Low carb and work advice please!

[asyarlk]

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a lovely christmas and new year.

I am newly diagnosed and have a few questions:

Firstly, if I have a no carb meal, how stable will my blood glucose be afterwards? Will I need a snack to maintain levels? I'm just thinking about going into a low carb diet as I am very sensitive to insulin and it might stop having lows 2/3 hours after eating. Sometimes I can drop from 12mmol to 4 within an hour. I match up my insulin and carbs but can run quite low a few hours later.

Secondly, I've started back to work (reception teacher) and found that my sugars are high (13mmol) during the day and then when the children go home I hypo, is this me being anxious about work? Will this calm down? I'm also being referred to occupational health, is this normal?

Hope you can help!

 

[lizdeluz]

Hi and welcome!

Yes, it's normal to be referred to Occupational Health. It will be a check-up on how you are managing your diabetes at work. Presumably you declared your diabetes when you started your job, and this referral is automatic and not something to worry about in my view.

However, having high blood sugar all day isn't good for you. You are newly diagnosed and not yet practised in adjusting your doses? I expect that your day at school is so busy that you don't have time to check your blood sugar levels at regular times and have precious little time to decide how to react and dose yourself? Then when the stress is over for the day your blood sugar is dropping and causing hypos. My advice would be to discuss this in detail with your DSN at your clinic. Make a separate appointment and say you need help with insulin doses during and at the end of the working day.

Then at your OH referral, explain that you are in touch with your consultant and DSN and that you are keeping your blood sugar under control.
I'm sure you will be able to improve your bs levels with a little bit of adjustment. Take care, best wishes, and let us know how you get on.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Matching your food to insulin doses is different to matching your insulin to food...

Have you been taught about adjusting your doses. This is imperative to going low carb as you will need less insulin.

You say you're hypoing after meals but in next paragraph that you are high all day?

Could you actually give us a days details of when you are bolusing and having your basals? And your readings?

 

[asyarlk]

Thank you for the replies.

I am only high at work. It seems like the moment I step into the classroom my levels rise dramatically. When I am home my levels drop quickly and I can hypo 2 hours after eating. At home I need a snack every 2 hours but I work I take more insulin and no snacks and still remain at 12/13mmol. I think it's stress related?!

Currently I have 2 novorapid with breakfast (branflakes - 33g carbs) 2 for lunch, normally 2 toast and soup and then 1 unit for dinner (averages 35g carbs). If I have anymore than 1 by 10pm I'm in the 4s. I then take 6 units of lantus at 10pm.

When I have an omelette with no insulin I stay more stable and can remain a steady level for a few hours.

I am returning to work on a reduced timetable because of the recent diagnosis. Is this normal? I don't feel ready to teach 5 days a week but don't feel ready for a pay cut either.

Hope this makes sense!

 

[asyarlk]

Also when I'm at home my levels stay between 3-7mmol. But at work it's 9-14mmol.

 

[sunshine84]

Hi,
I'm a teacher too (year 2) and I started low carbing in september and have found it works really well for me. I used to often feel low mid morning in the middle of a lesson - which isnt the easiest to sort with 30 children but now the low carb stops that spike and crash. When I first started I was was a bit unsure like you, so I tested every break time and lunch time which helped me to see patterns.
Teaching is a really stressful job and it's not a job where you can have an easy/restful day. Take care of yourself and keep chatting to people about how you're feeling about both work and your diabetes. Good luck x

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[himtoo]

Thank you for the replies.

When I have an omelette with no insulin I stay more stable and can remain a steady level for a few hours.

my blood sugars do stay quite stable (5-8) if I eat an omelette or protein based dish with no carbs