Testing blood glucose

[marlene11040]

Morning all.
I'm new to this and recently diagnosed pre-diabetic by my GP. I've been offered no real help except to be told to lose weight - not unreasonable advice. Anyway, I've bought a BG monitor but I'm having difficulty getting sufficient blood to perform the test from my fingers and am wasting these expensive strips! I'm following instructions to the letter - washing hands in warm water, shaking hands, pressing down with plunger thingy quite firmly on side of finger etc., but it's taking 2/3 attempts to get sufficient blood for a reading. It's all getting a bit sore and stressful and I've only been doing it for 2 days. Any advice would be very welcome.

Also, my readings seem to be all over the place and quite weird: 5.1 on waking yesterday; 2 hours after eating a meal containing 55g carbs shot up to 8.9 after and then back down to 4.9 after a further 2 hours. Went up after dinner to 5.9.
5.5 on waking this morning, had 2 cups of coffee + an apple and it's gone down to 5.2 now. Do these numbers sound reasonable? I have no way of knowing.

So to be so ignorant - I am researching as much as possible and reading posts on here to inform and educate myself because I really want to get this under control. Thanks for reading.

 

[DevonVee]

Hi it sounds like you need to look at what carbs you are eating. From what others have said you are more insulin resistant in the morning. You need to be looking at food that only causes a small rise approx 2mmol. After 2 hours you need to be under 8.5mmol. Look up @daisy1 whose advice is really useful.
What lancet are you using? It might be worth looking at a different one. I use the accuclik which is not too vicious.

 

[Scott-C]

Most pricking devices have a dial on them to control how far the lancet goes in, so maybe try dialling up the number a bit higher.

 

[urbanracer]

Morning all.

Also, my readings seem to be all over the place and quite weird: 5.1 on waking yesterday; 2 hours after eating a meal containing 55g carbs shot up to 8.9 after and then back down to 4.9 after a further 2 hours. Went up after dinner to 5.9.
5.5 on waking this morning, had 2 cups of coffee + an apple and it's gone down to 5.2 now. Do these numbers sound reasonable? I have no way of knowing.
.

Without knowing what medication you're on (if any) I think your numbers do sound reasonable. 55g of carbs is quite a lot so I think the rise you've experienced is nothing to get too stressed about..........

As regards to testing, it's not always simple and some experimentation may be required. I try to use the areas on the sides of the finger between the 2 knuckle joints, I find it helps to protect the ends of the fingers from getting too sore.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I also have trouble drawing blood and have been testing now for 3 years. I have to use the notch on the dial between 3 and 4. I put it down to thick skin! Or maybe just deep capillaries. It's just one of those things, but I don't understand why you are wasting a lot of strips. I don't actually waste any because of this, even if I end up stabbing several fingers before I get some blood the strip is still usable.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

It might also be worth mentioning what meter you have so that someone with the same make can advise you. Some strips need you to "shovel up" the blood, some need the side of the strip to be applied to the blood spot and some need the blood to be dabbed on. In short, you may be doing it wrong.

 

[AM1874]

Hi @marlene11040 .. and welcome
I sometimes have the same problem with insufficient blood to trigger the meter properly .. and what I do now (if necessary) is just pinch the skin either side of the "puncture" with my fingernails. This has always brought out a big enough drop ..
FWIW .. I do a fasting test about an hour or so after rising, then a pre-prandial immediately before eating and a post-prandial two hours after I started my meal. I test 3 times a day .. Fasting and Pre/Post at either lunch or dinner .. I have pretty much stopped eating breakfast. Fortunately, my readings have been between 5.5 and 7.1 consistently since I started testing with a TEE2 meter on Feb 22nd
Hope this helps

 

[marlene11040]

Thanks all - some very useful advice much appreciated.

 

[marlene11040]

Most pricking devices have a dial on them to control how far the lancet goes in, so maybe try dialling up the number a bit higher.

What a dope I am! I didn't notice the dial - have turned it up now. Thanks.

 

[marlene11040]

Hi it sounds like you need to look at what carbs you are eating. From what others have said you are more insulin resistant in the morning. You need to be looking at food that only causes a small rise approx 2mmol. After 2 hours you need to be under 8.5mmol. Look up @daisy1 whose advice is really useful.
What lancet are you using? It might be worth looking at a different one. I use the accuclik which is not too vicious.

What does it mean to be 'more insulin resistant in the morning'? Does that mean I should eat fewer carbs in the morning?

 

[marlene11040]

Without knowing what medication you're on (if any) I think your numbers do sound reasonable. 55g of carbs is quite a lot so I think the rise you've experienced is nothing to get too stressed about..........

View attachment 22192

As regards to testing, it's not always simple and some experimentation may be required. I try to use the areas on the sides of the finger between the 2 knuckle joints, I find it helps to protect the ends of the fingers from getting too sore.

I'm not any diabetes medication - just thyroid meds. Is 55g carbs a lot in one go do you mean? Would it be better if I spread the carb intake over the whole day? I thought it was important to limit carbs to within a certain amount per day (I try to keep to below 70g daily) but now I'm wondering whether I should spread this amount throughout the day?

This is a huge learning curve not just for me, I'm sure. But at least I've made a start.

 

[Scott-C]

What does it mean to be 'more insulin resistant in the morning'? Does that mean I should eat fewer carbs in the morning?

It's quite common for T1s to need a bit more insulin in the morning compared to later in the day for the same amount of carbs. A lot of people also find that their sugars rise quite a lot just by getting up and moving around.

You're pre-diabetuc, not T1, but biology is biology, so I suspect that similar factors apply. There'll probably be a few pre-diabetes people along to clear it up.

 

[Alison Campbell]

What does it mean to be 'more insulin resistant in the morning'? Does that mean I should eat fewer carbs in the morning?

Yep some on this forum have less carbs in the morning and find that it works.

 

[marlene11040]

Is there any benefit to doing the blood test an hour after a meal and then again 2 hours after? I've read somewhere (can't recall where) that in the initial stages of determining which foods spike blood sugar this can be a useful measurement. I thought I might do this for, say, the first week and keep a comprehensive list of foods that might be contraindicated for me or perhaps look into reducing the quantity of those foods rather than eliminating them altogether? I don't want to over-complicate things but I do want to be clear about what foods, if any, I should be avoiding altogether.

 

[DevonVee]

What does it mean to be 'more insulin resistant in the morning'? Does that mean I should eat fewer carbs in the morning?

Yes some posters find that they can tolerate carbs later in the day. We are all different and need to find what suits us. Unlike the NICE guidelines of us all eating way too much carb.

 

[Alison Campbell]

Looks like you are doing really well on 70g and you just need a few tweeks around breakfast.

I don't think you need to worry too much about the one hour mark at the start of prediabetes and I never have tested at one hour. I have thought that this is more concerned with insulin production/use failure when the disease is more progressed.

Can I ask how you were diagnosed with prediabetes?

 

[DevonVee]

Reading your earlier post having your carbs in one go is probably not the best way to go but it is whatever works. By keeping it down the spikes will or should be lower which is the aim. If you push blood glucose up too high then you pump out more insulin Some glucose will get stored as fat if you have too much. Pacing it means that you reduce that storage.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I'm not any diabetes medication - just thyroid meds. Is 55g carbs a lot in one go do you mean? Would it be better if I spread the carb intake over the whole day? I thought it was important to limit carbs to within a certain amount per day (I try to keep to below 70g daily) but now I'm wondering whether I should spread this amount throughout the day?

This is a huge learning curve not just for me, I'm sure. But at least I've made a start.

It is known that insulin resistance is always at its worst in the mornings, so for this reason it is best to limit carbs to the very minimum for breakfast. Personally all I have is coffee with lots of cream. Eggs cooked any which way are also good, or bacon and eggs, or cold meats and cheese. Plenty of fat is a good thing.

By using your meter you will discover what your personal carb tolerance is. 55g at one sitting is a lot. If I go over 25g my meter tells me off.

Testing between an hour and 2 hours may tell you what your peak was, or near enough. By 2 hours you should be on your way down. However, everyone will spike at an hour or 90 minutes, including non-diabetics, so you have to be careful not to stress too much if you see high numbers. It is a useful test to see if your insulin response is OK.

 

[urbanracer]

I'm not any diabetes medication - just thyroid meds. Is 55g carbs a lot in one go do you mean? Would it be better if I spread the carb intake over the whole day? I thought it was important to limit carbs to within a certain amount per day (I try to keep to below 70g daily) but now I'm wondering whether I should spread this amount throughout the day?

This is a huge learning curve not just for me, I'm sure. But at least I've made a start.

As your blood glucose was high at 2hrs and back in the normal range at 4hrs, your body is producing insulin but probably not at a fast enough rate to cope with 55g of carbs at one time. If you spread it out it will reduce the tendency to spike and help to keep your blood glucose numbers more even.

As you can see from the table above, even a non-diabetic might get close to 8.0 after a meal, it's just that their bodies might deal with it more efficiently and bring them down sooner.

 

[Scott-C]

A lot of it is just down to food choices. I'm T1 so can just take more insulin if I'm eating more carbs. I don't deliberately low carb but it's quite easy to put together a decent relatively low carb meal.

There's a book/app called Carbs & Cals which has photos if foods with the carb content to give an idea of how much is in each meal.

The other night I had some chicken broth, about 20g, mainly from the barley in it, which is low GI, breaks down slowly so no spike, followed by grilled lamb chops and brocolli, 1g, and then some raspberries, 7 g, so less than 30g all in. That's a low carb meal by any standards and I enjoyed it.

White rice puts me through the roof, but brown rice, because of the extra fibre, hardly shifts me at all. And it tastes better than white and has more nutrients. Couldn't be bothered cooking much a few nights ago, so chucked a packet of uncle ben's wholegrain mexican rice in the microwave, some fried chestnut mushrooms and mackerel on top, can't remember the carbs, 80, something like that, which would have the low carbers reaching for a pistol, but my sugars barely shifted.

One of the key points to understand, which I think applies to everyone whether T1, T2, pre-diabetic or muggle is not so much the carbs but the rate at which carbs are absorbed into the blood stream. Bit of cake, whoosh, straight into your blood, spike. Brown rice with it's fibre mixed with the fat and protein from the fish breaks down slowly, no spike.

Spice it up a bit as well. There's been a lot of studies suggesting that some spices, cumin, turmeric, ginger, stabilise blood sugar. I quite often have a spicy Asian noodle soup called ramen and I don't know if it's just wishful thinking or coincidence but my levels do seem to be remarkably stable for not just a few hours but like a day or two. Eventually had a go at a Tonkotsu Hell ramen....only counts if it makes your scalp sweat!