Confused About Correction Doses.

[Moosh97]

I recently went to a dietitian appointment and was told that now I cannot do more then 4 units of a correction dose, the thing I’m confused about though is that how much do I do. The only thing my dietitian told me was that if my blood levels are 15mmol/L to do 2 units to bring them down by 3, I’m just a little confused and if someone could help me I would be so grateful!

 

[kaylz91]

A bit more information would be helpful, how long have you been diagnosed? Do you carb count etc? What insulins are you using? anything else that you may think be of help xx

 

[EllieM]

If you do 2 units to go down by 3 then you need 2/3 (two thirds) of a unit for every mmol/L you want to go down . So 4 units would bring you down by 6 mmol/L. They probably don't want you to correct by more than that because it's too risky that you'd overdose and go hypo. Personally, if I was at 15 I'd want to bring my blood sugar down to 9 rather than 12, but your DN knows your own particular circumstances and I don't.
Have you been given a level to aim for before meals?

 

[Alison54321]

Correction does are not an exact science, over time you will get a better feel for how your blood sugar will respond, but it's always an estimate.

Sometimes, I do a correction dose that seems about right, and it won't go down at all, other times I do it, and it falls alarmingly fast.

So the DN is trying to give advice, at this early stage, to stop you having hypos, and too many zig zaggy adventures with correction doses.

If she thinks that 2 units is right for 15mmol, then I would stick with that for now, and watch what happens, and eventually you'll start to know what to expect.

I would assume that if she is advising 2 units at 15mmol, then she would expect you maybe to do 3 units if it was significantly higher, and 1 unit, if it was on about 13mmol. That seems to be the scale she would be working with, and don't do 4 because it's too unpredictable, at this stage.

It's something you'll get used to over time, but it depends on so many things, like how fast your blood sugar is rising, if you know you ate too much, what other factors might affect it, like stress, what did you eat, and so many things.

 

[Diakat]

I am not sure I'd take insulin advice from a dietician.

 

[scotteric]

I recently went to a dietitian appointment and was told that now I cannot do more then 4 units of a correction dose, the thing I’m confused about though is that how much do I do. The only thing my dietitian told me was that if my blood levels are 15mmol/L to do 2 units to bring them down by 3, I’m just a little confused and if someone could help me I would be so grateful!

It's trial and error. I tend to avoid rules other people have come up with because I know my body better than anyone else, so I just do what works. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail, but I'm never in danger because I'm always ready to recognize and treat a low promptly. I don't really bother with correction ratios anymore, the higher I am the more insulin I need and it's never exactly the same. I sort of go with my gut based on my level of activity prior to and after the correction, what I've eaten, whether I'm stressed, etc. It takes time to get to this point though and ratios are a good starting place.