after the peak most of the time, if you have a real coke, the peak is about 15min, carby meal about 1hr. pizza 3-4 hrs.
generally, with a new meal, test before, 1hr and 2 hr, if the 2hr is higher than 1hr, do a 3hr test

 

[Andy12345]

this is not advice! i used the same lancet for weeks at a time, i get them free but dont bother changing them, i may be odd but i dont hardly test any more, i can go a month without testing, once you know what the grub does, there little need, ive been given a new meter recently so have done some testing in the last week but usually theres no need, so all this testing as Jck says its only temporary, after that its personal choice how often you feel the need, some people use it is motivation it seems which is cool too, whatever floats your boat but at first i dont think you can over test to build up the picture, i have done 5 and 10 minute interval tests in the past, basically sat in the sofa and gone through a pot of strips, its terrific info on the pattern of bg, or maybe i am a massachist

 

[Squire Fulwood]

Squire - Have you considered it probably costs many times more to steam your lancet than to replace it?

Perhaps you mis-read my post where I said I put them "all" in the steamer. This is after they have "all" been used once and there are 1000 of them.

 

[Scandichic]

this is not advice! i used the same lancet for weeks at a time, i get them free but dont bother changing them, i may be odd but i dont hardly test any more, i can go a month without testing, once you know what the grub does, there little need, ive been given a new meter recently so have done some testing in the last week but usually theres no need, so all this testing as Jck says its only temporary, after that its personal choice how often you feel the need, some people use it is motivation it seems which is cool too, whatever floats your boat but at first i dont think you can over test to build up the picture, i have done 5 and 10 minute interval tests in the past, basically sat in the sofa and gone through a pot of strips, its terrific info on the pattern of bg, or maybe i am a massachist

Ditto. Just can't be bothered to change. Sometimes I go through loads if I'm feeling funny or ill and sometimes I go a day without testing.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I agree about testing like crazy when you first get your meter like Andy12345 did. My understanding is that the 2 hour after a meal test is supposed to catch the peak, but every one is different. I seem to peak about an hour after I eat, but other people can be sooner than that or later. Just a suggestion, but what I did shortly after I got the meter was test my level, then eat a meal with moderate amount of carbs, then test at 1/2 an hour, then every 15 minutes or so until I caught the peak and until it went back to the pre-meal level. I did this a couple of more times, but with fewer tests, to verify where my peak is. Now I know to check about an hour after I eat to see what the peak is.

It isn't as much an individual thing as to when you peak, it is more to do with what you ate and the ingredients of the meal. If the meal contains a lot of fat your peak will be later. Fat slows down the digestion, so your BS will rise more slowly and will also come back down more slowly, making a hump sort of curve, whereas a meal without fat but with a few carbs will peak much quicker making a more definite spikey point, like a mountain peak. Protein can also cause rises at some very odd times, many hours later sometimes.

When I test a new meal I test at 1hr and 2hrs. If the 2hr level is higher I test again at 2.5hrs. Initially, my peaks were evenly split between 1 and 2 hours, always coming down at 2.5hrs. Now my insulin resistance has improved I am finding most of my peaks at 1 hour and well on their way down at 2hrs. If there is a lot of fat in the meal, I find the 1hr rise and 2hr level much the same, but a lot lower than a meal without much fat.

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

It isn't as much an individual thing as to when you peak, it is more to do with what you ate and the ingredients of the meal. If the meal contains a lot of fat your peak will be later. Fat slows down the digestion, so your BS will rise more slowly and will also come back down more slowly, making a hump sort of curve, whereas a meal without fat but with a few carbs will peak much quicker making a more definite spikey point, like a mountain peak. Protein can also cause rises at some very odd times, many hours later sometimes.

When I test a new meal I test at 1hr and 2hrs. If the 2hr level is higher I test again at 2.5hrs. Initially, my peaks were evenly split between 1 and 2 hours, always coming down at 2.5hrs. Now my insulin resistance has improved I am finding most of my peaks at 1 hour and well on their way down at 2hrs. If there is a lot of fat in the meal, I find the 1hr rise and 2hr level much the same, but a lot lower than a meal without much fat.

I would say that it is an individual thing since I peak about an hour after I eat a meal with carbs regardless of what the meal is, which is clearly different than you. A carbless meal dose nothing to my blood sugar.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I would say that it is an individual thing since I peak about an hour after I eat a meal with carbs regardless of what the meal is, which is clearly different than you. A carbless meal dose nothing to my blood sugar.

I've never had a carbless meal! So what happens if you have a lot of fat with your carbs? I may peak at 1 hour, but it tends to stay much the same at 2 hours rather than increase or drop. For example, the other day I had a tinned salmon, 6 cherry toms, cheese, mayo, and a slice of my usual bread and butter. I was 6.2 at 1hr. 6.2 at 2hrs and 6.2 at 2.5 hrs then 5.4 at 3hrs.