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Aviva Expert help

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Kylie_Baker

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Evening all,

I've been recently diagnosed T1 (Nov '11) and have been managing 'well', though still have a lot to get my head around.
Today was a strange day. I had been having a lot of hypos and tried reducing my Lantus from 12 to 10 which seems to have solved this problem (hope that was right), this morning I woke to a reading of 6.2, had around 30g carbs for brekkie and took 2u of Novo, I checked by blood an hour later (as was about to drive) and was reading 12.2! My meter told me to take a corrective 1u dose which I did. 2 hours later and some light excerise I was reading 5.1 with .5u active. Having a slight freakout as I was about to drive again, I ate some jelly babies so as to counteract the .5u. Was this right? Why was there still .5u active when this should have been used already? or does the insulin not work when excersing (i doubt it) Was this due to the excerise and does the Aviva expert measure active insulin when bg is taken?

Subsequently I have read all over the place today, not been a good day.

Thanks for any help on this one

Kylie
 
As I understand it, and I used to use this meter, you programme in your active insulin time into the meter settings at the start. Most machines are either set to a default of 6 hrs or, as in my case, my DSN changed it to 4 hrs active time. The meter will then simply work out what insulin you have left based on time remaining from when you took a blood reading and a bolus (or/and a correction).

Your insulin will definately be working when execercising but again the machine will not take this into account. I would have taken jelly babies like you if I was at 5.1 and had active insulin and was about to drive - I prefer to be safe than sorry when driving and would rather be higher for a few hours than take any risks - that's just me.
 
Hi Kylie!

Poor you! I've had a couple of days of my BG blipping all over the place too, and it's no fun :crazy:

As for your meter, treat it in the same way you would a sat nav - for guidance only! When your sat nav tells you to take a u-turn on a dual carriageway (as mine did today because it didn't know the detour I was taking), you apply judgement! Your meter needs your judgement applied! It relies on the quality of data put into it, so you need to check what data has been put into it i.e. what settings has it got in it? Are these right for you? Once you're happy with the data in it, you'll have some good guidance out of it - but it will never be perfect, because it doesn't know your circumstances, environment, activity level, time of month etc etc etc. It only knows BG ratio and BG level. It will guide and you need to apply judgement - otherwise you'll end up the wrong way in a one way street :lol:

Smidge
 
Hello Kylie

Bolus insulin like Novorapid usually has a duration of action lasting approx 4 to 5hrs. Testing yr bg level 1hr after eating food and correcting with insulin because yr bg level was higher was unwise as your breakfast bolus was still active so had not completed its full action. By you giving yourself the correction when you did made the bolus insulin start to stack. You did the right thing though and ate something to counteract the 0.5u correction dose still showing as active.

If you look at the carb counting guide BDEC (google it) you will see that correction doses with insulin should only be done ideally before a main meal. I think if you had waited a full 2hrs after eating breakfast you would have had a lower bg level than the one that you got 1hr after eating and then you would have realised that you didn't need to use the correction.

It is all a bit confusing at first but where corrections with insulin are concerned try and wait about 4-5hrs before you use them unless your bg level is sky high 2hrs after eating............
 
Thank you everyone, really appreciated.

I've had another hypo this morning. Tested 3.5 hrs after brekkie and 3u Novo and read 3.2.

I'm fairly run down this week and have the start of a cold/sore throat so think this could have some effect. Also have a very busy 1 y/o boy who woke at 430 this morning adding to tiredness etc.

All this contributing to the overall picture i suspect. I'm taking it easy today, have cancelled all appointments etc. Another thought process is that it could be some kind of honeymoon? Argh!

iHS- thanks for that, my DNS has been really helpful but only in answering the quesitons i pose to her, not really giving me extra info (maybe not wanting to overload?) so this is really useful.

Thankyou!

Kylie x
 
Hi Kylie

Did you log down what your bg levels were before BR, then again 2hrs later? Often hypos late morning can be prevented by eating a small snack at the 2hr mark (mid morning). It may be looked on as an inconvenience but is a small price to pay in order to be ok especially as youve also got a kiddie to look after as well. Another way of making yr bg levels higher at mid morning/mid afternoon is by altering the amount of bolus insulin taken to cover a meal. Do you have a 0.5u insulin pen at all? If not ask yr GP or DSN to prescribe or give you them. It makes adjusting bolus and basal insulin a bit easier and is looked upon as 'fine tuning'
 
I have been hypoing too and my nurse has just rang me back altering the bolus level and the Lantus I became allergic to lemir also it did not work my BG would go into double figures after food even a simple sandwich and take 4hours to come down it was really easy to alter the device but you do need to speak to your Dsn
 
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