What is your schedule?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David on February 20, 2009 at 12:06pm

You may still be in the honeymoon phase of you diabetes so hang on for a wild ride. Just when you think you have things figured out, they change. I transitioned to a pump which has made life a whole lot easier, but when i was doing MDIs, I took Lantus 15mg at night and in the morning along with Humalog before meals. Your insulin to carb ratio is something you'll have to adjust by testing. Dr. Bernstein's book Diabetes Solutions, and Walsh and Roberts book, Pumping insulin coulld be very helpful to you in this learning phase. I currently test upon waking and correct if high. I check again before breakfast, 2 hours after, before lunch, 2 hours after, before dinner, 2 hours after, and before bed. If I"m going to exercise I check both before and after. Sooner or later you'll get into a routine of tesitng, injecting, and eating many of the same foods cause you know how they'll affect you. We are not a glum lot, but we do get into our routines that work for us. One note about treating lows........eat glucose tabs. they are a measured amount of carbs and don't add huge calorie loads. It's hard not to grab every sweet in the refrigerator when you're low, but if you keep the tabs handy and give them a few minutes to work, they cravings will go away. Good luck and welcome to Tudiabetes.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by KarenS on February 20, 2009 at 12:11pm

Thanks David!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by KarenS on February 24, 2009 at 7:39am

David, do you really test 8 times a day!? Do you eat at the same time everyday? do you set an alarm to help you remember to test? At what point did you start using a pump? Have you always taken Lantus twice daily? Do you log your meals & blood sugar readings daily or just before seeing the doctor?Sorry about all the questions, just trying to get more information from real people. Thanks for taking the time to give me more insight!
Karen

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David on February 25, 2009 at 6:29am

Hi Karen! I test every day when i wake, before breakfast, 2 hours after, before lunch, 2 hour after, before dinner, 2 hours after, and before bed. My meter has an alarm that reminds me to test 2 hours after bolusing a meal. The meter and pump "talk" to each other and i can bolus from the meter or the pump. it's a real luxury. I don't always eat at the same time, but pretty close on most days. Any other time I feel "off" i also test and adjust. I was on oral meds and diet and exercise for 10 years before i started on Lantus. I started at 8U at night and progressed to 30U over time. I found it didn't work for a full 24 hours so i started splitting the dose. did that work? sort of. it wasn't perfect. After about a year on Lantus my BGs started to rise till finally i had lost all control the Doc started me on Humalog. After about a year on that i transitioned to the pump. If you're going to pump, you have to test this often. The pump and associated meter are downloadable to computer so i keep all my records there and feed them by email to the ENDO before i go in. You can't cheat the meter and if you measured it, it records it. I do enter my carbs in the meter but not consistently. I eat pretty much the same thing every day (at least carb content wise) so I'm pretty level most of the time. there are things i just can't eat, no matter how much insulin i have....Chinese, Mexican, and any form of rice.........Good luck and keep the questions flowing. Everyone here is glad to help.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rebecca on February 20, 2009 at 3:21pm

I was recently found to be LADA and not type 2 and have been using insulin for about a month. It IS tricky! Two things help me the most: 1. TEST often. If you find yourself high, correct it with the Novolog because I find that if it gets really high (like 250-300, it is a LOT harder to bring down. 2. Follow Dr. Bernstein's Law of Small Numbers. Especially keeping your carb count low is going to keep you from going too far one way or the other. That also enables you to take less insulin so less chance of a low, AND less weight gain!

I would say that my insulin doses are pretty similar to yours, although I probably only take 2- 4 units before meals. Another thing that I found helped keep me stable is to take Levemir (the "other" Lantus) twice a day because it doesn't last 24 hours for most people (especially at that low dose) and that was REALLY messing me up. I started taking 15 at night and 10 in the morning, but now I'm only taking about 8 units each time. I think dividing that dose REALLY helped my body stay on a more even keel.

Oh and the most helpful book for me was Think Like A Pancreas by Gary Scheiner!

Rebecca

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Amy on March 9, 2009 at 8:22pm

I was LADA for 2.3 years & I am now a type 1. I started out doing Lantus 3 units all the way up to 12 @ night. My pre-meal was humalog on a sliding scale (1-5 units). I was switched to Humalog 75/25 mix and no more lantus. I started out with the new Humalog at 10 units and now up to 20. My numbers are doing a wee bit better. My current A1C is 10% (came down from 13% in 1 month). I am eating between 45-60 grams of carbs each meal. I also went from testing 7 times a day (before & after each meal & before bed) to only testing before each meal and bedtime. But if I do feel low, I test to see if I am correct. And if I am, I eat candy, glucose tablets or something else that I may have near by. I see my nurse in April, I see my dr in May. And all of this could change.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Zoe on June 2, 2009 at 7:23am

My endo gave me a fixed dose of "2 or 3" units of Apidra before meals. From everything I learned on here and from Using Insulin I knew that was inaccurate. I have been looking up carbs and then figuring out my insulin: carb ratio. I started with the standard 1:15 for testing purposes and then altered it up or down based on what worked. In other words if I ate 30 carbs and took 2 units and my 2 hour after meal numbers were in range (under 140) for most meals. I knew the 1:15 was good. If not I altered them up or down. Right now it's looking like 1:10 for breakfast, 1:15 for lunch and 1:19 for dinner. One motivation for me not to over-use insulin (and to keep my carbs lowish) was that I had a serious hypo when my doctor had me on too high a dose. (before I learned much myself or saw an endo). So I'm scared of taking too much.

I absolutely agree with the idea of test, test, test, especially in the beginning. I test when I get up, before and after each meal and at bedtime. Since I was scared of lows until I got comfortable with the I:C ratio I tested every 1/2 hour to see what my numbers were doing after meals. Now I only do that if I feel low. I don't do correction bolus (or haven't yet) because I am insulin sensitive and when I computed my formula it is 1 unit brings me down 112 points so I'd have to be VERY high to do that.

▶ Reply to This