Hey Claire
Brilliant advice from iHs, and I can't agree more with the testing 2 to 3 hours after eating . I find this the most important of the blood tests to find out trends and make tweeks/adjustments.
We are told to test alternate days, one day before breakfast and then evening meal.The next day before lunch and bed time, then to alternate them... :roll: I know they want to save test strips but no way is this enough to get a good idea of your continuous BG, I test after every meal (and before) and this gives a much better overall picture. You will need to do the same on Basal/Bolus.
I think correction doses are much more encouraged now than a number of years ago, and to do these we need to be doing BG tests after meals. I met one lady recently on the DAFNE who had had Type 1 45 years and had never done a correction dose and never did a between meal BG check :shock: So this Basal/Bolus was then not that flexible was it??
Well your HbA1c is not bad really, but like mine (8.1)it could be better, I was looking through my medical records the other day, never bothered before and I looked at all my HbA1c's over the last 20 years and I have never been below 8 ever since first being put on insulin. I have always had a HbA1c around 8 the whole way through, on either Mixtards or Bolus/Basal. So did it improve my control ,no. Has it been more hassle ,yes to be honest.
And, I never did have night time hypo's on Mixtard but that could be my Diabetes now and I have to consider that possibly Mixtard would be useless for me now as my disease has progressed.
All I'm saying Claire is do not think it will be the answer to better control because that might not be the case, then again it may be for you. Interestingly looking back through my HbA1c's the only time I had PERFECT control, HbA1C's of 5 was when I was pregnant and sat on the sofa nursing my Diabetes 24 hrs a day for the sake of my babies...and that is no life for anyone believe me.
You may find with being Type 2 if you are insulin resistant that it works like a dream for you. Some Type 1's that I have met including myself that are on the sensitive side to insulin and have no resistance at all do tend to struggle more .So give it a go ,it may be the answer to help you get better control which will be one less thing for you to worry about at the moment Hun, which I'm sure you could do with right now with everything else that is going on with you health wise at the moment.
I wish you all the best Claire