A bit confused

[Cathy1974]

I am a little confused.

Today, I increased my Novomix to 12u twice a day.
Before my tea, my BG was at 18.1
I had an egg salad for my tea, and the total carb intake came to 24g. This is the first time i have carb counted.

But I am surprised that when i tested an hour later, I had gone up to 23.3
This is like a normal reaction for me, but to take on the extra insulin and the lower carbs. I know I should really wait till the post 2 hr mark...but I am surprised salad has made me rise this much....

 

[wiflib]

I don't know anything about insulin Cathy but 24g for a salad is quite high. What did you have? The insulin users will be along shortly and they should be able to help.

wiflib

 

[Cathy1974]

I don't know anything about insulin Cathy but 24g for a salad is quite high. What did you have? The insulin users will be along shortly and they should be able to help.

wiflib

I had 3 pieces of cheese, some beetroot, a pickled onion, 3 strips of chicken, lettuce, an egg.

I have no idea about how low is low, but I was hoping, as it had no bread, potatoes, pasta etc, I would go high like i do if i have any of those things.
24g...is that high for one meal? Should I be aiming for lower? I am thinking that no carbs is the way i am going to have to go as nothing seems to be working for me so far. I know it's early days as an insulin user, so won't start to panic just yet....try not to anyway!

 

[SophiaW]

Watch out for salad dressings as some can contain a fair bit of sugar which will cause a spike. For a salad dressing our family uses a bit of drizzled olive oil, a teeny bit of white balsamic vinegar and a grinding of black pepper. Also be careful of pickled foods as they often contain a lot of sugar, you didn't say if the beetroot was fresh or pickled. How long before you ate did you do the injection? I remember when my daughter was on Novomix 30 we were told to do the injection about 10 to 20 minutes before her meal, if your reading is already high before eating then waiting the 20 minutes is probably a good idea but check with your doctor first that he/she is happy for you to do that. Testing an hour after you ate might mean that the carbs have affected your blood glucose before the insulin has had a chance to start working, if you test at about 2 hours the reading should hopefully have started to come down at that point. Also bear in mind that when you have an already high reading before the meal then you can be more insulin resistent and the injected insulin could take longer to start being effective and you may need a little more insulin compared to if you ate the same meal but with a much lower starting reading. Have you been given any rapid acting insulin to use for correcting high readings? If you increase your mixed insulin to try and correct the high reading then you have the problem of at the same time increasing the background insulin because they're mixed together. We were given Novorapid to use for correcting high readings when my daughter was using Novomix 30. As for whether 24g of carbs is high I'm not sure how to answer that. My daughter is not following a low carb diet and she can comfortably eat that amount of carbs provided her insulin is adjusted to cover those carbs. She is a type 1 so I'm not sure how you being type 1.5 will differ so I can't offer any advice on that but to me 24g doesn't sound like a lot unless it mostly came from quick acting carbs like sugar in salad dressings and pickled beetroot.

 

[Cathy1974]

I didn't have any dressing on it at all, jsut plain lettuce! Quite gross really! LOL!
The beetroot was pickled, as was the pickled onion...would the residue on thes really be enough to make me spike?

I am only on Novomix 30 at the mo, which I inject 15 mins before eating. My readings are never below 17, and I was hoping I would be seeing a drop in this by now. I think I am just very insulin resistant...makes me wonder if I will ever respond to it tho! I am thinking my GP will want me to be on mixed insulin a while before introducing a rapid acting...Im not sure?
Really starting to get frustrated with it all now!!

 

[Cathy1974]

2 hrs after testing, it went down to 20.3

 

[Defren]

I don't know anything about insulin Cathy but 24g for a salad is quite high. What did you have? The insulin users will be along shortly and they should be able to help.

wiflib

I had 3 pieces of cheese, some beetroot, a pickled onion, 3 strips of chicken, lettuce, an egg.

I have no idea about how low is low, but I was hoping, as it had no bread, potatoes, pasta etc, I would go high like i do if i have any of those things.
24g...is that high for one meal? Should I be aiming for lower? I am thinking that no carbs is the way i am going to have to go as nothing seems to be working for me so far. I know it's early days as an insulin user, so won't start to panic just yet....try not to anyway!

The only thing high there is beetroot, even then 100g of pickled beetroot is only around 10g carbs. Total carbs for 100g pickled onions is only 6g. I can't see how the rest of your meal took you to 24g of carbs. I think you have miscalculated somewhere. Chicken 0 carbs, 100g cheddar cheese 2g carbs, egg 0g carbs, 100g lettuce 0g carbs. These are all generic and I used 100g for all weights.

 

[wiflib]

I know that some insulin users have to cover protein as well as carbs but I don't know how.

wiflib

 

[Pneu]

Cathy... do you have readings and a food diary for the whole day? With a mix insulin we really need to take more than just a meal and a +1 hour reading into account.

If your blood glucose is always running above 17 mmol/l then the insulin your taking is going to be much reduced in effectiveness... when correcting as a type I I would be taking much larger doses at say 15 mmol/l to get a 2 mmol/l drop than I would if I wanted a drop from 8 mmol/l to 6 mmol/l...

I would suggest that at-least in the short term you might want to ask your HCP for a rapid insulin to bring those blood glucose under control..

 

[angieG]

Have you checked the ingredients of the pickled onions?
I was going to have some at my parents' place one day until I read that there was sugar in them!!

HTH
Angie

 

[Defren]

Have you checked the ingredients of the pickled onions?
I was going to have some at my parents' place one day until I read that there was sugar in them!!

HTH
Angie

Just checked the same onions I got the carbs from, that says 4g sugar.

 

[SophiaW]

I looked at your numbers again and I don't think you have spiked all that high. I know the readings are high but they started off high before you ate. Your blood glucose rose by approx 5mmol/l within 1 hour of eating. When readings are high the bg test result can vary quite considerably as there's an accuracy of within 20% (I think), I've done tests on my daughter one immediately after the other and it can vary by about 2 to 3 mmol/l when levels are high like that. Also 1 hour after eating is not always a reading we look at as it's too soon and consultants usually want to know the 2 hour after eating reading - especially when it's insulin you're using because most fast acting insulins (the fast acting portion of your mixed insulin) only peak at around 2 to 2.5 hours. At 2 hours your blood glucose was 20.3 mmol/l which means a 2 mmol/l rise in blood glucose and then at 3 and 4 hours it will probably have been lower. Also considering you would be more insulin resistant at these high levels I think you've done well. Whenever I test food with insulin on my daughter if we start with a high reading (or a hypo) we don't count the results and try again another time as starting with a not-ideal reading can cloud the results.

 

[Cathy1974]

Sophie, I see what you mean. I don't normally test at 1 hr, it's normally 2, but I have been keen to see when the insulin starts working. I am never below 17, so always start high...which is really frustrating me at the moment...

 

[ljwilson]

Are your BG's often that high? Am I right in thinking you are a Type 1?

Lorna

 

[Cathy1974]

Yes, they have always been this high....ever since i started testing in early April. My GP diagnosed me as t2, but thinks I might be t1.5, we are awaiting results to confirm