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Permalink Reply by karen on January 2, 2013 at 10:27am

Hi Siri,

in a perfect world the acceptable number of lows during the week would be 0. All lows need to be treated, the number and the treatment are a decisions you will have to determine for your own body. A low is counted when your result is whatever that number you've determined is your low. If you "discover" your bg is on it's way down and treat it before it says low on your meter, that is a good thing and you have avoided a low.

I wish you the best in finding peace and sanity with your diabetes :)

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Permalink Reply by Siri on January 3, 2013 at 3:40am

Thank you, karen.

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Permalink Reply by Leo2 on January 2, 2013 at 7:20pm

Hi Siri,
I should not have been so flippant. I really do stick with 100-110.
Answering your questions:
How many lows during a week is acceptable? Were I to go lower than 100, I'd simply take whatever number of glucose tablets needed to keep me at 100 and think nothing more about it. Lows happen. I can be off a half a unit and I'll be down to 70. There is nothing I can do but use the amount and type of carbs that I know exactly how many units will handle it. And the fewer the carbs, the better marksmanship I have. I went to 4 meals with fewer carbs in each one just so I would not be dealing with so many units of insulin that I might be off.
Do I consider a low every blood sugar that needs to be treated? Every test I do that results in a lower than 100 gets "treated". A half a glucose tab, 2 grams, will raise me 13. At 87, I take a half a glucose tab. At 93 or so I'll take a one gram candy.
Is a low counted as a low when it's on its way down and treat before it tests low? I don't count "lows" or "highs". I don't blast myself if I've given too much insulin. I simply give myself the amount of glucose that will hit 100 on the dot. Every time.

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Permalink Reply by Siri on January 3, 2013 at 5:12am

Thanks, Leo2. "Lows happen",- I like that :-)

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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on January 3, 2013 at 5:35am

"Sounds in many ways like me. Guess my Qs stems from reading about and hearing from endos how many lows one should consider acceptable and thereby wondering if I´m overtreating or beeing too obesessed with my diabetes. And then again what is a low when I´m preventing them instead og experiencing them. Is that a sign of me having poorly adjusted insulin doses or is it how it really is beeing a diebetic? I don´t know ´cuas I´m just me, poor material for doing statistics."-- Siri, OP

To me, a low that needs to be prevented is one that interferes with your life. I'd rather aim a shade lower than Leo and nudge it there but I test like a dozen times/ day. I also am eating 120-150G of carbs, a bit more through the holidays but my SD is in the 20.9 in the last week and 21.4 the last month (although that is perhaps "cooked" as I ran it in the teens a couple of weeks before the holidays and undoubtedly ran a bit more whacky through them. But not that much...). I am certain that if I cut out a number of carbs (incl beer!) I could likely smooth things out but I am very pleased with where I'm at and don't have a huge amount of motivation to change right now.

I don't worry about being a bit tighter than the medical societies recommend and my doctor is very supportive and had been there for my last big hypo (perfect storm, + exercise, made tactical error, Mrs could have handled but other people called 911...oh well...) a couple of years ago and knows that I'm aware of the risks involved and says she's very pleased with my results with diabetes and, more generally, my general health, exercising regularly, eating more healthily 75% of the time (until oh, 7:00 PM?).

Re "preventing" vs "treating" lows, I think that's a very good question. I usually just try to keep an eye on when I'm running down and, if I see a pattern of repeated lows or highs on a regular basis, turn my basal up or down a click (.025U/ hour...) if it's a fasting BG or adjust my carb ratio +/- .1U/G if it's a post-prandial number that seems to require fixing. My doc only gave me an adjustment after the significant hypo by telling me to turn it down after the last significant hypo. By the time the nurse emailed me to tell me to do that, I told them I'd already done it myself...LOL. As long as you stay out of the ER, I think this approach is fine and that you shouldn't feel anything negative about it.

Another thing I picked up, maybe when I was studying Tae Kwon Do and feeling phsyically "successful" was not to get complacent or give up. Diabetes is dangerous and I don't think that it's misplaced to pay close attention to it. Testing 12x/ day, along with a CGM may not be the norm but it's gotten me where I want to be healthwise. Except for doing more chinups. That will take some more work.

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Permalink Reply by Siri on January 3, 2013 at 1:16pm

Wise words, acidrock23. Thanks again for taking the time and effort explaining your thoughts to me.

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