Alcohol, how would i handle this?

[zoeee]

Quick question, hope this is in the right place!
All my friends are back from uni for easter and they're all going out tonight (drinking/clubbing) and have invited me to go with them - I haven't seen them in months so I'd love to go.

But since I changed to basal/bolus (start of the year) i've been as "good" as i can, haven't touched alcohol & have eaten the healthiest diet i've ever been on, including daily exercise etc in order to try and understand / get to grips with my blood sugar levels which seem to be all over the place - i've been trying to work it out myself because i STILL don't have a diabetes nurse.

I've been having a lot of problems with my blood glucose dropping at about 1am/2am, no matter how much i decrease the lantus / humalog - it keeps happening, and i haven't worked out why.

So i'm not sure how i'd handle going out / drinking ? I never used to have much, and only ever drank Smirnoff (only thing i really like, haha) but on my old regieme i used to just have a carby meal & it would always be ok. With this, I'm guessing anything i drink will make my sugars go low, and as they already do, how would i go about 'safely' clubbing, as this regieme seems to be a lot more "sensitive"?
big carby meal, or loads of snacks ?
& How much would be a safe amount to have? Does anyone know approximately how many carbs / how sugary a smirnoff is?!

Thank you for any help, i'm clueless!!

 

[JUSTFOCUS]

Afriend of mine goes out every saturday she is t1 also . if you have shorts rather than alco pops/lager mixer to be diet/sugar free .She offsets these with a large donor kebab at the end of the night . God only knows how this works but it isn't to say this will work for you :wink:
Have a good night watever you do . :lol: :lol:
JF.

 

[Zanshin]

Alcohol - how do you deal with a big night out?

How do you address a "proper" night out, and by that I mean a night on the town? If I drink say 8 pints of lager, my blood sugar goes through the roof in the short term, but comes down more rapidly over say 24 hours.

I only do it a couple of times a year, but when I do, I take extra insulin after a few pints, eat before hand (with insulin), and snack on carbs towards the end of the night, with reduced insulin.

Obviously judgement is impaired whilst out, but it seems to work - and by that I mean I keep my blood sugar within the recommended range.

Is anyone else not a diabetic saint? How do you control whilst misbehaving ?

 

[Gappy]

I've been diagnosed about 4 weeks now, but all that time I've kept up my saturday night out, I can't afford to drink too much but I guess the raised sugar levels from alcohol are lowered by my walk home hopefully keeping things in balance. But for no other reason other than it's been months since you drank I'd take it slowly, and when it's your round if you feel uneasy just get a lemonade, they wont know! And to be honest if you feel bad get lemonade anyway, they're supposed to be friends so should care more about your health than your alcohol intake.

 

[cugila]

Some information about Alcohol and Diabetes :

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-and-alcohol.html

Alcohol can have a confusing effect on blood sugar levels because it prevents the liver from producing glucose. One consequence of this is that hypoglycemia can occur after a night of drinking.

As a result, people with diabetes are often advised to eat something to compensate for the expected drop in blood sugar levels. Alcohol does affect different people in different ways so, if in doubt, test your blood glucose to see how alcohol affects you.

Some people may find it all too easy to let diabetes drift out of their mind when having alcohol and not worry too much about sugar levels. However, it is advisable to test blood sugar levels whenever possible to get an idea of how different drinks affect your sugar levels

So the moral is.....test test test !

 

[imalittlefishy]

Re: Alcohol - how do you deal with a big night out?

When I "misbehave", which as a student I will admit does happen a fair amount :wink:, my tried and tested method is alternate sugary and non sugary drinks (if I drink say vodka and diet coke all night, my blood sugar drops dramatically, if I stick to normal coke or similar it goes through the roof) and always finish off the night with a pint of water and something carby (a good plan for even non-diabetics if you want to avoid the hangover!) It seems to work pretty well for me, I've never had a big hypo or hyper during/after a big night out anyway...
xx