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Hello, should have come a lot sooner.

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Princesbold

Member
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6
Finally beginning to take my type 2 condition seriously, medication list has grown over the years, pharmacy has carrier bags for me now, Gliclazide x 4 Glitazone x 1 Metformin X 4 Ramipril X 1 Atorvastatin x 1, had a try with Byetta but did not enjoy all of the side effects ( involuntary Bulemia ). Levemir 80 units and now also Novorapid at about 60 units. Have this week had my first Hypo, eating ommelettes whilst continuing the Novorapid dose was not one of my most inteligent moments, fealing rather dizzy and on the verge of passing out I thought was a good time to test the BG levels, 2.8, lowest ever reading on my machine, not knowing quite what to do began eating, but with the cupboards full of low sugar everything it took over an hour to get the levels back up, i have now purchased glucose tablets and scattered around the place.
The Novorapid has made instant differences, one being the unwelcome weight Gain, no weight change in 25 years for me with little or no dietry control. I was warned before but chose not to try Victoza alongside as frankly four injections a day is enough.
So at the crossroads where the choices are becoming fewer and fewer and about to embark on a carb and calorie reducing diet.
I would be gratefull for any of your suggestions that you feel may help me.

In the mean time I will get on with reading all of the posts

Thank you and Hello
 
Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different.

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, starchy root veg and also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels. Some foods, which are slow acting carbohydrates, are absorbed more slowly so you may need to test three or even four hours later to see the affect that these have on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

As a Type 2 the latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

Sue/Ken.
Click to expand...
 
Hello Princesbold and welcome. :)

You have found your way to a brilliant resource with plenty of helpful people to answer your questions. 8)
 
Levemir 80 units and now also Novorapid at about 60 units. Have this week had my first Hypo, eating ommelettes whilst continuing the Novorapid dose was not one of my most inteligent moments, fealing rather dizzy and on the verge of passing out I thought was a good time to test the BG levels, 2.8, lowest ever reading on my machine, not knowing quite what to do began eating,
but with the cupboards full of low sugar everything it took over an hour to get the levels back
Click to expand...

Hurry Slowly!
It'd probably very tempting to try to change everything all at once but it may make it much more difficult in the long run!

It takes time to work out how much insulin you need. If you reduce your meals overnight or vary them considerably from day to day. It may be very much more difficult to know just exactly what your insulin is doing! As you found out your insulin dose is planned to cover some carbs and just cutting them from the meal and injecting the same amount of insulin results in a hypo caused by too much insulin.
Try to keep your carbs consistent for a while.
Check your post meal bgl. Too high after the meal and you are eating too many carbs for that amount of insulin.
Too low and you are taking too much insulin for that amount of carbs. If its within target the insulin and carbs are well matched.
By keeping records and (with your nurse/docs agreement) you can then begin to see how to make adjustments. You will have a baseline and will be in a better position to know how much insulin to take if you eat fewer carbs.

Your novorapid starts its action within 15min and is at it's peak at 2hours. Any hypos that you have within the three hours after the dose (and sometimes a bit longer)are probably caused by too much rapid insulin. Outside this period they will be caused by too much basal (levimir).

If you have a hypo, it is tempting to eat yourself out of house and home but not necessary and may result in a very high level. (though in your case it may have been necessary to eat almost the amount of carbs you would have normally eaten in your meal )

The normal procedure for a hypo caused by too much insulin or unplanned exercise is to take 15g fast acting carbs ( eg dextrose tabs, lucozade, real coke,) wait for 15 min test again and re treat / re test if not back to safe levels. If it's a while to the next meal then you might find it necessary to have a small snack of slower acting carbs or carb/protein. (I must admit I don't find it necessary normally)
 
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