Type 1: Insulin to carb ratio / carb counting help

[hollyh97]

Hi all,
I'm 18 and a very new T1 (since approx a week) and still getting used to everything.
I'm fine with getting over the injections etc but I wanted to know if there's a way of figuring out my insulin/carb ratio without going to the dietician as my appointment is yet to be posted to me.

I know it seems like I'm taking it on too quick but I'm a control freak so having set doses of insulin and just watching my bg levels soar all day is very frustrating! I wouldn't mind the injections if they made an actual difference!

At the moment I have 4 units of lantus every morning and evening and then 8 units novorapid before breakfast and then 4 units novorapid before all other meals. Yet my bg levels range from 11-20+ all day! I'm just very interested in carb counting and want to start doing it so I can adjust my dose but I need to know my insulin/carb ratio- is it possible to know this now?

Thanks in advance


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[catapillar]

How much contact are you having with your DSN (diabetic specialist nurse)? I would expect someone newly diagnosed to be having really very frequent contact with their DSN to help with adjusting doses. You should make contact, explain you think your blood sugars are too high and ask for advice on adjusting your doses.

The dietician appointment might be helpful and you should definitely go to the appointment. But your dietician won't be able to tell you your insulin to carb ratio. I'm afraid that is just trial and error, it may vary through out the day/month. The thing is though, with being newly diagnosed, you need to go cautious with the trial and error, because you don't want to be making too many errors. You need support and advice from your DSN so that you can be confident in safely adjusting your insulin doses.

If you are very interested in carb counting, there is a free online course which covers the basics - http://www.bdec-e-learning.com - have a look at the theory and discuss with your DSN about how to put it into practice.

It's great you want to learn about carb counting. It will really help you get a handle on things. I just wanted to stress that you should be getting quite a lot of support from your health team in this, while it's frustrating, there are arguments for easing yourself in gently. If you are currently running in double figures, suddenly crashing down to normal levels is likely to give you false hypos and that might be why you have been put on the doses you are on - they might be trying to step you back down gradually.