I HAVE A QUESTION?

noosrat

Active Member
Messages
35
Type of diabetes
Type 1
HI noosrat here i have a question? how often do i inject insulin novo rapid? as soon as i eat something?
 

noosrat

Active Member
Messages
35
Type of diabetes
Type 1
but if ever i want to eat a chocolate cake at 3 p.m and i test my bs is high can i take it without the novorapid
?
 

pippin2345

Member
Messages
6
l am taking novorapid and inject AFTER l have eaten. You will not get an accurate blood sugar for 3 hours after injection.
l also take lantus but take in the morning. Do NOT inject near to one another otherwise the novorapid will not work properly because of the way that lantus is made up.
 

ewelina

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,354
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Hi Noosrat:) I guess you are new to diabetes and insulin injections. You should definately get back to diabetic nurse to learn how insulin works and when to inject.
I inject every time I put any carbs into my mouth (apart from very little snacks less than 10g of carbs). Forget about having cake without insulin especially if your levels are high already. you need to bring them down and then you can consider having something else. It takes time and practice to learn how insulin works
 

noosrat

Active Member
Messages
35
Type of diabetes
Type 1
ewelina said:
Hi Noosrat:)
hi Ewelina, am not new to injections but now am trying to control my diabetes adn it really is a tiring process. i read as u said take insulin as soon as i put carbs in my body. this was wat i was doing (as from february when i joined this forum) but then a doctor told me to take the novorapid before each meal this means 3 times (bfast + lunch+ dinner); and i am now confused. i usually take it before eating something! like at work i eat at 930, 1130, and sometimes 1.15 a.m, 3 pm and then dinner and perhaps a small snack before bedtime, check bs at bedtime, inject basal and sleep. that is my routine. am i doing it right plz reply me plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me
 

iHs

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,595
noosrat said:
ewelina said:
Hi Noosrat:)
hi Ewelina, am not new to injections but now am trying to control my diabetes adn it really is a tiring process. i read as u said take insulin as soon as i put carbs in my body. this was wat i was doing (as from february when i joined this forum) but then a doctor told me to take the novorapid before each meal this means 3 times (bfast + lunch+ dinner); and i am now confused. i usually take it before eating something! like at work i eat at 930, 1130, and sometimes 1.15 a.m, 3 pm and then dinner and perhaps a small snack before bedtime, check bs at bedtime, inject basal and sleep. that is my routine. am i doing it right plz reply me plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me

Hi

It is true to say that there are some diabetics who like to graze and eat a snack mid morning and mid afternoon and those who only want to eat just 3 meals per day.

Bolus insulins should be injected before eating a main meal and ideally a small snack could be eaten 2-3hrs later if bg levels have fallen below 6mmol. If bg levels are at 8-10mmol then eating a snack would require another bolus to deal with the carb or if possible going for a walk and not injecting the bolus would enable bg levels to not rise.

It is entirely up to you to decide what you want to do. If you test your bg levels often, you will be able to adjust your bolus insulin accordingly. Do you know about carb counting and adjusting bolus insulin using a ratio yet? If not, using a ratio will help you achieve decent bg levels.

Hope this helps
 

ewelina

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,354
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Its all well explained by iHS. Ideally you should have injections before main meals and small snacks if necessary without bolus. I personally snack sometimes between meals and have extra bolus but you always need to be careful with overlapping injections. I sent myself into really bad hypo because of that on few ocassions :(
 

JontyW

Well-Known Member
Messages
89
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Ignorance & Arrogance.
For good diabetic control you should ideally only be eating three main meals per day. If your BG is running at the right level about 4 hours after the last bolus injection, then there is no need to have snacks since they will raise your sugar levels, unless the snack is less than about 10g of carbs, since no extra bolus is then needed. Eating a chocalate cake at 3pm is clearly not a good idea for a diabetic!

Here is some advice to help you get back on track ......

Knowledge is power for diabetics and so I strongly recommend that you read carefully the following documents and books …

Key points to good control are:-

Get used to detailed carbohydrate counting.
Buy this excellent book that provides clear pictures of nearly every food you might need

1) Carbs & Cals: A Visual Guide to Carbohydrate & Calorie Counting for People with Diabetes

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0956 ... 01_s00_i01)

2) Carb Counting & Insulin Adjustment:

An introduction to carbohydrate counting and insulin dose adjustment

https://shop.diabetes.org.uk/store/lite ... -book.aspx
- this is the basis of the DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating) course, and you need to read Chapter 2 (Carbohydrates) and Chapter 3 (Insulin) to understand what level of bolus (Humalog, Novorapid or Apidra) you need to inject based on the Insulin to Carb ratio for the carbs you plan to eat for each of the three main meals.

3) Adjusting your Insulin when results are too high or too low:
An excellent detailed document, with plenty of examples, to assist you in making required insulin adjustments. Download it and print it out so it is readily at hand after blood sugars have been made & recorded.

http://www.diabetes-scotland.org/ggc/do ... Change.pdf

I hope it all helps, since you clearly need to take note of what you are being told on this excellent forum....
 

noosrat

Active Member
Messages
35
Type of diabetes
Type 1
hi jontyw
the problem is that i am starving at 3 after my lunch at 1130 what can i have?
 

picklebean

Well-Known Member
Messages
312
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
how about eating things other than chocolate cake? Chocolate cake is not the best thing for a diabetic to be eating if you're hungry!

Try finding things that don't have carbohydrate in them, or very little carbohydrate... Then it won't affect your blood sugar level and you won't need to worry about insulin.


Also, if you're 'starving' at those times, it suggests you're not eating the correct things at meal times - you need foods that release their energy slowly so that you don't have a spike and then a fall - that way you will feel fuller for longer and won't feel the need to have snacks. Do some research into high & low GI foods - and look at the food sections on this message board! Lots of useful info there!
 

JontyW

Well-Known Member
Messages
89
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Ignorance & Arrogance.
noosrat said:
noosrat here despite changing to a diet and balanced meal + doing exercise twice a week + lantus 32 in morning and bolus taken based on the carbs in food, i ama getting a lot of variation in my bs! i have even reduced the basal to 30 but my bs remain high esp in the morning! :oops: so with 32 basal, it was in the last 4 days 4-6 mmol in morning i was happy but today it was 10.8! and i am getting a lot of hypo too at bedtime, in morning sometimes when my bs is 4-6, i do not take bolus esp if i am not eating a lot of carbs. help me please. my daily eating plan is as follows:
at 6.30 a.m i ate 2 slice of wholebread with butter (= 4 cp) + a 1/8 banana
at 9.30 a.m i take an oatmeal wiht 1/4 banana slice
at 11.30 i take salad (cucumber+ carrot+ pineapple sometimes) + a protein like chicken
at 13.00 i take a small snack sometimes
at 15.00 i take biscuits or tea cake depending on my bs
at 19.00 dinner with veg + 2 slice wholebread +salad+ a protein food chicken/fish/tuna/etc
at 22.00 bedtime if ever hypo take a tea cake or if no hypo take some peanuts as snack;
generally hypo at 9.20 + 11.00 + 15.00 + 21.30
please help me solve this!!!!!!!!
Hi noosrat,

Here is another posting that you did on March 6th 2013 which shows your typical eating pattern: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=38187&p=356686#p356686. So my questions about how you manage your blood glucose control are (using Lantus & Novorapid) ...

1. What are the carbs and Novorapid dosage for each of these meals/snacks shown above (I can see 6:30am was 40g CHO so must be breakfast)? You need to tell us that so we can suggest what might being going wrong!

2. At 22:00, which is only 3 hrs since dinner, if you are going hypo then you have got the wrong IC ratio for that meal.
3. "generally hypo at 9.20 + 11.00 + 15.00 + 21.30" Have you done a fasting test to check the Lantus level is correct .. please let us know?
4. So do you really accurately carb count and know the correct ratio for each meal as described in the document I sent the link for because if you hypo regularly you are taking too much basal and/or bolus? An introduction to carbohydrate counting and insulin dose adjustment

https://shop.diabetes.org.uk/store/lite ... -book.aspx

The suggestion sent by iHs was very good advice ...

iHs said:
It is true to say that there are some diabetics who like to graze and eat a snack mid morning and mid afternoon and those who only want to eat just 3 meals per day.

Bolus insulins should be injected before eating a main meal and ideally a small snack could be eaten 2-3hrs later if bg levels have fallen below 6mmol. If bg levels are at 8-10mmol then eating a snack would require another bolus to deal with the carb or if possible going for a walk and not injecting the bolus would enable bg levels to not rise.

It is entirely up to you to decide what you want to do. If you test your bg levels often, you will be able to adjust your bolus insulin accordingly. Do you know about carb counting and adjusting bolus insulin using a ratio yet? If not, using a ratio will help you achieve decent bg levels.
Hope this helps

So you need to answer these questions so we can offer you more suggestions.

JontyW
 

ewelina

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,354
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
I think you eat too often. I used to have similar problem but now i try to restrict myself to 3 meals per day and it works perfectly. You need to leave that 4-5 hours gap between meals to let your sugar levels get back to normal. if you eat too often you constantly add some carbohydrates. even if they are in small amount it still affects your levels. Have a snack only when you get hypo.
I used to snack a lot and take boluses but to be honest it doesnt work for me. It just messes up everything. too high levels for most of the day or hypos from ovelapping injections
 

Bodybuilder type1

Well-Known Member
Messages
83
Just take a injection every time you eat a carb
If you are hi in sugar you can still eat carbs you must know how many units you sugar levels drop for every unit of insulin for eg for me ,if I was 16.0 and wanted to eat something that had 24grams of carbs in it ,because I take 1unit of insulin for every 12grams of carb I ingest and because for every 1unit of insulin I take my sugar level drops 2 units of blood if I am 16,0 and want to eat the 24grams of carbs and end up at 6.0 units of blood I would take 7units of insulin . Also what I was doing at the time would come into play .if I was just chilling out I would take 7 but if I was in work I would prob take 5units of insulin .you have to figure out what works best for you ,but you don't ever have to go hungry if all you have to eat is carbs


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 

JontyW

Well-Known Member
Messages
89
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Ignorance & Arrogance.
ewelina said:
I think you eat too often. I used to have similar problem but now i try to restrict myself to 3 meals per day and it works perfectly. You need to leave that 4-5 hours gap between meals to let your sugar levels get back to normal. if you eat too often you constantly add some carbohydrates. even if they are in small amount it still affects your levels. Have a snack only when you get hypo.
I used to snack a lot and take boluses but to be honest it doesnt work for me. It just messes up everything. too high levels for most of the day or hypos from ovelapping injections
Noosrat,
This is exactly what I said originally .. "For good diabetic control you should ideally only be eating three main meals per day", so please read and understand what you are being told here. The way you are snacking so much between meals is making it VERY difficult to control your BG since you are not allowing time for the bolus to finish working.