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When to test

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Penroy

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I have been advised to check sugar once daily. Morning was suggested but I suffer from ‘sunrise syndrome’
so the reading would be skewed upwards and not a true reflection of the number. I don’t normally test except for a 3 month A1C because up and down numbers upsets me and causes me to lose hope and motivation to try at all.
 
Penroy said:
I have been advised to check sugar once daily. Morning was suggested but I suffer from ‘sunrise syndrome’
so the reading would be skewed upwards and not a true reflection of the number. I don’t normally test except for a 3 month A1C because up and down numbers upsets me and causes me to lose hope and motivation to try at all.
Click to expand...
I don’t think it matters that you have dawn phenomenon/sunrise syndrome. If you’re testing once a day to keep tabs on your diabetes, then it will be the trends you want to see, so as long as you’re consistent about when you test, you will see the trends.
 
Regarding when to test, realistically I agree with Goonergal that it doesn’t actually matter, because it’s trends that matter more than actual figures. But I also understand the “upsetting” thing. For what it’s worth, my lowest reading of the day is usually either directly before lunch or mid to late afternoon.

But really, it’s FAR more useful to use testing to see what particular foods do to your blood sugars. It could be said that if finances mean you have to ration your tests to one per day, you’d be better off testing pre and post a main meal on *alternate* days. Then at least you’d be gaining something useful by testing which to be honest just taking one test a day when fasted doesn’t really do.

(mod edit to remove reference to moved post)
 
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If ups and downs tend to upset you, then maybe it could be helpful to discover what might be causing these, then you can learn how better to manage them.
If you're limited to number of test strips I'd agree with at least trying alternate day pre and post meal testing (and perhaps test at your different meal times too) to see how you're reacting to them, and trends/pattern will hopefully emerge. What you eat in the way of carbs affects glucose levels and you can usually do a lot to manage your diet - but be aware that other issues such as illness, pain, stress, can also play a part and there's usually not much we can do about them, and this happens to everyone whether we're diabetic or not.

I much prefer to rely on how what I'm eating affects my glucose levels as this will be more under my control rather than what my liver thinks I might need when I wake/get up. From regular testing I know that my morning fasting levels are generally the highest, with my glucose levels dropping during the day. But my higher glucose and HbA1c results tend to come from non-food issues, so I just have to accept this as part of life.
 
Morning sugar 7.2 really good. Two hours after breakfast it is 12. How long will it take to go down and to I have to not eat until it goes down or change what I eat for breakfast. What is an acceptable rise after a meal?
 
If the 7.2 was just before breakfast then your breakfast caused your levels to be 5 mmol 2hts later. It's fairly obvious that your breakfast contained too many carbs for your body to process.
If you do decide you need to eat again be while your levels are so high, it would be sensible to make your meal as low carb as possible, ie protein and healthy fats
 
Penroy said:
Morning sugar 7.2 really good. Two hours after breakfast it is 12. How long will it take to go down and to I have to not eat until it goes down or change what I eat for breakfast. What is an acceptable rise after a meal?
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Well, that depends on what you ate for breakfast, probably. The standard advice is (if diabetic) that before eating your BG should be between 4 and 7mmol/l: two hours after eating your BG should be under 8.5 and no more than 2mmol/l higher than your first baseline reading.

www.diabetes.co.uk

Normal and Diabetic Blood Sugar Level Ranges

Normal blood sugar ranges and blood sugar ranges for adults and children with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and blood sugar ranges to determine diabetes.
www.diabetes.co.uk www.diabetes.co.uk

That approach worked for me. Given the figures I would guess you're having a lot of carbs for breakfast and if the meter results are consistent it tends to show that there are more carbs than your body can handle. The surplus will remain in your blood or be stored as fat. High blood sugars over time cause physical damage. Your BG will stay elevated until that process completes - some used as energy, some stored as fat. How quickly that happens is hard to say- your response will be different to mine, and sometimes we respond differently to the carbs in different foods. Pastry will keep me elevated for many hours.
 
Penroy said:
I have been advised to check sugar once daily. Morning was suggested but I suffer from ‘sunrise syndrome’
so the reading would be skewed upwards and not a true reflection of the number. I don’t normally test except for a 3 month A1C because up and down numbers upsets me and causes me to lose hope and motivation to try at all.
Click to expand...
If testing unsettles you, then it's not beneficial to daily life.

Just be aware that testing for HBA1c slows to twice times a year, if you're lucky.

And no guarantee the results will be an improvement, so that will be distressing too, I suspect.

After 4 1¹/² years at this, how I visualised back then helped me decide on testing .

I saw it as a life long walk through a poorly lit narrow tunnel, with a floor that's rough & uneven, with potholes scattered about.

I could have trusted to luck on not stumbling, tripping or bumping into the tunnel sides ..because repeated bumps cause some level of bruising & damage...

And simply waited until the testing stage points , where I'll be told how well I'm doing trying to avoid the bruising and damage along the way

Or.
I could use a tool that lights the way.

Sure I might still trip, but I have a better chance of avoiding many of the hazards I previously couldn't see while heading to the testing stage point.

For me the answer was easy.

It's horses for courses

We all have to make our own choices.

But it's best to be aware of the pros AND cons of each decision before they're made.

Good luck finding a way that works for you :)
 
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