How do you decide how much insulin to take? Are you on fixed doses per meal or do you adjust for the amount of carbs you eat?My hbA1c is high at 87. It was 97 when diagnosed. I need help on how to lower this
I have been diagnosed 3 years this October. My hbA1c is high at 87. It was 97 when diagnosed. I need help on how to lower this and how strict do I need to be with my diet. I am really worried, and very upset as I have a 1 year old daughter and I’m only 21 myself. I need advice on where to go from here. Thanks
How do you decide how much insulin to take? Are you on fixed doses per meal or do you adjust for the amount of carbs you eat?
Have you looked into following the DAFNE course?
Well, firstly my congratulations on getting through a T1 pregnancy so soon after diagnosis. Plus I imagine that having a new baby to look after hasn't given you a lot of time and energy left over to look after your diabetes.
Your team should be helping you to improve your levels but if they've left you stranded with instructions to lower your levels but no help as to how we can make some suggestions.
First question, what kind of insulin regime are you on? Basal/bolus, pump or fixed doses?
Well as a type1 how strict you are with food depends on how good your control is…. Plus the fact that if you eat too much you’ll gain weight…. So I don’t need to be super strict as I have reasonable control.. so long as I watch my weight
Your care team should be able to advise you on how better to manage your insulin and offer advice on adjusting your long acting insulin so you are more stable between meals then you can work on getting the right meal time dose
Dafne or even the Bertie online course will give some assistance in this area as you care team about them
But ultimately it’s comes down to getting the right amount of insulin for you…. And even that will change over time
When I was pregnant carb ratio was 1:1 . So even anything I ate I was taking alot alot of insulin.
You can get 95% or 99% chocolate which has almost zero carbs and is hard to eat in large quantities.scared to even eat 1 square of chocolate.
That must have been very difficult.
As regards your current levels, the first thing to ensure is whether your basal amounts are right. In theory, if your basal is right, you should not need to inject at all apart from when you are eating. In practice, you'll probably need to inject a few correction doses as well.
So, in theory, if your basal is right, you'd go to bed at one level and wake up at roughly the same, assuming
a) that your bolus insulin is out of your system by the time you go to bed
b) that your carbs from your evening meal are out of your system by the time you go to bed.
Once your basal is right you can work out whether your carb ratio is right. In theory, as a T1 you can inject for your carbs, though if, like me, you are quite insulin resistant and prone to weight gain (in my case, thanks T2 dad) you may want to keep your carbs down. But plenty of T1s do eat high carb diets, it just depends on your own personal metabolism. Do you have any idea as to your current carb ratio? (Be aware that basal doses and carb ratios can vary with exercise, stress, illness, time of year, and, according to some, what colour socks you are wearing.)
The other question is how often are you testing? I personally found that my control went to <insert favourite word for bad places here> whenever I didn't test much, and improved whenever I tested more, but that may or may not be the case for you. And now that cgms are available it's possible that your clinic will help you out if more testing will help you get control.
You can get 95% or 99% chocolate which has almost zero carbs and is hard to eat in large quantities..
Do you like things like tuna, ham, eggs, salad? Avocadoes? Plenty of low carb snacks if you google keto snacks.....
I love meat, cheese. Things that have no carbs. I test before every meal. I feel if i tested after too it would help my control. How many times do you test a day?
When I was diagnosed I was strict I was scared to even eat 1 square of chocolate. I need to get my diet correct and find meals that I like so I’m not eating things that will raise blood sugars. Is there anything you recommend me trying? Snacks, lunches?
When I was pregnant carb ratio was 1:1 . So even anything I ate I was taking alot alot of insulin. Thanks for your reply I enjoy to read back from other T1s
My mum and dad, brother are all not diabetic . Does it run in generations? Or was I born with it and something has triggered it, I’ve always wanted to know lol
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