help needed reading my bg results!

Some input on my bg readings would be appreciated on patterns etc and should I change my BI or change the dose I take? Im on Lantus! Thanks in advance
Hannah x

Hello Hannah,

In general, to change BI, we look at the difference between your before-bed readings and your first morning reading. If the BI is correct, then there should be a difference of less than 1.5 between those two readings. So we have:

Sunday: 11.2 -> 9.9 - Perfectly acceptable.
Monday: 5.3 -> 12.0 - A jump of more than 6.
Tuesday:14.9 -> 7.3 after taking 2 units of QA. We can't really tell what happened here as you took QA (which you were correct in doing), but we can't tell whether the BI was appropriate when that happens.
Wednesday: 13.0 -> 12.6 - Perfectly acceptable, although at 13.0, 2 units of QA should have been taken to drop that to the desirable range.
Thursday: 10.2 -> 10.4 - Perfectly acceptable.
Friday: 10.8 -> 10.3 - Perfectly acceptable.
Saturday: 4.6 -> 9.2 with 2 CPs. so again can't tell as the CPs will affect that morning reading.

So apart from the Monday evening to Tuesday morning reading where there is an inexplicable jump of 6, it is fairly clear that your BI is actually spot on. Perhaps you forgot to record eating some CPs on Monday evening?

There is quite a bit of red in the diary though. If you are above 8.0, then it is a good idea to use QA to correct. For example, there are a few places in the diary, where a correction of QA would have been a good move, but was not taken. E.g: Sunday 2/3 at 13.29 and 23.39, Wednesday 23:32, Thursday 07.30 and 22.45, Friday 07:45 and 22:47, Saturday 08.24 and 12.48, and Sunday 09.51 and 14.21.

It is curious that your BGs dropped from 16.1 at 14.21 to 4.8 at 20.52 without any QA at all on Sunday 09/03. That would usually indicate that your BI is way out, but everywhere else, your BI looks to be the right dose. Did you not take QA to correct that 16.1 reading at 14.21 on Sunday 09/03? You should always correct for a reading of 13 and above unless you have eaten in the previous two hours as the risk of DKA increases for readings of 13 and above.

If you don't know how much a unit of QA will drop your BGs by, then start with 3, and then use trial and error to see if that is a suitable value. So for example, if you are 11.0, having one unit of QA will hopefully drop you to about 8.0. Two units of QA would hopefully drop you to 5.0 by your next meal depending on what QA you are on, and its profile.

Best regards,
Warwick.