Diabetes help

Hi Jordan,

I test my blood-sugar a lot: 15-20 times per day. (I use Betachek Visual testing strips as well as the usual meter-read sticks; but Betachek Visual are currently very difficult to get hold of in Great Britain.)

But far more crucial for me is eating dark rye bread. Each morning (after coffee and a fag), I start eating it: slowly at first, as the insulin begins to kick in. (I eat it with pear and apple spread; but any suger-free jam or marmalade will do.) I eat a little under 200g of it per day, mostly in the morning, but I continue eating it until the mid-afternoon. This is what keeps my blood-sugar stable. Without it, hypos would be a regular thing for me. (Nb. I have to be careful not to eat too much of it or my blood-sugar will go high later in the evening.) I wouldn't particularly want to recommend Tesco, but they do at least sell pumpernickel - a form of dark rye bread.

Of course I still have to be careful. But if a hypo does happen, it's no longer like falling off a cliff. I get a decent chance to recover myself.

Another thing of major importance for me is that the effect of the insulin I take is running out by the time I go to bed. (If you want to change your insulin regimen, you would of course need to consult your GP first.) So unless I make a serious error, a night-time hypo is practically impossible in my case.

I'd be happy to respond to any specific questions you may have.

Hi. Are you overweight? If so this might explain why you have had to substantially increase your insulin due to insulin resistance. I'm surprised you ask about carbs and sugar as sugar is just another carb. You only need to take total carbs into account. Many would go for 150 gm/day max and try to spread these evenly thru the day. If you have much more than this then you might see weight gain and see-sawing blood sugars. In summary I suspect tweaking your diet may help with your problems?

I test when I get up in the morning with the usual meter-read sticks. Thereafter, I test using the visually read strips quite a lot as I'm building up my .... I don't know what to call it? ... as I'm eating the rye bread! By the mid-afternoon, I find I don't need to check so frequently.

Click on my username, and you'll see what insulin I take and when I take it. The effect of the Actrapid lasts around 13 hours; the effect of the Novorapid lasts around 8 hours. Their effects run out together, at 12.00pm.

This means I can check my blood-sugar at 11.00pm, and so long as I haven't eaten anything during the evening that's slowly digested, I know that my blood-sugar will drop by a further 2mmol/l. Half a slice of the Co-op's wholemeal bread will cover that.

So in answer to your question, when to check is really about common sense more than anything else. But if I'm in any doubt, then I check!

However, there may be a problem for you with regard to the number of testing sticks your GP will provide. I get over this using the visually read strips. But as I've said, there is currently a problem getting hold of them in this country.