LADA

[Jillyfl]

Hi everyone, I have just been diagnosed with LADA after being treated for type 2 for a little over a year. To be honest I’m thrilled. I can eat again!
My question is :- if I’m not sure before I eat, how much I’m going to have for dinner (for example as in having a dessert or not), can I inject insulin after I’ve eaten? I currently do this just before I sit down to eat. I am on between 4 and 6 units just with my evening meal. I can cope the rest of the day. My blood glucose is normally between 5 and 8 before a meal. The nurse has said not to check it after eating because it will always rise. She has advised me to keep an ideal range of between 6 and 8 before a meal. Is this normal with LADA.?
i worry about eating out because I’m on novo rapid (I think it’s called) and I should not eat later than 15 minutes before injecting. Should I take my insulin into the loo with me and inject before my food comes. I’m afraid that doing it at home before I go will lower my BG too quickly and I might have a hypo (I’ve never experienced one yet).

 

[Circuspony]

Yes you can inject after you've eaten or even as your pudding arrives at the table. In restaurants I tend to inject as the food arrives having been caught out by a 45 min delay once. I test when we sit down / place the order and if I'm high I'll probably inject earlier. Btw - i always test and inject discretely at the table.

Below 8 before eating is great. Some people can manage lower - especially if they low carb - but T1d is not a predictable beast and sometimes likes to throw curve balls!!

 

[Diakat]

Yes if you want more food you can inject as you decide or just after.

With restaurants my injecting depends a lot on what level I am at on testing- if I’m at say 7 I’ll inject when I order. If I am at say 4.1 I’ll wait until the food is close. Also might depend on my familiarity with portion size at the venue or carb counts

 

[Antje77]

if I’m not sure before I eat, how much I’m going to have for dinner (for example as in having a dessert or not), can I inject insulin after I’ve eaten?

You can inject after eating, but it may make you spike more than you like.
I inject for what I'm about to eat with drawn out meals like eating out or christmas. So tomorrow I'll probably inject for some cookies and crisps when arriving at my family, then for the sarters, depending on if it's carby or not, again for the main meal and again for dessert. Of course with normal meals at home things are much easier!
Another strategy is to inject before dinner for what you know you'll eat at least, and give the rest after dinner or before dessert.

The nurse has said not to check it after eating because it will always rise.

I do, to get a feeling for calculating my doses, and I tested a whole lot in the beginning to get to understand my diabetes and my reactions to different foods.
Now I'm on the Freestyle Libre, which gives you even more insight, you might want to see if you can get it as well.

i worry about eating out because I’m on novo rapid (I think it’s called) and I should not eat later than 15 minutes before injecting. Should I take my insulin into the loo with me and inject before my food comes. I’m afraid that doing it at home before I go will lower my BG too quickly and I might have a hypo (I’ve never experienced one yet).

You can simply test and inject at the table, no need to use the loo.
As for the 15 minutes, for some that works fine, others need to wait a bit longer to prevent large after meal peaks. The only way to find out is testing a lot (or use Libre or CGM).

A lot depends on how finding a balance between the amount of work acceptable for you to put in your diabetes and keeping your numbers in a healthy range.
After all, the goal is quality of life, no use to have perfect numbers but feeling miserable because it takes up too much of your attention.

Good luck, and keep asking away!

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Your nurse has given you good advice and so have the other posts. I now always inject at the table and I find virtually no one notices.

 

[KesLouise]

Hello I was diagnosed LADA also in July this year. I used humalog as my fast acting and inject 15 mins before food and always at the table if I am out as this can be done discreetly
If there’s anything you’d like to talk about always happy to chat

 

[Jillyfl]

Thanks everyone for your replies and sound information. This is very new to me. I think I feel more comfortable going to the loo to inject because I very often wear a dress and would have to lift it up to inject lol. I find it hard to know how much to inject, because my own body is working to a certain degree. I get this wrong a few times and usually under dose and find that sometimes my bed time reading is 10 or 12. I am supposed to weigh my food but this is really tedious. I weighed my cereal this morning and with milk etc my carbs came to 62g which according to the dietician would be 6 units. I know for a fact that this would have given me a hypo. It seems all guess work at the moment and I’ve never injected more than 6 units even for Christmas dinner of 3 courses.

I do have another question, could I get the Libre system on nhs? At the moment I only inject with my main meal as I can cope pretty well during the day...

thank you all for listening, your advice is invaluable and to know what everyone else does in my situation helps enormously too

 

[Diakat]

The dietician has given you the general starting point of 10g carbs to 1u. In reality many of us use different ratios (often different at various times of day).
You can ask about the Libre but there are set criteria that you would have to meet.

 

[Jillyfl]

The dietician has given you the general starting point of 10g carbs to 1u. In reality many of us use different ratios (often different at various times of day).
You can ask about the Libre but there are set criteria that you would have to meet.

Ahh ok, maybe I wont qualify yet? I'm going to ask though.

 

[KesLouise]

Ahh ok, maybe I wont qualify yet? I'm going to ask though.

It’s worth asking I’m hoping to get the libre but was advised that some areas expect to see recording of at least 8 tests a day minimum (not a problem for me really!)