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Self testing

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Ashleigh

Well-Known Member
Messages
152
Hi

I am expecting my SD Codefree meter to arrive today - as i'm still waiting for the results of my GTT, should i eat some white bread and wait two hours to test, or shall i just eat normally (low carb, normally meat and veg for dinner) and then test?

Thank you :)
 
Hi Ashleigh. No, no white bread stuff! the purpose of your meter is to find out what you can and can't eat without your blood sugars going too high. Just have your normal reduced carb meals, then test after two hours. If the reading is over 7.8, you had too many cxarbs in that meal. Cut some out the next time you have a similar meal, by either eating less or leaving out some of the carbs. Keep careful records. After a whilek, you'll know what you can and can't eat and won't need to test so often, just when you eat something new. Do tests after all types of meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. But once you've tested one particular meal a number of times and got roughly the same satisfactory readings, nbo point in keep testing that, Save your strips for different food tests at different times. Don't worry about doing fasting tests for a while - not much you can do about them, so why waste strips? After a while, do occasional fasting tests just to see how you're progressing. They should SLOWLY come down.
Eat, test, make notes. Eat, test, make notes.
You're ONLY testing to see what you can eat.
I'm saying all this in the assumption you are a diet only (or metformin) type 2? Your profile isn't clear.
 
Hi Ashleigh.
Just read your other post and see you're not diagnosed yet. In which case, I wouldn't go mad testing yet. Wait till you get the results of, hopefully, an HbA1c, then if you're diabetic or pre-diabetic, you can follow the routine I've described above. If you start testing on your own now to try and form your own diagnosis, you'll probably just confuse yourself. You need a proper test for diagnosis.
 
thank you :)

so it arrived, i got home starving but had to read the booklet that came with it and although i wanted to take a pre-meal reading i had to eat the rest of my lunch and read it and had the intention of starting in the morning. i had a sweet chilli and mayo wholemeal chicken and lettuce wrap, a bag of gluten free crisps and a taste of ginger cake that my mum made. this was about 7ish.

walked the dog and just set up the meter and its given a reading of 8.3.

I'm kinda not counting this one though due to the timings being off, and what i ate (the crisps and cake).

and the finger prick wasn't bad at all, and i had it on setting 3 :)
 
Hi again Ashleigh. Thanks for sharing the readings. We can't of course diagnose you, only your doctor can do that, But your readings are too high for a non-diabetic it seems to me. So I'd be going to the doctor and INSISTING on an HbA1c test to be sure.
 
Morning :)

I'm going to the GP's tomorrow afternoon to get the results of my GTT so I'll ask then.

I drank a wieder body shaper shake this morning and forgot to test right before so did it immediately after and was 6.7. I tested two hours later and was 6.1.
 
before lunch: 5.3

Chicken Tikka with mayo and a white flatbread :oops:

2hr reading: 6.9

so not too bad, as i understand it.
 
ok, i just saw the doctor and i am pre-diabetic. my GTT was 7.5.

her advice was to eat sensibly and lose weight. i told her i low carb and she was fine with that, but ive also had diarrhea issues when eating carbs - which was what started all my tests - she said i could have 'cake/crisps/fries' once a week, which i'll avoid.

i asked her about self testing and she said i shouldn't as it will only make me worry more so i didn't bother asking for a prescription for strips or tell her i've already bought a meter.

i'll just continue to low carb and monitor myself. she said they'll do another GTT in 6 months.

i forgot about asking for a hba1c or whatever but her attitude seemed like it would be its only pre-diabetes so doesn't need one.
 
OK, so you know now at least. I'd STILL go back for an HbA1c and insist on it. Otherwise, how will you know whether you've improved your control or not in 6 - 9 - 12 months time? A GTT won't particualarly tell you that. You need an HbA1c NOW so you can compare in the future, see if your diabetes is developing, or imnproving, etc. It's a simple one-off blood test, but shows your AVERAGE BG over the last month or so (they say 3 months, but it's very heavily weighted to BGs in the last month)
Good luck!
 
Absolutely agree with Grazer, if you look at my posts you can see I am prediabetic, my gp was fine about hba1c, but I did have to ask! In fact I have had two more since despite my bs being normal due to low carbing.

What do you eat in a day how low are your carbs?

Jo
 
I'll get on to them today about a HBA1c.

Since i got my meter my numbers/food is as follows:

Thursday 9-8-12

FBG 6.39am: 7.8

Weider body shaper low carb shake

9.46am (immediatley after the shake): 6.7

11.53am: 6.1

1.34pm before lunch: 5.3 - chicken tikka, mayo, white flatbread as ran out of wholemeal wraps

3.33pm: 6.9

8.12pm before dinner: 5.3 - chicken legs, cauliflower, broccoli, chia seeds sprinkled on top

9.30pm: couch to 5k w2,d2 run

10.12pm: 5.7

then i fell off the wagon and had a tiny piece of ginger cake & cheese, a couple of pieces of chocolate popcorn & 4 shortbread biscuits right before bed.

2L water throughout the day


Friday 10-8-12

FBG 6.10am: 6.3

8.55am before breakfast: 6.6 - yoghurt, seeds, chia seeds, blueberries

10.55am: 5.7

11.20am: gluten free crisps, 1 sweet chilli chicken & lettuce wrap with chia seeds in it.

12.50pm before lunch: 7.2 - Chicken shop chicken wings

2.54pm: 5.8

5.47pm before dinner: 5.4 - chicken chargrills, broccoli, sugar snap peas, a couple of southern fried chicken pops of someone elses plate, a couple of pistachios & about 3 japanese cracker covered nut things.

7.00pm: blueberrries

7.55pm: 5.8

2L water

then i kind of fell off the wagon re testing over the weekend


Saturday 11-8-12

FBG 6.05am: 6.03

couch to 5k w2,d2 run

8.59am before breakfast: 6.6 - seedy wrap with cheese, tomato pizza sauce, cherry tomatoes, pepperoni

10.59am: 5.3

scrambled egg, bacon, beans, 1 slice wholemeal bread & butter.

BBQ


Sunday 12-8-12

FBG 8.12am: 6.6 - breakfast within half hour: activia yoghurt with granola added seeds, chia seeds, blueberries & redcurrants.

Burger van burger with onions, ketchup & mustard.

homemade chicken wrap

2 sausages in buns with ketchup


Monday 13-8-12

8.18am: 6.8

breakfast 8.50am-ish: yoghurt, seeds, chia seeds, blueberries & redcurrants

edit/addition:

10.00am: 6.6

1.01pm pre-lunch: 5.1 - 2 seedy wraps; turkey, mayo, sweet chilli sauce, lettuce. 1 cheddar babybel

3.00pm: 8.5
 
Am i allowed to post links to other forums? on another forum that i go on, (i havent posted my self tested numbers) people reckon that I dont need to be testing -

http://www.runnersforum.co.uk/injury-he ... round.html

and my numbers seem very low compared to others on here. Apart from yesterday afternoon/evening my numbers have been very low (for me) and i wonder if i'm 'over-reacting'?

On the other hand, these few days arent really long enough to give a proper indication are they.

Also, i'm still unsure as to whether to do a 'normal' day i.e. a day where i would eat how i would if i could eat anything i liked, most likely B: bacon sandwich, L: Mcdonalds/KFC etc, D: Pizza, chicken wings, garlic bread, lots of diet coke and snacks of cake/chocolate/crisps (- previous diet :oops: ) and see what that does to my numbers (scare the life & that diet out of myself once and for all) so i can confirm for myself that I need to be following all this testing etc, if that makes sense?

with such low numbers i feel like i dont really have a problem compared to others on here, but they are low(ish) carb numbers, I should have really got my act together over the weekend and tested after the **** i ate then, instead of wilfully forgetting as i'd eaten rubbish.
 
In fairness, unless i've misunderstood, the comments about testing on a runners forum probably aren't as relevant as ones you may get on here.
If your figures are low, that's great. And if you're eating the same meal again that gave you good figures, there is no need to test every time. The idea of testing is to work out what you can and can't eat. once you've done that, you only need to test now and again when you try something new or to make sure your diabetes isn't progressing.
With regards to testing after a big carby meal; i wouldn't eat one just to test, the doctor will tell you with the HbA1c we mentioned if you're diaberic or not. But if you DO have a meal with lots of starchy carbs, yes then you should test to see how much it impacts you. Then, if it's really high, you can decide if you want to do it again!
 
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