a quick question

Hi
I test two afters as that is when blood sugars are meant to be returning to normal after meal!
That is how i do it! But i am sure that other people who know more than me will come along and give you advice as well!
sandy

I suppose that it depends on what you want the test to show you. If you have eaten low GI then the 1 hour test may not show much but if you have eaten high GI then the 2 hour test could have missed your spike. So if you are only doing a few I would say vary them.

If you know how that meal affects you then a two hour test is fine.If it is something new then sometimes it is worth doing a one hour test to see if there is a significant spike.I cannot eat anything with oats but...my two hour test was always fine.It was only when I tested after one hour that I realised just how high I was going with oat based foods.

I always test before out of habbit, no matter what im eating, and depending on time of day (i quite often eat late at night due to work and online committments) i do a test about 2 hours after, to give me a better general reading, obviously i dont follow this rule if ive eaten at 11pm, because i need my sleep! Im not a great role model, as although ive had diabetes a good few years now, i still do alot out of habit, and not out of 'what is best' i still eat the odd dodgy snack, without testing, or jabbing, im naughty, ont be like me, but live a little, try not to worry about constant testing untill your fingers are ready to drop off, thats no life for anyone, do generall, what feels natural to you, what feels right, and you wont be far wrong. I know when im low and i know when im high, but test to be safe, as regular as possible without disrupting your life to much! :wink:

Dinner sounds fine. 8.7 after one hour from a start of 7.6 is not bad,let's see what it is like after 2 hours.Get a Collins Gem carb counter book and see what you can work out for meals.

haha! im type one, call 8.7 a spike? you should see my 16's!

in all seriousness though, as a type one im lead to believe that if im doing beween 4 and 9, im generally doing ok, the 9's is more of a nighttime comfort thing, but its also not dangerously high, aim to do between 4 and 7.5 but i wouldnt say its a massive spike to worry about. When i was diagnosed, they did my bloods and the meter went up to 55, i was off the scale! and as i said, i do sometimes get silly and still get a fair few above 10.

Dragongirl is a type 2 ,Onediabetic and not on medication.

Sorry my mistake, i did actually mean to end my post with 'i don't know how that relates to a type 2' but i got to busy ramling, sorry to offend.

dragongirl said:

OK thanks all of you. I'll struggle on and do both for now then. Just wondered if I was wasting time along with getting fed up!
If pre-this-particular-dinner is 7.6 (which I guess it shouldn't be) is one-hour post dinner = 8.7 a bad spike? Haven't got to 2 hrs yet. I've understood fasting scores but yet to get my head around daytime ones. Hence the questions. This was pork liver (bad choice?), leek, cauli and carrots. It's all very confusing but it's early days (she says, trying to think positively). This is type 2, 11 days after first clinic, so no meds offered yet (not overweight at all, exercise quite well).

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Hi Dragongirl.

As a Type 2 the 2009 guideline figures for a Diabetic are as follows:
Fasting (waking) .....................between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals.....................no more than 8.5 mmol/l.

Obviously if you can keep the numbers lower so much the better.

Ken.

OneDiabetic said:

haha! im type one, call 8.7 a spike? you should see my 16's!

in all seriousness though, as a type one im lead to believe that if im doing beween 4 and 9, im generally doing ok, the 9's is more of a nighttime comfort thing, but its also not dangerously high, aim to do between 4 and 7.5 but i wouldnt say its a massive spike to worry about. When i was diagnosed, they did my bloods and the meter went up to 55, i was off the scale! and as i said, i do sometimes get silly and still get a fair few above 10.

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Hi onediabetic.

As a T1 your guideline figures for Bg levels are as follows:

Fasting (waking)................ 4.0–7.0 mmol/litre
2 Hrs after meals................no more than 9.0 mmol/litre

Obviously if you keep them lower then so much the better.
Out of interest here, what was your last HbA1c ?

Ken.

OK so your two hour reading is lower that your one hour so you are on your way down...that's good!Take a note of what you ate then,when you get your carb counter work out the carb content of the meal.Readings will vary day to day don't stress out on that one too much unless they are really high!!
Exercise every day is a good idea as it builds muscle and helps burn off carbs.Don't worry,you are doing well,it takes a while but it all comes together.

Ken, My last HBa1c was 7.6....my lowest since being diagnosed was a 6.2, over the last 2 years my highest was 9.4....hm, im no good am i!

hi dragongirl,
my readings seem to be very similar to yours. I often start with a 7 or 7 point something, then eat a low carb meal. I have actually been testing every half hr because patterns have definately emerged for me.

One hour after meal, I am not at my peak, I am usually at a peak at the 2 hr point, almost without fail, and then at 2and a quarter hrs it may start to drop, still droping at 2and a half hrs after food, then by the 3hr mark it seems to drop sometimes a bit swiftly back to where it started.

I have found testing is the only thing that really helps me to start to know what is really happening for me and there is some comfort in seeing patterns to this as it is logical at least, even though re the above, Im still havent got things to 4-7. At least there is some logic to work with.

I m not sure that I have helped here but I am also desperately trying, IF it is possible, to try to get in the 4-7 without medication. It is proving hard, I have been trying for 3 months and have actuallygone for a blood test last week and and awaiting the reply which I think will be meds offered. To be honest I have not decided yet whether I will accept them. If I am honest I think I still cant really accept that I have this. There is so much to accept in this life, for EVERYONE, then this great big f...... curve ball called diabetes comes flying at you out of nowhere and hits you smack in the face and it does affect your life a lot. And I've not really got up yet off the floor yet. but good luck with it dragongirl. i think I sometimes make a joke of it becuase I just cant deal with how serious it is. But at least we have this forum, otherwise god knows how hard it would be. Thanks to all for all the help here. Red
Red

dragongirl said:

If pre-this-particular-dinner is 7.6 (which I guess it shouldn't be) is one-hour post dinner = 8.7 a bad spike?

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Hi dragongirl, I would consider an increase of 1.1mmol/L after one hour extremely good, although like Red my levels seem to peak between 1.5 and 2 hours after a meal depending on the GI of the carbs I've eaten.
Also as I am on multi Insulin injections the time between when I inject my insulin dose and the time I eat can make a big difference to my post meal levels, especially at breakfast when I leave a 40 minute gap before I eat. That of course wont effect you though d-girl.

This morning's fasting result was 6.2 but the day before it was 5.9, so it's all a bit odd at present.

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There are so many things that can affect your morning readings that I wouldnt think a .3 difference would be at all significant. If the difference was larger you may be able to pin it down to a specific thing but I seriously doubt that anyone has the same readings every morning.

You sound as though you are managing well and dealing with your condition.

Good luck

Try alternative site testing
Your meter handbook tells you how to go about it and unless you have a rapidly changing bg it's accurate enough. I always use the inside of my forearm. I find I can do this without feeling it.