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Finger prick tests

Minsh1

Member
Messages
8
Location
Lincolnshire
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi,
I’ve had Type 2 diabetes since 2019 and have always struggled with controlling my bloods.
I got diagnosed and developed a sweet tooth!

I was told NOT to monitor my bloods and I don’t generally suffer any side effects of having diabetes so it’s been a struggle.

I’ve finally been given a monitor to do my bloods but what happens next?

When should I be taking readings?
How many times a day?
What should my levels be?

I’ve not spoken to the doctors yet I thought I’d sign up and see what you guys do.

Thanks for the help!
 
Hi @Minsh1

Welcome to:the forum.

I have T1 & use a sensor with a different regime using a meter regarding management.

But I will tag in other T2s on what they do.


I will say in my experience using a driving analogy.
The HbA1c test is like an average speed check n the motorway
The BG test with a meter is more like a speed camera on the A or B road?
Using a sensor is like the GPS on a sat nav estimating how you “drive within the limits?”

@Pipp @Rachox @AndBreathe @lovinglife
There are many others..
Hopefully this can bump up the topic & further your enquiry?

Best wishes..
 
Thanks for the tag @Jaylee , and welcome to the forum @Minsh1 .
I use a sensor these days, but the main idea of finger pricks is to see how your body responds to the meals you eat, so test as you start your meal and test again two hours after the first test. You are looking for a reading of no more than two above the first reading. Some people like to test a fasting level, so first thing when you wake up but this is often the last level to normalise if you are trying to gain control.
 
Hi @Minsh1

Welcome to:the forum.

I have T1 & use a sensor with a different regime using a meter regarding management.

But I will tag in other T2s on what they do.


I will say in my experience using a driving analogy.
The HbA1c test is like an average speed check n the motorway
The BG test with a meter is more like a speed camera on the A or B road?
Using a sensor is like the GPS on a sat nav estimating how you “drive within the limits?”

@Pipp @Rachox @AndBreathe @lovinglife
There are many others..
Hopefully this can bump up the topic & further your enquiry?

Best wishes..
Thank you Jaylee
 
Thanks for the tag @Jaylee , and welcome to the forum @Minsh1 .
I use a sensor these days, but the main idea of finger pricks is to see how your body responds to the meals you eat, so test as you start your meal and test again two hours after the first test. You are looking for a reading of no more than two above the first reading. Some people like to test a fasting level, so first thing when you wake up but this is often the last level to normalise if you are trying to gain control.
Thank you Rachox.
I’ve written this down.
I’m intrigued as to what my reading is in the morning.

Since I got this monitor while my sweet tooth hasn’t disappeared, it’s definitely making me think twice about snacking
 
Hi @Minsh1 & welcome to the forum

The link below may help you a little with testing even though you aren’t new to diabetes, it has the NICE guidelines for testing about halfway down

 
Hi,
I’ve had Type 2 diabetes since 2019 and have always struggled with controlling my bloods.
I got diagnosed and developed a sweet tooth!

I was told NOT to monitor my bloods and I don’t generally suffer any side effects of having diabetes so it’s been a struggle.

I’ve finally been given a monitor to do my bloods but what happens next?

When should I be taking readings?
How many times a day?
What should my levels be?

I’ve not spoken to the doctors yet I thought I’d sign up and see what you guys do.

Thanks for the help!
You need to think about why you test. When we eat carbs, they are converted to glucose and that glucose passes into the bloodstream. Peak blood glucose is usually roughly 40-60 minutes after eating. The issue with glucose is that we need some to function, and if there's none in food our livers will make it, but glucose in high concentrations for lengthy periods damages nerves and capillaries.

Once in the bloodstream, the glucose should be dealt with by our insulin response to the food, and stored in the muscles or liver, or ultimately as bodyfat. That whole process should take about two hours, sometimes more, sometimes less, so that after the two hours your BG should be roughly close (within 2mmol/l) to where you were before you ate. This is the reason for taking a baseline test before eating and then again at +2 hours. You're really testing how efficient your insulin response is to the food you ate, rather than "how high you go".

The issue for T2s is that typically we have a poor insulin response, so the glucose hangs around in the blood longer and at higher concentrations, because it's not getting into muscle and liver stores. This risks damage to the body. Some people cope OK with low glucose loads from food, but not with higher. Some people cope better with some types of carbohydrates than others (I am OK with beans and legumes, for example, but definitely not pastry). There's no way of knowing which foods do what to your BG unless you test. Once you identify what foods (these will be carbs) raise your BG unacceptably, you can reduce or eliminate that food from what you eat.

Blood glucose levels going up and down after food is perfectly normal, and happens to non-diabetic people as well. This short paper shows how non-diabetic people reacted to various meals with greater or lesser carb content. As it's an American paper the values are in mg/dl - see the attached graphic to convert these into the mmol/l used in the UK.BG  UK copy blue.jpg

 
Thank you both for your replies! You both cleared a lot up for me.

There are a few things that I need to change, my diet includes lots of white bread, pasta, white rice. Those nasty carbs.
 
HI, can I ask please ? You say you were given a monitor who gave it to you ? If Diabetic nurse or Dr they should tell you when to test (also show you how to) If you need more strips and lancets do it via surgery as they are free. I test first think in morning and 2 hours after main meal, however it looks like it could be more soon as I may be going on a second insulin. Try and change white to brown with bread and rice ( I stopped using rice and hardly if ever use pasta) prefer brown breads to white anyway
 
HI, can I ask please ? You say you were given a monitor who gave it to you ? If Diabetic nurse or Dr they should tell you when to test (also show you how to) If you need more strips and lancets do it via surgery as they are free. I test first think in morning and 2 hours after main meal, however it looks like it could be more soon as I may be going on a second insulin. Try and change white to brown with bread and rice ( I stopped using rice and hardly if ever use pasta) prefer brown breads to white anyway
I should also say the diabetic Nurse calls me once a week for readings (you write them down in a little book or I suppose a diary would do) she advises anything over phone as getting reg app'ts is not easy. You may also be best to get a Hba1c test done too I(blood test at surgery) it looks at the last 3 months and your sugar level/s
 
Hi Mark.
I collected it from the Doctors last Thursday, I received a leaflet on how to use the machine but nothing else.

My HBA1C level was 110 as of Friday.

Now I can see my blood sugar level I have already noticed an instant change in my head. I really need it to stick!
 
Hi Mark.
I collected it from the Doctors last Thursday, I received a leaflet on how to use the machine but nothing else.

My HBA1C level was 110 as of Friday.

Now I can see my blood sugar level I have already noticed an instant change in my head. I really need it to stick!
Thank you My Hba1c (after years of ignoring it) was 129 so we are similar yes it went lower on Metforminm but due to the bad side effects I asked to go on Insulin as an alternative. She asked me to half the dose of metformin but said insulin was going to happen any way.
look on youtube (or maybe the main part of this site I think there are little videos on how to do blood tests. been doing them for around 2 and a half months (same with Insulin) and after that time best I have managed is a regular 11 first thing in morning evenings varies depending on what eaten, your testing is not quite the same as a Hba1c testing. Also just because I went on Insulin does not mean you will every one is different,
Keep a record of your test results the Nurse or Dr whoever will want to know them
 
I have been given and extra tablet as a result of Fridays test results. So hopefully I should start to see an improvement. I’m told if not then I’ll be going on insulin.

The Monitor I was given records to an app on my phone so I’ll show that the to nurse next time I’m in and see what they say.

It is very easy to ignore this. I generally don’t feel any different as to what I did before I was diagnosed.
 
I have been given and extra tablet as a result of Fridays test results. So hopefully I should start to see an improvement. I’m told if not then I’ll be going on insulin.

The Monitor I was given records to an app on my phone so I’ll show that the to nurse next time I’m in and see what they say.

It is very easy to ignore this. I generally don’t feel any different as to what I did before I was diagnosed.
was diagnosed years ago but went into remission with gym exercise and diet. then as I got an old git it came back. Deep down I knew due to amount I needed to drink and trips to toilet, so really was no surprise the level was though. My phone is ancient and doesnt even have internet ha, I don't want that anyway. Let me know how you go on
 
HI, can I ask please ? You say you were given a monitor who gave it to you ? If Diabetic nurse or Dr they should tell you when to test (also show you how to) If you need more strips and lancets do it via surgery as they are free. I test first think in morning and 2 hours after main meal, however it looks like it could be more soon as I may be going on a second insulin. Try and change white to brown with bread and rice ( I stopped using rice and hardly if ever use pasta) prefer brown breads to white anyway
Channging from brown to white doesn't affect the level of carb the food contains. The only sure way to assess the impact of a food on you is to eat it and test. I would be extremely wary of advising someone what to eat on the basis of my own experience as we do not seem to react to the same carbs in the same way.

Unfortunately the food manufacturers are very clever at distraction - they want you to buy what they produce, whether it's actually good for you or not. And we've been schooled for years that brown and wholemeal carb food is "healthy". Not in my case.
 
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