Hello Nessa,
You need to take care hun - as @DCUKMod has said BG levels of 16 and ketones of 5 is dangerous you will end up in hospital if you're not careful. Please take your correction dose and work on getting this down, if no change contact your local hospital.
Check your blood sugar and ketone levels
Check your blood sugar level if you have symptoms of DKA.
If your blood sugar is 11mmol/L or over and you have a blood or urine ketone testing kit, check your ketone level.
If you do a blood ketone test:
If you do a urine ketone test, a result of more than 2+ means there's a high chance you have DKA.
- lower than 0.6mmol/L is a normal reading
- 0.6 to 1.5mmol/L means you're at a slightly increased risk of DKA and should test again in a couple of hours
- 1.6 to 2.9mmol/L means you're at an increased risk of DKA and should contact your diabetes team or GP as soon as possible
- 3mmol/L or over means you have a very high risk of DKA and should get medical help immediately
You need to differentiate between ketosis which is what you want, burning fats for fuel, and ketoacidosis, which is high blood glucose and high ketones, usually, and most undesirable.
Ketones can be measured using urine sticks or strips similar to those used in blood glucose meters.
Eating a low calorie diet can be detrimental to the metabolism, slowing it down and making a permanent alteration to the speed at which it operates.
Low carbing usually means eating a diet which makes up for the lack of carbs with protein and fat. Many people report that they feel more energetic eating a low carb diet - personally, I have gone back to work as now have the strength to hoist knitting machines around again.
That might seem like very slow progress, but it does reveal a ray of hope, as it is at least going in the right direction.Nevertheless last HBA1C was 50 - down from 53 6 months ago. That was met with approval. So, why, if I shouldn't have been aiming for lower BG, is that approved of?
Heya @nessa1970 good to see you although it’s a shame you find yourself in these circumstances. Cystitis can elevate your bg levels so be careful when unwell and keep a close eye, that could be a possible cause of your high ketones so trust your gut when unwell and running high bg levels - are you ok correcting high levels ?