just a wee question or 2 !

Hi Jay

I am not an insulin user but an HbA1c of 9.1 is high. The testing targets to reach when self-testing are:

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)
Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

With insulin you either eat carbs to use the amount of insulin you take or take the amount of insulin you need to deal with the amount of carbs you eat. It might be worthwhile asking your doctor or DNS to send you one one of the courses, such as DAFNE, that will teach you about how to use insulin to deal with the lifestyle that you lead. Here is the DAFNE website: http://www.dafne.uk.com/

I hope that this helps.

Doug

Hi Jay.

I don't know how old you are but my son is 14 and his ratio is
breakfast 1:8
Lunch 1:12
Tea 1:8
Supper 1:20
Lantus 16 units before bed

Our Consultant said feed him and give insulin accordingly. So James does have quite a lot of carbs especially at tea time as he is a growing lad. As long as you are not trying to lose weight, it should not matter how many carbs as long as the insulin covers it and your BG's are good.

Hope this helps

jayseven said:

hey guys

had my first check up today at the hospital. 6 months since diagnosed.
my HBA1 was 9.1
is that very high??

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if you can get it down to around 7ish you will significantly reduce your risk of getting long-term complications, major studies have shown. Now you are starting to match your insulin to carbs you'll find your HbA1c will probably start to come down. It's good to aim for a lower HbA1c, but don't beat yourself up about it - it's not easy to balance for us insulin users. Most Type 1s have Hba1c above 7.5.

As stoney says, it doesn't matter how much carbs you eat as long as you inject enough to cover it. It's totally up to you. Experiment and see what ratios work best.

Hi Jay

Hba1c of 9.1 would be on the high side for us more experienced diabetics, but for 6 months in to your diagnosis I'd say you're doing great, when I was first diagnosed my Hba1c's were up at 11 and 12 so a good start from you in that respect

Have you been on the DAFNE course, or have they suggested it to you, if they do, go on it, it's really good and I learnt more in that 1 week than I had since I was diagnosed in 1991!

Your ratios seem alright to me, I'm currently on 1 unit for every 10 grams of Carbohydrate Portion (1 CP), and 1.25 units for ever 1 CP at lunchtime. I used to be on Lantus and took 30 units at 8pm, I'm now on Levemir which is a split dose of 16 units in the morning and 20 at night, you might find as time goes on you will require more insulin to get your blood sugar level down to within acceptable range as the "honeymoon period" ends. (It's been that long since I was diagnosed but I think my honeymoon period lasted about a year or so). So don't be too disheartened if your Hba1c is still quite high next time, it may well take a wee while for things to settle down.

My one wee buit of advice would be to religiously keep an Blood test diary, preferably one where you can keep how much insulin you've taken too, you can spot patterns better this way and adjust your ratios accordingly with your consultants and doctors. It's a pain in the backside sometimes but has solved many mysteries for me over the years!

Good Luck Jay, keep us all updated on how you're getting on

It depends I have to aim for mine to be between 7-9. Any anyone who says 4 thats low it needs to be higher than 4. And before bed I like to keep it around 12 just incase I have a hypo at night.

Jay

Can I suggest to you that you obtain a copy of Dr Ragnar Hanas' book (which you can get on Amazon). It's called Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults: How to Become an Expert on Your Own Diabetes (Class Health) [Paperback]

Don't be put off by the title relating to children. It is a bible of information and very relevant for adults too - particularly those who are recently diagnosed.

I think it will help you to understand carb-counting ratios, insulin doses relating to your bodyweight etc and will very much augment the advice from your DSN. I regularly check my son's weight and then do the calculations suggested in the book to 'good-sense' check our doses and ratios.

We have never done any courses to help us with my son's carb-counting, but we have still managed to become our own experts. It was certainly tricky to begin with, but is just part of everyday life now. Another book which we keep in the kitchen is 'Carbs & Cals' by Chris Cheyette and Yello Balolia . That is a pictorial carb-counting book. It has pics of servings of common foods on various plates sizes (with weights given) so you can 'eyeball' your food to estimate the carbs. Particularly useful for things like servings of rice or pasta which are difficult to guess if you don't have weighing scales handy. Carbs & Cals comes as an iPhone app too, which is helpful for some.

I do hope this is of some help to you.

jayseven said:

thanks guys,
got my date for the DAFNE course, 22nd and 29th Nov, so getting myself geared up for it.
my levels have been a bit better since my last posts the carb counting is defo helping !
also had a bbq at work on Fri night, had a few drinks, hot dog & a burger !! bad i know lol
danced for a good wee bit and my morning reading was 5.1 ! best ever since diagnosis.
am i right in saying the dancing played a big part in this reading??
i really should be doing more exercise..
what kind of exercise do you guys do? how often etc? i cant get motivated

Jay xxx

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yep, exercise (including dancing) makes the insulin work more effectively, and so brings the sugars down. But the other thing that would have affected your reading would be the "few drinks".... alcohol affects blood sugar. While the liver is processing the alcohol, it doesn't drip as much sugar into your blood from its stores, and so you tend to get lower sugars.

As for exercise - of course it's good to do exercise to stay fit etc, but just the same as for non-diabetics. You don't need to do exercise because you are type 1. You just need to stay fit and healthy as a human being!
Having said that, if you get very fit, you will find you need less insulin overall. But you will still need insulin, so I'm not sure it's necessarily worth the effort unless you like being fit for its own sake.
Others may disagree.