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Help!! Diabetic levels

H

HarrogateDave

Newbie
Messages
4
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all,
If your levels were between 10-14 as a diabetic 1 prior to a meal how much insulin would you give yourself to enable you to eat or to lower your levels? I don't mean a meal injection.

Also if you injected how long would you wait for it to take affect (time wise). If it didn't come down would you give another injection and how much or would you wait?

I'm asking this as my wife has recently been told by her diabetic nurse she was too strict with her levels i.e. running between 3-4 throughout the day.

Any advice would be much appreciated by both of us.

Cheers, Dave
 
You should take this with your GP or diabetic nurse.

No one should give advice on dosage here on the forum, because the effect on insulin are very individual and different for each person.
 
As posted above. We can't give dosage advice, speak to your gp or nurse about it.
 
HarrogateDave said:
Hi all,
If your levels were between 10-14 as a diabetic 1 prior to a meal how much insulin would you give yourself to enable you to eat or to lower your levels? I don't mean a meal injection.

Also if you injected how long would you wait for it to take affect (time wise). If it didn't come down would you give another injection and how much or would you wait?

I'm asking this as my wife has recently been told by her diabetic nurse she was too strict with her levels i.e. running between 3-4 throughout the day.

Any advice would be much appreciated by both of us.

Cheers, Dave
Click to expand...

Hi Dave,

The problem is that everyone is different, so what works (in terms of insulin doses) for one person won't necessarily work for another. Has your wife been taught about insulin ratios and how to count carbs and calculate the appropriate amount for her? And is she having many hypos? Though you may be aware that type 1 diabetics are advised to treat anything below 4mmol/l as a hypo.

Other factors to take into account when running at low levels is loss of hypo awareness (which means that the person shouldn't be driving), and the severity of hypos. Did your wife's nurse discuss any of this with her?

I will tag in some experienced insulin users who may be able to give you some input, but they won't be able to give direct advice on doses and medication, because our forum rules prevent that.
@Juicyj @Fairygodmother @Jaylee @Diakat
 
Phone your team straight away to get advice

I can understand their point about your wife being too strict as anything below 4 is a hypo and very dangerous
xx
 
Hello @HarrogateDave We can't give dosing advice here, your team need to help with this, we are unique so my correction ratios would be different to others and could be considered dangerous advice. Also active insulin on board time varies between us all and can vary between 2.5 to 4 hours. I prefer to take my insulin about 20 mins before food so it's starting to work when my BG levels start spiking, I wouldn't take a correction dose within 3 hours, others would wait 4 hours, Keeping a diary to track and monitor levels helps in seeing exactly what is going on, as does doing some basal fasting tests to check basal insulin is set at the correct dose.

Running 3-4 is low, that's hypo territory, agree this needs to be raised, particularly if your wife drives as the min limit for driving is 5 mmol/l, and running low levels can also affect hypo awareness too which again can result in losing your driving licence.

Get a copy of 'Think like a pancreas' which is written by a type 1 and a very useful, informative read to understand the role of insulin more.
 
We all have different ratios so correction doses differ. She needs to work with her team on this.
 
HarrogateDave said:
Hi all,
If your levels were between 10-14 as a diabetic 1 prior to a meal how much insulin would you give yourself to enable you to eat or to lower your levels? I don't mean a meal injection.

Also if you injected how long would you wait for it to take affect (time wise). If it didn't come down would you give another injection and how much or would you wait?

I'm asking this as my wife has recently been told by her diabetic nurse she was too strict with her levels i.e. running between 3-4 throughout the day.

Any advice would be much appreciated by both of us.

Cheers, Dave
Click to expand...

Hi Dave,

Though I can't give you any information on a bespoke correction dose or dosage for insulin to carb ratios regarding your wife.
From experience if it was me the correction dosage would be added to the insulin estimated for the carbs consumed on the meal.
Timed as I would if just bolusing for the food?

If you wife is flying twixt "3 &4Mmol thoughout the day ? That does seem a little low. I personally tend to aim between 4.8 & 7.6/8 there will be BS fluctuations even in a nonD,

Does your wife use (or if not, thought about.) a Freestyle Libre? This could help with use fill in the blanks between finger tests?

I agree with the above.
Your wife would need to liaise with her D team regarding her personal insulin dosage values..
Nobody on this forum can instruct regarding that, not even you..

Hope this helps.
 
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