Hi
@Lydiagoodman93[/USER], First of all, a big Welcome to the site. As a T1d for 52 years, not as professional advice or opinion:
When newly diagnosed I found it took a while for me to make sense of what was what.
Not all carbs are the same in the way they affect BSLs, some cause blood spikes more readily than others even though they may be labelled as having the same grams of carb in them. And yes, your observations about lower carb content of a meal leading to lower after meal BSLs are spot on, provided one allows for the type of carb also.
If you look at
mendosa.com, (an American site complete with American spelling)!!
Home page and at definition of
Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) and then look at Glycemic Values you can see how certain foods compare in the effect on BSLS. Take for example 'Cereals' down the list aways, and compare oats to other cereals and also oats with water and Oats with milk (a little further down). The inclusion of extra fat (as in the milk) lowers the GI value, that is the rise in BSL is moderated by the fat in the milk.
Also if you google
"pictures of insulin profiles" and look for the brand of short-acting insulin you are prescribed you can see when (on average) your insulin starts to work, when it reaches its peak of effectiveness in lowering BSLs and how long it lasts.
The general aim, as I understand it. is to ensure the peak of insulin's BSL-lowering effect matches or preferably precedes the BSL rise and peak. So not only is it a matter of 'matching up' the peak of insulin and BSL but ensuring there is sufficient dose of insulin to deal with the BSL. So timing and amount.
To 'hit the BSL nail' at the right time and with the right amount of force.
If insulin peaks too late for example the BSL from the meal goes higher than acceptable and if subsequently the insulin dose is increased the insulin might cause a fall in BSL some hours after the meal. The BSL was hit too late and then too hard!!
Understandably
most of us tend to stick to the same sorts of foods for our meals so that the BSL rise and the effect of insulin we take can best keep BSLs within range. Although we are adventurous at times!!
That at least is the theory !!
Because each of us is different we
each need to work out the timing of our insulin effect and of food. (the insulin profiles are averages and you will notice that some GIs of food have a range, e.g. Rice porridge 78 (+/- 9).
Of course sticking to low GI (<55) and GL (<10) is ideal for the theory. And with insulin, some of us inject short-acting insulin and eat straight-away, others find they need to wait say 30 to 45 minutes after injecting insulin before they eat to ensure the insulin's peak effect arrives in time to meet the rising BSL from the meal. Lots of finger-prick BSLs needed and/or use of a BSL monitoring device like the Libre etc.
The other tricky bit is that
our bodies do not always react to insulin uniformly throughout the day. On an insulin pump, my
insulin dose to carb quantity is different between breakfast and my evening meal. And as a male I can only relate that reading about cycles indicates the need for many lady diabetics to raise their insulin doses as period time approaches and during this time.
I know the above is a lot to take in but also read in the Home page of this site under Type 1 diabetes about the 'honeymoon period' or time, where in the first months ? year or so on insulin there may be some residual insulin produced by the pancreas, not sufficient to avoid use of injected insulin but sufficient to lower insulin doses and provide some leeway in getting does of insulin and food amounts to balance out BSL-wise.
Please re-read this post if you need to. Keep asking questions. We have all at some stage asked the obvious or simple questions, only to discover that every question and answer is valuable to someone. Rome was not built in a day nor was the Oracle of Delphi always super quick in answering!!
Try to develop some self-humour about your situation. It helps to carry you over the rough patches.
I used to call injection time, "javelin practice" and I have some funny hypo stories or cautionary tales (which were embarrassing at the time). A lady with diabetes has her hubbie and son bet on what her before dinner BSL will be and the loser does the washing up!
And we all make mistakes along the way - that is how we know what might work (or not)
Please keep posting !!!
It is all about balance
