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Eating to the Meter

S

Saramel

Active Member
Messages
33
Location
Portsmouth
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
My blood sugar is way too high (in the 11's) and I need to get it down. I'm disabled so find exercise difficult but I am trying to increase it to help my diabetes and I have gone back to a low carb diet. I am testing before a meal (depressing :(), an hour and 2 hours later so I can get a handle on it. What I want to know is, is the hour and 2 hours test to be taken from the time I started my meal or finished it? Also, when should I take my Glucophage (R)? These might seem like trivial things but I am having an op in a couple of weeks so want to get my sugars down to give me the best chance of healing and I'm getting really anxious about it. TYI
 
Some will say before the meal, others after; when I used to check (don't bother now as I'm eating very, very low carb (80%+ fat) I started the clock half way through the meal.
 
Hello. The usual recommended testing times are immediately before the meal and two hours after you take "the first bite."
I can't help with the Glucophage.
Good luck with the op.
 
Most people take their post meal test time from the start of their meals. When I first started testing, I thought it was from the time I finished eating, and my readings were not only somewhat lower, but timing obviously wasn't consistent in that some meals will take much longer to eat than others.

You should have instructions with your glucophage either on the prescription label or with the leaflet in the package. If not, you should really check with your pharmacist or your doctor/nurse - but they really should have given you this information in writing! I normally have slow release metformin but occasionally get given glucophage instead, and the recommendations are that you take the standard version with meals (to help avoid any tummy upsets) but with slow release version it doesn't actually matter so much.

And - cut out - or at the very least - down on all sugary stuff in all forms, and starchy food s like cereals, bread, potatoes, rice and pasta - this should help get your levels down pretty quickly.

Good luck with the operation!

Robbity
 
Thank you so much for your help, it certainly takes the worry about testing. The Metformin SR I have always taken when I remember but read somewhere about the best time to take it to help the second phase which is often the wonky bit for diabetes type 2's. I will try to take it within 1/2 an hour of my meal whilst I am trying to get that blood sugar down. It is entirely my own fault, I haven't been testing, I haven't been low carb and I've stuck my head in the sand because I hate being diabetic. Time to grow up methinks.
 
I think we all probably hate being diabetic, but many people want to get the better of it, and we can do a lot in this respect by taking care of ourselves, and eating a sensible diet. So your operation is hopefully the push you needed to get to it.

Robbity
 
Saramel said:
My blood sugar is way too high (in the 11's) and I need to get it down. I'm disabled so find exercise difficult but I am trying to increase it to help my diabetes and I have gone back to a low carb diet. I am testing before a meal (depressing :(), an hour and 2 hours later so I can get a handle on it. What I want to know is, is the hour and 2 hours test to be taken from the time I started my meal or finished it? Also, when should I take my Glucophage (R)? These might seem like trivial things but I am having an op in a couple of weeks so want to get my sugars down to give me the best chance of healing and I'm getting really anxious about it. TYI
Click to expand...
Depending on the nature of your disability, you might be able to use arm weights, which can be good for diabetes. Don't worry about not being able to exercise much as what you eat is more important.

You probably don't need to test before every meal if you are not changing what you eat, as an initial test will tell you the effect the food has on your BGs. The fasting BG is a good way to track your overall BGs. I test before and after some meals.

Have you had your pre-op assessment and do they know what your HbA1c is? Some people have had surgery postponed if it is too high. In any case, here are some guidelines for elective surgery that you may find helpful. Be careful with the length of the fast and if your BG is so low that you feel uncomfortable, ask for a slow glucose drip. How long do they expect you will be in hospital?
http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/document-stor...ing-surgery-and-elective-procedures-improving
 
CatLadyNZ said:
Depending on the nature of your disability, you might be able to use arm weights, which can be good for diabetes. Don't worry about not being able to exercise much as what you eat is more important.

You probably don't need to test before every meal if you are not changing what you eat, as an initial test will tell you the effect the food has on your BGs. The fasting BG is a good way to track your overall BGs. I test before and after some meals.

Have you had your pre-op assessment and do they know what your HbA1c is? Some people have had surgery postponed if it is too high. In any case, here are some guidelines for elective surgery that you may find helpful. Be careful with the length of the fast and if your BG is so low that you feel uncomfortable, ask for a slow glucose drip. How long do they expect you will be in hospital?
http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/document-stor...ing-surgery-and-elective-procedures-improving
Click to expand...

Thank you for your comments. My surgery is as a day patient under local anaesthesia but I am having a bone graft so healing is crucial. At the moment, my waking BS is in the 11's and the only reason I am eating to the meter is to find out what I can eat without having peaks and troughs. Once I get a handle on my food, I will actually cut right back on the testing.

I started the day today, for example, at 11.6. and sticking to a low carb diet, it has gradually come down during the day. At lunch time it was 9 and at tea time, 7. An hour after I have eaten and 2 hours after I have eaten, I am not having any spikes so my real concern is my fasting BG. I can guarantee my BG tomorrow will be around 11.2 when I wake up. It worries me sick and I don't know how to change it.
 
Saramel said:
Thank you for your comments. My surgery is as a day patient under local anaesthesia but I am having a bone graft so healing is crucial. At the moment, my waking BS is in the 11's and the only reason I am eating to the meter is to find out what I can eat without having peaks and troughs. Once I get a handle on my food, I will actually cut right back on the testing.

I started the day today, for example, at 11.6. and sticking to a low carb diet, it has gradually come down during the day. At lunch time it was 9 and at tea time, 7. An hour after I have eaten and 2 hours after I have eaten, I am not having any spikes so my real concern is my fasting BG. I can guarantee my BG tomorrow will be around 11.2 when I wake up. It worries me sick and I don't know how to change it.
Click to expand...
That's pretty high... how long has it been like this? Is it a temporary increase due to an infection or something like that? If it's been this way a while, you may want to ask about insulin. Here is some info about it:
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/15478720.php
 
CatLadyNZ said:
That's pretty high... how long has it been like this? Is it a temporary increase due to an infection or something like that? If it's been this way a while, you may want to ask about insulin. Here is some info about it:
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/15478720.php
Click to expand...

To be honest, I don't know how long it has been like this. I have been in denial for a few months so it could have been a while. When I went to bed it was 7 :) and this morning when I woke up it was around the 9 mark ;) but by the time I had my breakfast it had shot up to 11.2. :( It is these spikes that really worry me because I don't know how much more I can do as I have increased exercise and been so good on a LCHF diet.

I think I am going to have to postpone the op at this rate because my diabetic nurse is going on holiday next week so I can't do anything quickly on the insulin side.
 
Saramel said:
To be honest, I don't know how long it has been like this. I have been in denial for a few months so it could have been a while. When I went to bed it was 7 :) and this morning when I woke up it was around the 9 mark ;) but by the time I had my breakfast it had shot up to 11.2. :( It is these spikes that really worry me because I don't know how much more I can do as I have increased exercise and been so good on a LCHF diet.

I think I am going to have to postpone the op at this rate because my diabetic nurse is going on holiday next week so I can't do anything quickly on the insulin side.
Click to expand...
I think even if you started insulin today there's no guarantee it would control your BG enough for the op. It might do it, but it's hard to know. See what they say at your pre-assessment appointment. What foods do you typically eat in a day?
 
I have been eating meat and fish accompanied by stir fries or salad. For breakfast I usually have a 2 egg omelet with a bit of cheese, leeks, peppers and onions. I've cut out all starchy carbs as well as root vegetables and fruit. I'm using olive oil to stir fry and, on the rare occasion I do have something after tea, it is usually 4 Brazil nuts or a palm full of pork scratchings which have less than a gram in carbs. Even on the salads I've cut back the tomatoes to nought just in case. I could cry
 
Saramel said:
I have been eating meat and fish accompanied by stir fries or salad. For breakfast I usually have a 2 egg omelet with a bit of cheese, leeks, peppers and onions. I've cut out all starchy carbs as well as root vegetables and fruit. I'm using olive oil to stir fry and, on the rare occasion I do have something after tea, it is usually 4 Brazil nuts or a palm full of pork scratchings which have less than a gram in carbs. Even on the salads I've cut back the tomatoes to nought just in case. I could cry
Click to expand...
That sounds great, very low carb. You might not need to go that low, so you might be able to have tomatoes or berries or other things. It's not meant to be torture ;)

If your BGs don't get down into the normal range after say 3 weeks of eating this very low amount of carbs, then I'd say you need insulin. It's possible you could have a type of diabetes other than T2 (there are dozens). In the meantime, keep doing what you are doing, and see how things are once you have been low carbing this much for 3 weeks. If your BGs increase, then see your doctor asap.
 
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