Does it get better? Tell me your experience

What BG meter do you use? I use the AccuChek expert which calculates for you and tells you the doses to take. Let's you set different ratios for different times of the day. It logs everything and can show you different trends. Plus most clinics can download it

Your first chart is quite interesting.
Here is what I see:

1. You are eating ALL the freaking time!
Take Day 1 for example.
Your fasting was 9.7
You inject your background and your quick acting (assuming you are on a 1:1 ratio) and you have your breakfast.
Your background insulin needs some 2-3 hours to kick in.
Your quick acting peaks at 1 and a half to 3 hours after injection and subsides at the 4th hour.

And even before your morning quick acting starts to work, you stack more food at 12:30 (and you stack more quick acting insulin too)

By 14:30 (that is just 2 hours later) you stack even more food…
You morning quick acting has just started to finish… your 12:20 quick acting has just started to kick in, you have barely digested your breakfast, and you are eating and injecting again…

How can you expect to figure out your carbs to quick acting insulin ratios in this way?

Indeed, during DAFNE course they tell us that we have the freedom to eat anytime we want and inject and control our blood glucose fluctuations but, this happens AFTER we figure out our basal rate and our carbs to quick acting ratios.

2. So, you almost eat every two hours, you keep stacking food and quick acting insulin and then, by around 17:00 ish, you decide to have supper. And then, you don’t eat anything else until next day 10:00 am which is 17 hours later…

In this case 2 things will happen: Either you will go low (because, even if you background insulin is set correctly, 17 hours on an empty stomach are too many for any basal insulin to keep your levels steady) or, you will sky high because your liver will produce sugar as your body is starving for 17 hours and needs energy to make it all the way to 10:00am.

Here are my suggestions:
1. Give, at least 4 hours in between meals so that you can check what your quick acting is doing.
For example 07:00-08:00 am / 13:00 pm / 19:00 pm.

2. Either transfer your dinner time later or/and add a small snack around midnight (not necessarily a carb one. It can be just a small 30 grams piece of cheddar cheese or 30 grams of nuts).

3. Start with the exact same amount of carbs per meal. For example, 30 grams of carbs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Forget snacks in between unless you need to treat a hypoglycemia. In this way it will be easier to figure out your ratios for each meal.

4. A no carbs meal (to help you figure out your basal rate) doesnt work unless you are "in the zone" meaning that your bg is under 13 mmols. If you are above 13 mmols, even if you have a no carbs meal, chances are you will go higher because if you have high blood sugar, even the slightest activity like having a shower, will elevate your levels.

Once your figure out your basal needs and your carbs to insulin ratios, you can eat anytime you want.

I hope this helps.
Regards
Josephine.

P.S. At your second chart, the good reading that you had at 15:00 is not because you figured out your lunchtime ratio at 13:00. Actually, you havent. The good reading is because you stacked quick acting insulin at 10:00 and at 13:00 and the two injections overlapped (This is the reason why your dinnertime ratio 9+2 - which was the same as your lunchtime ratio,- didnt work)

LucyM88 said:

It's Kinda hard to have a good time with meals with the work I do. I'm here, there and everywhere and when I go to work sometimes they have already done dinner and the guys (I work with adults who have Autism) want me to sit with them and eat, which is fair enough it's their house and I'm their staff. Plus college is super hard to time meals.

I will endeavour to give it a go when it's convenient though

Click to expand...

I understand how you feel.
What I do, is I always have food with me in my work bad. It is food that I have measured and I know the exact carbs content.
I use the app Carbs & Cals. I even weight the banana or the apple that I carry with me so that I may have the exact carb content and not have to guesstimate.

If they ask you to join for lunch/dinner you can have a no carbs meal and use the carbs you have with you (ie a 30 carbs banana or 3 biscuits) this way you will not deviate (until you understand what is happening with your insulins and your ratios).

Indeed college is super hard to time meals. So is work, meetings scheduled at 13:00 pm, client appointments, travelling for business, picking up kids from schools/friends/activities. No one has the same schedule day in/day out unless he/she is a pensioner.

If you want to achieve a good diabetes management you need to place your condition as your number 1 priority. Everything else and everyone else can wait for 10-15 minutes until you finish a quick meal.

Also just wanted to say a big well done for the improvement from the first diary entry to where you are now. It does take some time to get it all to work the way it should and then it will all change again and again but by that time you will be so used to it, it won't even worry you

I eat what I want and just dose adjust to it. It's also about learning what your body can tolerate food wise and adjusting the food and the doses and also realising sometimes it won't be perfect. I ate a jam doughnut at the weekend and fully knew what would happen to my BG but you know what it still tasted really yummy lol

Better! It get's more controlled, if you want it to be. But if you coin the term 'better' in not having complications after doing long haul, or 'better' in the fact that it's not a headache as much from constantly injecting, testing, carb counting, hypo-ing, hyper-ing.

Knowledge of it all and how every choice you make affects your blood sugar makes it easier. However i still have to take 6 injections a day and 6 blood tests a day whether it's easier or not. 27 years into it and still same old show. It's a daily chore like brushing your teeth, washing your clothes, cooking your dinner, washing up, getting the kids to bed. None of that gets easier, it just has to be done. All depends on how well you manage those chores.

I can tell you that it will definitely get easier. I know I was diagnosed in January and I know that sometimes, I still struggle. Sometimes, you will have a high. But as long as they don't happen very often, you HbA1C shouldn't that bad. I hope this can help.

Also, if you can control it amazingly, then you can get a pump, and then it will get EVEN EASIER.

I wouldn't worry, my blood glucose has been running consistently in the high 10s and 20s for the past few weeks that I have bothered to test as per the guidelines of my hospital, but i have slowly gone back into the habit of not testing again and just injecting when i feel like it

I really like your spirit and way you speak about things lucy ^.^ gives me a smile, how long have you had type 1 for??

LucyM88 said:

I do appreciate everyone's comments, kinda disappointed that I thought DAFNE was all eat what you want when you want. Turns out it isn't like that at all! Thought I'd have more freedom!

Click to expand...

I thought the same after the DAFNE course. The DAFNE course gives the false belief that you can accurately estimate the carb content of a meal just by looking at it. I think this forum shows the extent to which you need to go to achieve low Hb levels.

Well Lucy it sounds like you're getting A LOT of useful information to sort through so I'll limit my comments to letting you know I have been a type one for over 43 years and use a philosophy from one of my early doctors who told me that he would rather have me around 200 mg/dl than being low. I know this isn't what most people consider the optimum but I say it to let you know you are the best judge of how your body is doing. I use an medtronics insulin pump and test all day long (6-10 times) so even when I am high I can correct it quickly. I eat when I am hungry and don't have a "special diet" other than limiting my sugars. Fortunately I'm not a dessert person so it's not too tough on me. My endocrinologist has learned to live with my style and I see her every 3 mos. or so to check and make a few pump adjustments. I do not have any eye, kidney, feet, heart, etc. probs. so she is OK with what I do. I've been on the pump since 2000 and now I swear by it. Don't know if you are using one or not because many of the comments use names and terms not familiar to me here in the states. I just want you to know that you can live with this, and live well. I became diabetic at 31 which they said was unusual for a type one but made it all the way to here with 3 kids, 8 grand kids, 7 great grand kids, a great wife of 56 years and a Christian life style. So hang in there and don't let it get you down.