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Should I??

how high is high ? you should try and eat to match your insulin, what units are you on and how much are you eating ? maybe you need more rapid before you eat or you may need more of the base insulin, have you told your doc about your high bg.
 
Shadow,
I assume that sheepseyes meant you should match your insulin to your food intake. I've been diabetic for over three years and I tend to keep the food I eat at breakfast and lunch the same each day so that I can work out what my insulin intake should be; it's not foolproof but it should help. I'd advise working on getting your averages down and not taking extra shots until you have a better control and understand what different insulin amounts do to your body. It may seem a daunting task but if you don't already then get a food diary going for every meal so you can track insulin changes to each meal and see how much you need to take each time. Hope this helps and good luck.
 
Wise advice rom Rick. If I am 100% honest, I try my hardest to follow the advice Rick gives above...but sometimes get it wrong, and my blood sugar does wonder up. My rule of thumb, is if it hits 16, then I have a couple of extra units, but I would emphasie, that if you do similar, be very careful! It is not a good approach at all, as occasionally, I then Yo yo between high and low if I have too much insulin...and this is not good! It is far better to get the insulin levels right in teh forst place, but if you do adjust, I would advise caution...it is better to under adjust, than over.
 
is the 26 in the morning and 15 in the evening of rapid acting insulin or is it of a mix?

I correct whenever i need to, if i'm above 7 before a meal I'll throw some correction in and if I'm above 10 at any other point I'll correct then aswell.
 
I was recently told by my nurse, that fast acting insulin shouldnt be injected unless you are eating. Apparently correction doses such as this are dangerous and does not help to stablise your blood sugars x
 
Hello,

I have just joined this forum and would like to add my two penny's worth to adjusting insulin dosage.

I have had type 1 now for over 30 years. Everybody's body reacts differently to different foods. Potatoes are terrible for me but rice is more manageable, but my rule of thumb is to limit my carb intake to 12-15 units per meal.

It may not sound alot but it will help yo-yoing blood sugar readings. I read up on what 12 - 15 units of carbs represents and try to stick to that as much as possible. After all, how can you gauge a bowl of pasta without getting the scales out and all that? Would look really good in a restaurant! Then check your blood two hours after eating. This will help you determine down the road what you need to inject before a meal and if you know you will be eating a bit more carb, then you can always adjust.

I have always injected frequent small doses. Some days I do up to eight injections a day but with only two units here, three units there. I guess it helps to mimic what your pancreas will do (sort of). Any dosage above 8-9 units and I split the injections into two, I find it helps the body to absorp better and the insulin works better.

Anyway, it's all such a habit now I go into automatic pilot. I still love a bit of super dark chocolate, and I still cheat (within reason), but hey, who's perfect?

I hope this has helped a little bit.
 
Hails: did she say exactly how correcting is dangerous? I think it's more dangerous both short and long term to have a blood sugar of 18-19 and do nothing about it.
What would you do in this situation? eat at the same time as the correction?
 
Correcting high blood sugar with Actrapid without eating is perfectly ok as long as you know how much to inject, and you can only find out by testing yourself.

Depending on your height and weight, you can start with two units and see how your blood reading is after half an hour, an hour and two hours. It will give you a good idea how much two units will bring your blood down and you can then adjust your dosages accordingly.

If you really want to bring high blood sugar down super quick you can do 1) intravenous injections - not recommended for the faint hearted (myself included) or 2) multiple injections of 1-2 units at different sites on your body (more manageable!)

I agree with sofaraway, it's miles better to bring the reading back down to normal as quickly as possible, then to let it stay high.
 
You do need to experiment and find out how much each unit of insulin will bring you down. Personally I use 1 unit novorapid to bring me down 4 points (i'm quite sensitive to insulin).

I'd never try IV and haven't heard of people doing that, i know a few people who go for IM to bring them down quickly, but I'm too scared to do that, also I don't use syringes so i'm not sure how I'd do it with a pen.
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by sofaraway</i>
<br />Hails: did she say exactly how correcting is dangerous? I think it's more dangerous both short and long term to have a blood sugar of 18-19 and do nothing about it.
What would you do in this situation? eat at the same time as the correction?


<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
My thought exactly! I have been told this before, and it was becasue they don't want us yo yoing between high and low. Now, obviously this can happen, and this is why testing and knowing how much insulin effects you is very important. If you are just starting out on the correcting thing..err on the side of caution, and have too little insulin, rather than too much. You soon get to know what you need.
Sometimes Diabetic nurses forget that we are actually human beings, capable of intelligent thought, and are not just a diabetic. Grrr

and breath!
 
Sugar, you always manage to make me laugh :D

For some reason the smiling "smilie" always reminds me of a Japanese tourist (apologies to any Japanese forum members).
 
If your in the UK do a DAFNE course! Yes you should be injecting quick acting insulin when your BG is above normal, but don't do this until you have spoken to your diabetes team!
 
Hello, new to the forum but thought as someone who has done the dosage adjustment course I'd chip in, we were advised to use correction doses - but you need to establish how much 1 unit will bring down your BS. We were given a guide to work it out - total daily amount of insuline divided by 100 - this should tell you how much.

I agree about the :D tee hee!
 
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