I was asked by my diabetic nurse and dietitian to do a carb free meal to see what happens as my diabetes is very uncontrolled. They said the glucose in my blood should stay the same. When I tested my bloods at lunch time it was 12.4 then when I tested at dinner time it had dropped to 4.8. Any ideas? :?
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Carb free meal.
- Thread starter mrsshirlj
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IanD
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mrsshirlj said:
Try a "porridge" made with powdered nuts and/or seeds - ground almonds; coconut powder (flour or desiccated), milled flax, boiled in water - NO oats or milk, but you can ad cream.
I have that every morning & it gives a stable blood glucose for hours (5-6), without a significant spike. Much better than porridge or cereal, which give a spike & drop low after about 2 hours.
mo1905
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I'm replying from my phone so can't see info on your history. There could be a few reasons why your levels dropped. The obvious one would be your basal insulin is too high ( if you take it ). Alternatively, if you are fairly active, this would give similar readings. I would never make decisions on one off readings though. Repeat this experiment a few times and see if there is a trend. If there us, discuss results with your diabetic team
Mo
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I have to repeat this another 2 times before I go back. I did think the slow release may be too high. I know it takes a long time to get things right, but I am up and down like a yoyo. Ive had 1 sever hypo, night hypos and a few hypos during the week. I've had my insulin doses dropped but then they go too high, then put up, then the hypos start,lol. So confusing :? This is driving me :crazy: lol. Im on Apidra and Levemir.
Engineer88
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Dont try the porridge its by no means carb free!
bacon egg, meat (unprocessed so no sausages really or burgers) , above ground veggies etc all fine never heard of Apidra so not sure of that.
bacon egg, meat (unprocessed so no sausages really or burgers) , above ground veggies etc all fine never heard of Apidra so not sure of that.
Hi
If you just inject Levemir once per day, then its action on controlling your bg levels will start to become variable and many find out that by injecting it twice daily in different amounts, starts to have a better, more even effect.
A good way of testing your basal insulin by eating a carb free meal is by eating sugarfree jelly which can be bought from supermarkets like Sainsburys and Tescos (the smaller supermarket chains might not sell it?) and testing your bg levels every 1.5hrs to see how they go. Almond porridge does have some carb in it so is low carb but not no carb.
At the moment, you need to inject enough Levemir to avoid going hypo in the night (which you have done and eat a bit of carb before going to bed), get up in the night (3am) to test bg to see what the effect is and if ok, get up again about 5am to test again. If all is well for the morning, then your only other way of avoiding the really high bg that you get in the morning, will be by adjusting the Apidra in the bolus so that you have more bolus in the carb ratio for the morning but then adjust the Apidra again at lunchtime so that the bolus is less in the carb ratio and then that will help with balancing up with the effect of the way Levemir affects your bg levels in the afternoon.
Its all about balancing up the effect of the basal insulin with the effects of the bolus and adjusting the insulins to give the right action for you.
Hope this helps you a bit to understand what is happening. If you haven't got an insulin pen that will deliver in 0.5u increments, then ask your GP or DSN to prescribe you one and these will help you fine tune your carb ratios a lot better than using a 1.0u increment pen.
If you just inject Levemir once per day, then its action on controlling your bg levels will start to become variable and many find out that by injecting it twice daily in different amounts, starts to have a better, more even effect.
A good way of testing your basal insulin by eating a carb free meal is by eating sugarfree jelly which can be bought from supermarkets like Sainsburys and Tescos (the smaller supermarket chains might not sell it?) and testing your bg levels every 1.5hrs to see how they go. Almond porridge does have some carb in it so is low carb but not no carb.
At the moment, you need to inject enough Levemir to avoid going hypo in the night (which you have done and eat a bit of carb before going to bed), get up in the night (3am) to test bg to see what the effect is and if ok, get up again about 5am to test again. If all is well for the morning, then your only other way of avoiding the really high bg that you get in the morning, will be by adjusting the Apidra in the bolus so that you have more bolus in the carb ratio for the morning but then adjust the Apidra again at lunchtime so that the bolus is less in the carb ratio and then that will help with balancing up with the effect of the way Levemir affects your bg levels in the afternoon.
Its all about balancing up the effect of the basal insulin with the effects of the bolus and adjusting the insulins to give the right action for you.
Hope this helps you a bit to understand what is happening. If you haven't got an insulin pen that will deliver in 0.5u increments, then ask your GP or DSN to prescribe you one and these will help you fine tune your carb ratios a lot better than using a 1.0u increment pen.
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mrsshirlj said:
Your best eating nothing during a fasting test and just drink water, try not to exercise too as this can affect the bg results and if you can test your bg hourly or two hourly, ideally if your basal insulin is correct it shouldn't fluctuate much by 1.7mmol, if it does then a small increase or reduction in the insulin dosage is required.
You don't need to fast all day either, you can eat breakfast then say skip lunch and eat tea as normal, as long as you don't eat or bolus during this time you should be fine, likewise if you want to eat lunch and skip tea then just do the same, just remember to keep a record of your bg readings and insulin doses for your DSN to check and advise on.
iHs said:
Hi. Thank you for your reply. I inject twice daily with Levemir. The doses have been put up and down but then my bg goes up too or to low. With the Apidra my ratio is 1.10 for evening meals and 1.20 for the rest. I am getting an insulin pen with 0.5 so I think that would help me with the 1.20 ratio. I have to do another 2 carb free meals before I go back to see them. Chicken salad, mmm. X
noblehead said:
Your best eating nothing during a fasting test and just drink water, try not to exercise too as this can affect the bg results and if you can test your bg hourly or two hourly, ideally if your basal insulin is correct it shouldn't fluctuate much by 1.7mmol, if it does then a small increase or reduction in the insulin dosage is required.
You don't need to fast all day either, you can eat breakfast then say skip lunch and eat tea as normal, as long as you don't eat or bolus during this time you should be fine, likewise if you want to eat lunch and skip tea then just do the same, just remember to keep a record of your bg readings and insulin doses for your DSN to check and advise on.[/qT
Thank you for the reply. I have a chicken salad for the carb free meal which I do for my lunch. I think my slow release is too high too. I do keep a record of all my bg and what carb I have and how much insulin I have used. They say to you that don't let diabetes rule your life, but good god having to find the carbs, test your blood, sort out how much insulin to use and then writing it all down for every meal and having to test all the time and inject, pft. It does rule your life. Well thats my moan out of the way,lol. Sorry. x
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[quote="mrsshirlj"Thank you for the reply. I have a chicken salad for the carb free meal which I do for my lunch. I think my slow release is too high too. I do keep a record of all my bg and what carb I have and how much insulin I have used. They say to you that don't let diabetes rule your life, but good god having to find the carbs, test your blood, sort out how much insulin to use and then writing it all down for every meal and having to test all the time and inject, pft. It does rule your life. Well thats my moan out of the way,lol. Sorry. x[/quote]
Even with a salad you still have a small amount of carbs (depending on size) and the protein on your plate (in the absence of visible carbs) converts to glucose by around 50%, both of which can give false results when conducting a bg fasting check, this is why they say not to eat and drink just plain water.
It does appear that your background insulin is way too high after the drop from 12.4 to 4.8 which is a lot considering you didn't bolus for the salad, hope you get there in the end and I can concur what you say about testing, insulin doses, bg records etc
Even with a salad you still have a small amount of carbs (depending on size) and the protein on your plate (in the absence of visible carbs) converts to glucose by around 50%, both of which can give false results when conducting a bg fasting check, this is why they say not to eat and drink just plain water.
It does appear that your background insulin is way too high after the drop from 12.4 to 4.8 which is a lot considering you didn't bolus for the salad, hope you get there in the end and I can concur what you say about testing, insulin doses, bg records etc
Omelette is a great dish that's carb free think proteins! sounds as tho you background is too high, follow advice nurse gave you rather than not eating, feed them the information back and I'm sure they'll assist you in correcting your dose safely. T
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noblehead said:
Even with a salad you still have a small amount of carbs (depending on size) and the protein on your plate (in the absence of visible carbs) converts to glucose by around 50%, both of which can give false results when conducting a bg fasting check, this is why they say not to eat and drink just plain water.
It does appear that your background insulin is way too high after the drop from 12.4 to 4.8 which is a lot considering you didn't bolus for the salad, hope you get there in the end and I can concur what you say about testing, insulin doses, bg records etc
[/quote]Funny you should say that about the salad as me and my husband noticed there were carbs in the salad. My dietitian told me to eat the chicken salad. It's so confusing sometimes isn't it.
