Testing 2 Hours After Eating

I just can't get my head round this yet....
As recommened on a forum - testing after 2 hours to check my levels are at max 10 - ideally 8.

I spoke to my GP about it and she said to aim for 8mmol (as I need really tight control for some medical things coming up).

I can't get my head round being 8 or 10 2 hours after a meal - mainly for the fear of having a hypo - as in my mind my quick acting insulin works for an average of 4 hours.....

In addition to that, I'm trying to stick to low GI food i.e. porridge and/or seeded toast in the mornings so surely this has an impact on what my levels willbe 2 hours after a meal....?

Help! :-)

Example - woke up with 8.4 this morning at 7am. Had seeded wholemeal toast and 500ml cup of tea with skimmed milk = in total equalling 40g of carbs. Injected at a ration of 1:1.5 so 6 units of quick acting. 2 hours later my mmol was 15 - far higher than the 8 I'm aiming for.

Whilst it isn't lunch time yet, I believe my levels will be circa 7 or 8 at that time.

What am I doing wrong?

Any hints and tips would be great.

Thanks

I normally have porridge (low GI) for breakfast so can see the same pattern as you. I've found (by trial and error) that if I know the CP value of what I'll be having then if I inject about 10 minutes before I eat my blood glucose doesn't peak as much after the meal.

I think (for me anyway) that this gives the insulin a head start on the food, and means that it's just starting to get active when I have the food, instead of the glucose from the food having a 15-20 minute head start on the insulin - does that make sense?

When I used a continuous glucose monitoring machine last year I was amazed to see that when I timed injection/food right, I would hardly see a blood glucose peak at all after eating...and the good news is that I didn't go hypo at these times either. Sometimes I'm even able to reduce the ratio of QA to CP because by timing it this way, although the insulin still has to cope with the same CP value, it doesn't have to cope with a high BG peak anymore (so the insulin works less hard).

Also, I'm not convinced that my QA (humalog) works for 4 hours...I think it's probably a lot shorter time of action a lot of the time, maybe about 2 hours sometimes. ...although that doesn't always seem to be the case!

Does that make sense and help??

Chris is absolutely right.....

Aprt from breakfast, I try and inject my insulin at least 15-20 minutes before actually eating the meal, as the insulin takes that amount of time to get underway, obviously this is different for everyone, at different times of the day and with different GI levels....

So it will take some trial and error on your part, it might mean choosing something else to eat in order to make the peak more manageable......

The handbook stated that quick acting analogues like novorapid start to work about 5-10 minutes after injecting, however this must vary between individuals and can be played with when considering slower/faster absorbing carbohydrates.....

But in the whole its all about dose timing and basically experimenting with different times between injecting and eating

Ahhh, ok.... it had never crossed my mind to play with the timing of my QA.

And it's also news to me that anyone (chrisinbrum) thought that QA didn't last 4 hours.....

I suppose, so far I've taken everything I've been told at DAFNE etc as read and therefore if I'm told it last on average 4 hours, thats what I believed (I'm not always so gulible... only with diabetes!! lol!).

Ok, so, from tomorrow, I will be injecting before I eat (which also makes sure I do eat at a sensible time of the morning) and testing the thery.....

Thanks guys for your help, it's been enlightening! What this space!

Sorry for some very poor spelling on my part! Sneeking in this forum during working hours....but some things are far more important

LOL, Its at work I access this forum the most, at least 90% of the time..........

My novorapid last about 4hours 15 minutes...........you can check this time by testing at regular intervals, say every 15 minutes when approaching the end of the insulins action time, if you don't drop any further [1-2mmol/l] you can be confident your insulin has been depleted.....

Another good tip, thanks novorapidboi26... I really should visit here more often!

If I do a blood test 2 hours after I've eaten, I can tell you for nothing, it will ALWAYS be over the recommended BG of 7........and is often recorded at 12 to 14. But, I don't panic, because, without any further intake of carbs or any foods, during the next 2 hours it can fall steadily and quickly. Then 5 or 6 hours hours after the initial meal, that is, my next mealtime, my BG can be at the recommended levels. So, I've learnt that my body reacts slightly differently to fast acting insulin.

I know we have guidelines for Dafne, but all our bodies react differently...........and first and foremost, it is important to understand how your own body works and reacts to your insulin. This takes time, experimenting, and lots of finger pricking!!!

I have personally had days of BG under 8 and that's with 1-1.5 hour testing just by injecting anything up to 40 minutes before eating.......so it is possible to get results as good as that.......

Unfortunately for most you would need to stick to the same foods every day to maintain, but when is life ever like that.....

Hi Meltow,

So is your HbA1c generally about 6 even though your post food levels are not the recommened 7?