Hi
Just wanted to mention this as I had this discussion with my health care nurses today.
I recognise that my health care team is very different from other peoples experiences of theirs, in that mine advocate low carbing as a way of reducing blood sugar levels and weight.
I had an unfortunate incident in a hospital recently where first, my cannulas (I used three) failed with my pump, then the insulin "fried" meaning that my back up plan of pen injectors completely failed. Both my short acting and long acting didn't work due to the overheating in the hospital. Finally getting Actrapid and being told to go on a sliding scale at 4AM was not fun. Understandably as I'm low carbing (30g) a day) my ketones were already present. The only method in hospital to measure them was urinary.
Ketones were 4+ and glucose was 2+. Blood sugars were running at 11 which is high for me. Then the news came that they wouldn't release me until my ketones had gone. So I was ketotic but not acidotic but I had no option but to eat carbs in order to leave the hospital.
Eventually the hospital released me understanding that I would be able to manage my diabetes and ketones. I was on the phone to my DSN who was issuing instructions to the doctors at the hospital (I was in a different city than normal) and we were managing it rather than they were.
This has lead to many questions being asked by me to my healthcare team. Mainly about the management of ketones. The outcome of which is that they advocate low carbing for both type 1 and 2 but for type 1 they don't recommend ketotic levels of low carbing. Simply because should your blood sugars rise for one reason or another (through illness or some other means) then you're already in a bad position regarding ketones becoming uncontrollable. This is not a fear tactic or because they are overly cautious but simply because they are managing the end result of your diabetes.
Just wanted to mention this as I had this discussion with my health care nurses today.
I recognise that my health care team is very different from other peoples experiences of theirs, in that mine advocate low carbing as a way of reducing blood sugar levels and weight.
I had an unfortunate incident in a hospital recently where first, my cannulas (I used three) failed with my pump, then the insulin "fried" meaning that my back up plan of pen injectors completely failed. Both my short acting and long acting didn't work due to the overheating in the hospital. Finally getting Actrapid and being told to go on a sliding scale at 4AM was not fun. Understandably as I'm low carbing (30g) a day) my ketones were already present. The only method in hospital to measure them was urinary.
Ketones were 4+ and glucose was 2+. Blood sugars were running at 11 which is high for me. Then the news came that they wouldn't release me until my ketones had gone. So I was ketotic but not acidotic but I had no option but to eat carbs in order to leave the hospital.
Eventually the hospital released me understanding that I would be able to manage my diabetes and ketones. I was on the phone to my DSN who was issuing instructions to the doctors at the hospital (I was in a different city than normal) and we were managing it rather than they were.
This has lead to many questions being asked by me to my healthcare team. Mainly about the management of ketones. The outcome of which is that they advocate low carbing for both type 1 and 2 but for type 1 they don't recommend ketotic levels of low carbing. Simply because should your blood sugars rise for one reason or another (through illness or some other means) then you're already in a bad position regarding ketones becoming uncontrollable. This is not a fear tactic or because they are overly cautious but simply because they are managing the end result of your diabetes.
