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When do you test ?

mo1905

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Cambs
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Type 1
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Insulin
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Rude people !
Hi , recently diagnosed late onset type 1. I'm 46 yr old male. I have seen various nurses an doctors and every one of them has told me to test my BG before meals. However, I have read many posts here and lots talk of testing 2 hrs after a meal to check for "spikes" etc. What advice do I follow ? The professionals or fellow diabetics ? Thanks !


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Well,you could always do both. Or do pre meal some days and post meal other days.

In a way, they're telling you different things. So it depends what you're wanting to know. Testing pre meals will show your blood levels at their very best, and give you an idea of how well your control is going. Testing after meals will show you whether that meal was a good one for you or not, whether it contained more carbs than your body was able to handle, resulting in an unacceptably large spike (although its not unusual for bloods to be a little higher two hours after eating). To accurately judge how large a spike is, of course, you need to have measured before and after. However, after a while when your more familiar with your body, you may find you don't always need to bother with the before test - I can tell if a food has spiked me by just looking at the after test, because my before tests are always pretty much the same.

However, as a type 1, that may be different because I would have thought you needed to know your before figures to know how much insulin to take? Or are you on a fixed regime of insulin?


Type 2 on Metformin, diagnosed Jan 2013, ultra low carber, Hba1C at diagnosis 8% (64), average BS now between 5 and 6 mmol.
 
The reason I test at all is to find out the effect a meal had on my blood sugars so I test before my main meal and again two hours after it. If the rise in sugar is too high I will make alterations to the meal next time.

Randomly I may take the odd reading at other times to reassure myself that I am not missing anything. This morning I took a reading just after I got up but I certainly won't be doing that every day.
 
With any insulin that is injected it is advised by most diabetics that testing pre meal and 2 hour after so that we can check we are using the correct dosages of insulin for the foods and carbs we are eating.
Other times to test are pre bed and always before driving. Also for exercising.
Health care professionals don't give us mention of all these tests to give us good control.. I believe because of the budgets on test strips!!!
 
Thanks for all your advice. Makes sense. I knew it was a good idea to vary test times etc as I have read many posts here saying just that. I was just curious as I have asked 5 different medical professionals now and not one said to do a post meal test. When I asked why, one said that a post meal test would only give me the result of a previous meal ? Also, because I have to count carbs and inject accordingly, there is no point ! It's a little confusing ! Thanks again. I think I'll vary a little more. I have never had any problems obtaining test strips.


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I test 19 times per day, throughout the whole day and night. This gives me unbelievably good control and hypo free.

Test in the morning, before and after meals. I also test in the night and if course before I walk the dog or go out; testing is the key. I recommend the Accu-chek mobile for quick and easy testing.

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Wow ! 19 times a day ! I applaud your discipline but I'm not sure I could test that much lol ! Don't your fingers hurt ? I'm sure my doctor would not give me a prescription for more than 4 a day.


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Before meals so I can dose adjust if necessary, after meals when driving, exercising or out and about, I always test before going to bed.

When experimenting with new foods I will monitor bg levels more closely.
 
Before meals, and I adjust insulin dose according to result and intake if carbs, before bed, occasionally 3am, before driving. On the dafne course they don't encourage post meal testing


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Thanks again for all your advice. Interesting to hear DAFNE course also don't promote post meal testing. I still think the occasional test would be useful but better prior to eating and driving seems to be the general consensus !


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mo1905 said:
Wow ! 19 times a day ! I applaud your discipline but I'm not sure I could test that much lol ! Don't your fingers hurt ? I'm sure my doctor would not give me a prescription for more than 4 a day.

No, my fingers are not sore at all. I get 400 tests per prescription and order them when needed.

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mo1905 said:
Hi , recently diagnosed late onset type 1. I'm 46 yr old male. I have seen various nurses an doctors and every one of them has told me to test my BG before meals. . . . . What advice do I follow?

As a type 1 you must be on insulin so you would need to know what your blood sugar levels are before a meal in order to know how much insulin to inject. As a type 2 (non-insulin) my preference is to test before breakfast and again before my evening meal. This is because I tend to suffer from higher early morning blood sugars and I like to monitor them, and the evening one tells me how much carb I can allow myself in my evening meal.

I was advised by an endocrinologist that testing after meals can be misleading unless you know the GI of everything you have eaten. Foods with a high GI are absorbed quickly and after 2 hours the BS levels may have peaked and returned to near normal. Foods with a low GI take longer for the stomach to absorb the carbohydrate, some can take 2 hours or more, so after 2 hours your BS may still be rising rather than returning to the pre-meal level. If you were to test after 2 hours and your BS is higher than you expected, would you know whether that was because of how much carb you ate, or because of the GI?

Dennis
 
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