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Readings

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grahamrb

Well-Known Member
Messages
107
Readings range from 4 to 14 which is an improvement.
Target is 8
Doubt if this will ever be achieved
So having to accept that this is 4 to 14 is the norm
Wife fed up to the back teeth
Ratios different for every meal yet nothing seems to work to get an average of 8 before each meal
Nursing team have been brilliant but don’t seem worried about range
I am Worried about damage to other organs
 
Target should be a range. Its far too hard to aim for a specific number - there are way too many factors to achieve a “magic” single number. My only advice is don’t stress too much - practice will get the numbers right... as I sit here wondering how well i have estimated my carby boozy extended lunch with mates.
 
As Libre become more common, the focus is changing to Time In Range (TIR). It is understood that we get highs and lows. Everyone's levels vary. It's just those of us doing the job of a healthy pancreas at the same time as living a full life, do not have the same tools (injected insulin is slower) and attention to achieve perfection.
The recommended TIR i have read is 70% of the time between 4 and 10:with only 4% of the time below 4.
This should be more achievable than a fixed number all the time.

If you are going high but coming down before your next meal, it is likely your ratio is correct but your timing is off. You may want to look at your pre-bolus time.

But don't stress about a few dalliances over 10.
 
grahamrb said:
Nursing team have been brilliant but don’t seem worried about range
I am Worried about damage to other organs
Click to expand...

The thing is, diabetic damage tends to happen over years and years. I've been T1 for 52 years (since age 8) and had way way worse control than that over quite a few periods in my past. (My first 12 years of T1 was pre glucometers...) The reason your team is saying 8 rather than say 4 or 5 or 6 is likely to be because they don't want your wife to go hypo, so the 4 isn't too bad. (Does she have existing damage to eyes and kidneys? What's her time in range like?)

I still, even with my dexcom, go up to 14 occasionally, and I'm not too worried about complications. (Running on an hba1c of 50ish, sometimes less, sometimes more.)

My T1 mother (first 20 years pre glucometer) died at 78 after 55 years of T1, and it was 50 years of smoking that did her in, rather than her diabetes (though that didn't help.) My 91 year old T2 dad is currently running his hba1c in the mid 50s. The team are happy not to medicate him, because hypos would be far more dangerous than running slightly high. It won't be the diabetes that kills him.

My advice would be to try to ease up on the worry. The numbers have already got better and will get a bit better over time, they don't have to be perfect.
 
Since the new regime changed in mid May the TIR has dropped to 30% with about 30% above 10, this is very disappointing
The range is 4 to 10.
Also getting more hypo’s
It seems to me that we may as well have intelligence guesses as to the number of units of insulin to inject since following the rules does not work.
 

If 30% are above 10 and only 30% are in range 4-10 (TIR is 30%) are you saying that 40% is below 4 ? That would certainly be undesirable, but I suspect I have misunderstood your figures.
 
EllieM said:
If 30% are above 10 and only 30% are in range 4-10 (TIR is 30%) are you saying that 40% is below 4 ? That would certainly be undesirable, but I suspect I have misunderstood your figures.
Click to expand...

Dear Ellie
I’ll double check but the fact is that that the tir has dropped from about 55/60% (from memory) to 30%
With effect from this morning we have increased the long term insulin from 14 to 16 units irrespective of what the doc says,we’ll give it a week or so and see if it helps
 
Now up to 65% to 70% which is a miracle
Still doing a lot of guesswork
I wrote a progress report but I don’t know where it has gone
 
Just to say I agree that a target is only a target. And unlike certain kinds of targets, diabetes doesn’t require anyone to hit bulls-eyes on a regular basis. If we could, that would be great. I for one would run right out and start playing roulette. Just put all our money on 8.
 
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