Lowering a1c

[Charisma_1630]

I did speak to my consultant and she tried to put me on medication. I told her I was against taking meds but she prescribed them any. I never went to collect them though. My nurse is amazing she started seeing me once a week at first just to keep reassuring me. Now it's down to once a month appointments.

The last 2 years have been really tough with my 1 year old was seriously ill in ICU and then my partner and me split and becoming a single parent whilst looking after her health and mine alone has been beyond stressful. I have a really low immune system because of it and get ill a lot more regularly than I ever used to (been struck down with a sicky bug since last night).

I only eat 3 meals a day and don't snack in between as I don't want to do anything to affect my levels more than necessary. I do keep a very detailed diary and stick to sameish routine most days. But even then my sugars do different things all the time.

How many times a day do people tend to test? And do people correct in between meals? Or just wait till the next meal to do this?

 

[yingtong]

I think you are doing very well and we all get fluctuations and stress won't help and may be causing your fluctuations and yes,you can use correction doses between meals as long as you are happy with your corrections ratios.By keeping records it will help you correct early to stop your blood/glucose getting out of hand and avoid DKA.Being diabetic you are more susceptible to infections as your immune system does not work very well.Hope this helps.

 

[Wurst]

Congratulations on getting your 1AC down.

My 1AC and daily blood sugar targets never go down well with other forum members , but I try to keep my blood sugar under 5.5 mmol at all times including after meals i.e. avoiding spikes altogether. Last 1AC's have both been 5 %.

As for habits , I cycle everywhere in all conditions and eat a very low carb diet. As I low carb I only require low doses of insulin meaning I don't get many hypos. I was very concerned about hypo's when first diagnosed but now I fully trust my body and know when I'm going low.

 

[Charisma_1630]

Good lord!! 5% is very low well done!! Can I ask a question about low carb. I've decided to start having some low carb meals to see how my sugars react. Well for lunch today I decided to have an omlette. My blood sugar was 11.6 before eating (this is unusually high for me before lunch.) my omlette had eggs, splash of almond milk, bacon, cheese and a really small amount of onions. I checked and only thing that had carbs was onions(I was shocked at that) but I had such a small amount I couldn't count it. So I wouldn't of had any insulin but was high so had 2 units to correct. Anyway 1.5 hours later and its 11.0 surely it should have come down. Is there any other reason it would of stayed high??

 

[Charisma_1630]

I just did another test and it's now 10.8. So that omlette stayed level on 2 units but I can't see where it would of needed it?! I've done a correction now as I don't like sitting that high for so long!

 

[noblehead]

Good lord!! 5% is very low well done!! Can I ask a question about low carb. I've decided to start having some low carb meals to see how my sugars react. Well for lunch today I decided to have an omlette. My blood sugar was 11.6 before eating (this is unusually high for me before lunch.) my omlette had eggs, splash of almond milk, bacon, cheese and a really small amount of onions. I checked and only thing that had carbs was onions(I was shocked at that) but I had such a small amount I couldn't count it. So I wouldn't of had any insulin but was high so had 2 units to correct. Anyway 1.5 hours later and its 11.0 surely it should have come down. Is there any other reason it would of stayed high??

You took a correction dose to bring your bg levels down postprandial but didn't bolus for your meal, meals that are high in protein still need a bolus injection to account for the slow breakdown of the protein, in the absence of carbs protein converts to glucose by around 50%.

Next time try taking a small amount of insulin to allow for the meal and test postprandial, how much insulin you will need is only decided by your bg readings afterwards, so basically it's trial & error as traditional carb counting techniques go out of the window when you eat a low-carb meal.

 

[Charisma_1630]

Oooh I had no idea! So even if my starting sugar was around 5 or 6 I still probably would have needed those 2 units?? And there's no easier way to work out how much is needed?

 

[noblehead]

Oooh I had no idea! So even if my starting sugar was around 5 or 6 I still probably would have needed those 2 units?? And there's no easier way to work out how much is needed?

What I would do to start off is this, if your bg level was 5 or 6 I wouldn't take any insulin and see how your bg levels behave postprandial, if they go up then it means you do have to bolus for such meals, some type 1's can get away with the odd low-carb meal without injecting but not if they are low-carbing all the time, as I say it's trial & error, but don't worry you'll get there after a few goes.

For a cheese omelette I need around 4 units of insulin, I take 2 units upfront and 2 units 2-3 hours after, so I have to split-dose otherwise I'm high before I next eat, but that's just my experience, the best person to ask on bolusing for LC meals is @robert72, he seems have mastered the art of low-carbing.

Good luck.

 

[robert72]

Oooh I had no idea! So even if my starting sugar was around 5 or 6 I still probably would have needed those 2 units?? And there's no easier way to work out how much is needed?

Basically, if you had to take a correction dose, then next time you should take that as a bolus for the same meal. You will probably need to work out when would be the best time to take the bolus, or split it as Nigel says above. Personally I would go for end of the meal and inject in my leg to slow the insulin response a bit.