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Type 2 blood sugar testing or not

Hils72

Member
Messages
16
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi all
When I had my initial appointment the nurse said that I didn’t need to test myself as it’s only t1 who need to do that to ensure they are administering the right amount of insulin.
Do other T2s test and if so how often throughout the day.
Thanks in advance and happy new year to you all.
 
Of course you need to test otherwise how do you know what foods etc affects your blood sugar levels. It depends what you want to achieve from testing. To get a good picture it is best to test upon waking, before meals and two hours after meals, this will give you a good indication of how different food is affecting your BS so you can make changes if necessary. It is also great to be able to track your progress to see if your numbers are getting lower which can be a great motivator. Quite often you do have to buy your own meter and test strips but it is well worth the cost.
 
If you really want to get control you need to know what's happening with your BG, otherwise it's like driving blindfolded.
What you eat is the primary influence on your BG so testing before and after meals, at least at first will give you a very good indication of the foods to avoid and the foods that are 'safe'. Recording results in the form of a graph of averages also helps provide useful positive feedback and encouragement to stick to an appropriate diet.
Once you've been testing for a few months I don't think that you really need to test after every meal. Though others may disagree. I now just do a test every second day and rotate the test between before and after breakfast, lunch and dinner and before bed. I record and graph my results (though my meter does provide averages too) and my results help provide an incentive to keep off high carb foods and I've now got a very good idea about specific foods and quantities of foods to avoid.
I should perhaps add that over the festive season I have sinned a bit and seeing the high BG readings has been a bit of a slap on the hand and reminder to keep to the straight and narrow! Though have to admit that the half of an individual sized Chrismas pud was worth it!!
 
I test, record and act upon my readings! On diagnosis I was testing eight times a day but as I learned what I could eat I dropped down to four, before and after breakfast and before and after dinner. I’ve gone back to 6-7 readings just recently due to Xmas, a chest infection and an operation and a steroid jab, which upset my numbers for a bit. Now they are settling back down I’ll drop back to four again. However I won’t ever stop as I love number crunching and seeing good numbers, it’s definitely an incentive to keep on the straight and narrow
 
I was told to test when I first saw diabetic nurse after diagnosis. She even had monitor ready for me as well as having my form to claim free prescriptions completed, all I had to do was sign it and post it. At first I was told to test 4 times a day as my blood sugars were also high. After enduring a few hospital stays recently I have had one of my diabetes tablets stopped and put onto insulin a long side my Gliclazide. Still test twice daily. Can't understand why you've been told not to test especially if your blood sugars are high. I would maybe query this and ask about getting your meter via the NHS. If you are on tablet medication to control your diabetes then you should be entitled to free prescriptions. Ask about this also.
 
if your on insulin you need to test more than twice.5-6 times is better
 
buffyiscool said:
twice daily. Can't understand why you've been told not to test especially if your blood sugars are high. I would maybe query this and ask about getting your meter via the NHS.
Click to expand...
Because the majority of T2's are told they do not need to test therefore they do not get meters or prescriptions for strips The OP is not yet diabetic so would not have high glucose blood levels. Mostly only T2's on insulin get free strips.
 
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I would advise getting a meter so you know where you are. At present you may not need to test more than every few days but you will find out what foods affect you and by how much. The reason GPs and DNs advise T2s not to have a meter is due to the high cost of test strips and also some DNs like to be in control rather than you controlling yourself but it's important with diabetes to take control yourself.
 
Many of us ignore that idiotic advice. My doctor told me there was no need to test because there was nothing I could do to influence the readings. Not true of course. Testing tells you which foods cause the greatest glucose spikes.
 
 
Yes, you need to test, regardless of what your nurse says. Most T2s only get given a meter if they are on drugs that lower sugar levels but I think everyone should get one.
When I keep a check on my levels, I have good control and act when I see a dodgy number. When I didn’t test, I totally fell off the wagon.
If you ask me, if they have all T2s meters and as many strips as we needed they’d save millions in the drugs. However, drugs companies wouldn’t be too happy about that and I have a sneaking suspicion that this could be part of the reason for the poor diet advice and the reluctance to help us help ourselves.
 
Another vote for testing. How are you supposed to know what is happening in your body if you do not test?
 
Here at the VA I think Type 2's don't get meters/strips if they don't take insulin. Here you can buy meters at Walmart for about $15 (3 different types, same brand) and 100 strips for $17. Cheap. You got Walmarts there right?
 
T2 diabetes is a serious illness that needs to be controlled. The only one who can do this is you and without a meter you are totally without knowledge of your current progress on getting Blood Glucose down to reasonable grounds. Your health is the most important thing you have so a meter and regular testing is vital.
 
Having a blood glucose meter - which I bought at a low cost a meter with the cheapest test strips -code free - gave me confidence and it’s so great to see the numbers going down. It also helped me to see which foods raised sugars and which were safe to eat. It’s a great educator as we are all individual for example thankfully I can eat celeriac and also Lidl protein rolls in moderation and both are my saviours as an ex carb addict! Although note I do stick to a less than 20g of carbs a day in total now! I wouldn’t have know without checking that these carbs in small quantities are ok for me. Test before meals and then two hours after to see if there is a spike or not. Getting my hbca1 to 33 was achieved by doing this daily and eating to my meter I also lost 30pounds in 3 months. Good luck I’d also suggest you went down the meter route if you can afford it. I now have a meter I got free from spirit healthcare it’s a dual ketone and blood glucose meter and strips similar cost to the code free. I find it useful to check my ketones every few weeks to see if I’m in ketosis.
 
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When I was diagnosed the doctor told me at the hospital to test just two times a day.

That tells me nothing! It doesn’t help me see how long in between meals I should eat, it doesn’t help me know if I’ve eaten too many carbs, it doesn’t let me know if I slept too long at night.

They prescribed Metformin but with good testing, and low carb I never needed to use the metformin.

Definitely test!
 

Yes to testing, it's vital you know what your levels are doing before sitting down to a meal and 2hrs post etc. Your nurse gave you poor advice.
 
Definitely. At least before and 2 hours after meals to determine the effect of different foods on BG
 
Apologies if I've got this a*** backwards but, after reading an awful lot on this Forum, can there be a case for not testing (as in my case as I am not on meds but only diet-controlled) when after the first three-month bloods review, hbA1c has decreased sufficiently not to consider testing but to keep on with low-carbing? I think @Grateful goes by the three-month results and also doesn't test - I don't know if there are other members who do the same. I absolutely agree that it is a good idea to know which foods are spikers and which are not, especially if there are other health problems, but I'm also getting slightly anxious reading that not testing is idiotic, whereas what I've done and am doing is working. For me, that is.
 
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