dectjoh said:
Ha ha you're not wrong, wait until you go on DAFNE!! I feel for people who can't do maths, I really do......
Nick that link you were given in another answer,to the b-dec site, is invaluable - spend all your spare time reading it, that's all I can say about that - I was lucky in that when diagnosed I had to take a month off work so I had time to sit and read, and absorb.
As for exercise, it affects different people in different ways and even the same person differently on two different occasions doing the same exercise with the same food before etc. I think it's got something to do with the wind direction or whether gnomes have been recently spotted in the area. So there's no real advice to give except never exercise when you have ketones (get them on prescription from your GP, they're sticks you wee on). Often, exercise is equal to having insulin so you either need to knock a few units off your previous dose, or eat during or after exercise; however that's not always the way and some people need to inject a unit or two before exercise, to make sure they don't go too high - random. Some people also need to reduce their previous background dose a bit. And the intensity of the exercise counts for a lot too, so keep a note of how intense each game was when analysing what's happening. So for now, test before, during and after your exercise and make changes accordingly next time - well, give something a try, anyway, and see if it works, and if it doesn't then try something else. It's a tricky one. I've got CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) too so thankfully none of this applies to me but when I was briefly OK over the summer I did shedloads of exercise over a couple of weeks and I barely had to inject anything - it was almost like not being diabetic. It was a joy and a wonderful respite.
When I first started carb counting I used one unit of novorapid to each 10g of carbs and 1 unit for each 5mmol/l that I was over target. I tried that because I read an American girl's blog and that was what she was told to do on diagnosis, so I gave it a go. You could perhaps try starting like that and using your new shiny filofax, look for patterns in your results, if eg each lunchtime you have to add on lots more because you're still high then you might need to go to 1.5 units for every 10g of carbs at lunchtime; or, if all your readings are too high for example you might want to up your background insulin by 1 or 2 units (maximum 2) at a time for a few days and see if that's helped. If you have an overnight hypo, you need to immediately reduce your background by 2 units. An 'overnight hypo' also covers/means a hypo on waking.
It's very complicated and can't be explained by what I've written above but that is the basis of the DAFNE approach. I was already doing that for about 9 months before DAFNE and was essentially very stable with HbA1cs of 7.1-7.4%. The b-dec link will tell you a lot, lot more. 1 unit for every 10g of carbs actually doesn't sound like enough given what you say you normally inject and the readings you often have so any decisions on that would have to be down to you. It sounds to me as though your background is what needs working on (it should only be upped by 2 units at a time, every 3 days) for now. I'm not a professional though, only a diabetic, and you've got a lot of reading material available on b-dec and in the book you've ordered.
And no please don't eat a whole chocolate cake when you have a hypo :wink: but if you do, and you find yourself high afterwards, the strict DAFNE advice is not to give yourself insulin to reduce the high - leave it. Your body will need it to replenish the liver (I'll be corrected if that's wrong I'm sure, but I think that's the deal), and you are also at further risk of another hypo so if you can put up with feeling rubbish for a few hours, the advice is "never correct after a hypo". People often apparently find themselves chasing their tails like that - up down up down up down up down....
As I was writing this I saw the last 2 posts - no you should add the correction dose to your dinner, definitely, crikey if I injected 20 units then didn't eat I'd be dead! Also, Levemir is meant to be split, ie you're meant to take it twice a day - you've so far only mentioned taking it at night I think? It doesn't last 24hrs, nowhere near it, more like 16 hours.
