Well, that is good.
But the best advice is to not sweat it, make the changes you can and let them build up. Hell, after 30 years I still screw up occasionally <shrug> put it down to being organic and not a machine. if you had been hovering at 300+ for a year and managed a 199, it is an improvement!
[I found an empty tube of urine test strips - the ‘active range’ on the damned things was like 200-300:eek: and went up to 1000 :eek::eek::eek::eek: I can’t imagine a BG reading of 1000]
The results of an analysis will depend on the methodology used, yes. That’s a pretty basic concept in analytical chemistry.
I think it’s much smarter the way they do this nowadays.
I was depressed enough about the diagnosis, had I also faced never eating a piece of chocolate again in my life! I don’t know if I could have faced that. But being told to limit it to 2 pieces a day – well, hard, but acceptable.
I remember in the 50’s, my Grandma, in her late 80’s, being denied all desserts, candy, cake, etc. – a real trial for her. So bad that she took to stealing the baking chocolate from the cupboard and eating pieces of that. She couldn’t understand, or couldn’t accept these restrictions on her life. I’m glad they don’t do things that way now.
Yep. I’ve had many of these (I’ve been type 1 since 1993). Two that spring immediately to mind were:
A doctor claiming that 3.8 (68.4, apparently) was a perfectly normal blood sugar level that would see me feeling normal.
A nurse that in response to crashing blood sugar (I was rather ill in hospital) decided to give me a glass of milk rather than, you know, glucose tablets. Yes, milk has sugar in it, but not that much and when your sugar is dropping (it was already under the 4.0 threshhold) that milk is going to do nothing.
I haven’t counted carbs since, oooh 1995 or so. No diabetes specialist that I have spoken to, in two different countries, in that period has recommended it. I think a large part of it is due to the glycaemic index, you need to think not just about how many carbs but also how your body will process them and thus adjust you short acting/long acting balance.
These days I just look at what I am eating and guess how I think it’ll affect me. I am usually right.
Really? In the US, carb-counting is still very much the standard teaching. How do they recommend new Type 1s learn how to calculate boluses?
Personally, I haven’t had much luck with the glycemic index. Sure, some carbs are digested faster than others, but I still have to count the damn things and 18 carbs worth of whole grains need the same amount of insulin as 18 carbs worth of pure sugar, at least in my body. The curve is different, but not so much that I worry about it. Still, it’s intriguing - mind if I ask what your A1c is? No worries if you don’t want to get into that much detail, just wondering how tight of control you’ve been able to achieve with your methods.
I can do that too, with stuff I’m used to eating. There’s only so much variation in one person’s diet. But I do count when I’m eating something new, and especially at night, where mis-counting dinner means I have to set the alarm to wake up and check my blood sugar if I correct before going to sleep.
Trial and error maybe? I mean that’s how I ended up going through about five different insulin types and regimes until I found something that worked for me.
6.1. The previous time it was 5.8 and they said they were glad it had gone up as they felt 5.8 was too low, it is too easy to go hypo if your average is around there.
What do you do if you eat out? At a friend’s place? Anywhere where you didn’t make the food yourself? How do you calculate your change in dosage when you exercise?
There’s a reason they don’t teach such rigidity anymore.
But they do teach it, at least in the US. Where do you live where they don’t teach it? Seriously - 4 years ago I visited one of the top (if not THE top) diabetes facility in the US, and they teach carb counting, and I highly doubt they’ve changed. You say “Trial and error” - but that has to be based on something, doesn’t it? I’m not trying to be difficult here, I’m just truly curious about how new Type 1s learn how to eat, if not through carb-counting.
I guess I don’t really understand your question about what I do if I don’t make the food myself. I still count carbs, based on sight, which is mostly what I do at home. Sure, sometimes I weigh things at home, or check the packages, but it doesn’t take long to realize what 20 carbs worth of beans or bread or whatever looks like. How do you do it?
As far as exercise, that’s trickier, but doable. I guess the big rule for exercise for me is 1) always take some fast-acting carbs with me and 2) check blood sugar every 45 minutes or so. I’ve found that if I work out with bolus insulin in me, I’ll almost certainly go low, so I either under-bolus if I know I’m going to be working out, or make sure to keep a close eye on it.
Of course, that’s not a hard-and-fast rule, because it also depends on the exercise. Running, for example, is the opposite for me - if I don’t have some extra bolus in me, I go high from running.
Do you have a pump? If you’re not carb counting, what do you do? Just dose in units rather than # of carbs? Every pump I’ve seen is set up to take carb counts, though most will allow you to type in units as well.
Sorry for all the questions, I’m just curious!
I haven’t been a new diabetic since 1993, but in the UK they stopped carb counting with me around 1995 and I have never, ever had carb counting presented to me as a way of dealing with things in the thirteen years that I have lived here.
“Trial and error” is based around trying a value and seeing if it works. That starting value can be based on anything, even just a “sod it, let’s go with ten”.
I’ve done a bit of background reading and found this site which suggests that it went out of favour in the UK but in some areas it has been brought back in:
I haven’t live din the UK since 1999, so what they do there now is something I don’t come across. Here in Sweden, as I said, I have never even come across it. The absolute closest I have seen is when talking to a dietician she showed me the plate model.
Maybe they feel they don’t need to because my control is very good?
I don’t have a pump. I use Humalog with each meal, Lantus at 8pm every night and take 4-8 tests per day (at a guess). I also exercise a lot.
Additionally, here’s an interesting blog post: Every day ups and downs, a diabetes blog: Not counting - the cost. An open letter to Diabetes UK.
I did some clicking around and unfortunately, as you’d expect, all the information for Sweden is in Swedish. This site is run by Novo Nordisk, one of the pharma companies specialising in diabetes care:
I can honestly not find anything about Carb counting in the food section. It covers GI, eating fibre, the plate model and whatnot, but no connection is made (that I can see) directly between the amount of carbs and the exact amount you should inject. The only slight reference is this:
Which translates as :
Many of the links you gave (I translated them with Google Translate) are talking about diet in general, not carb-counting for insulin dosing. In the “diet” sense, what we’re taught in the US is exactly the same as the links you provided - there is no “diabetes diet”, there’s no reason to restrict carbs beyond what is recommended as a healthy diet for everyone, diabetic or not.
That said, we are taught to figure out carbs for insulin dosing. Personally, I agree with the letter you linked here. I can’t imagine just blindly using trial-and-error to figure out boluses. Seems foolhardy, and carb-counting really isn’t that difficult or “rigid” after the first month or two. I eat what I want, dose appropriately, don’t really spend more than a few minutes a day on diabetes management, and I’m happy with that.
Any other US-based Type 1’s reading this? What’s your take?
That’s kind of the point I was making.
An in-depth site for diabetes, for Swedes in Swedish, makes next to no reference to it. Which goes a long with how I have never had it mentioned to me in the thirteen years I have lived here. And my centre for treatment is the specialist centre at one of the four main hospitals serving the capital city (S:t Görans Sjukhus in Stockholm).
I use ReliOn Prime Blood Glucose Meter since the strips per 50 is only $9.00.
It doesn’t include a lancing device and you have to buy that separate.
I swear my Bayer lancing device doesn’t work well when you put the lancet in properly in the device. (always have to pull it out ever so slightly or I won’t get a prick)
It amazes me what awesome NSA/low carb options are out there on the American market, especially for established brands. In Canada, we’ve caught onto low fat and low sodium, but not low carb. Y’all have low carb Heinz ketchup, Breyer’s SmartCarb ice cream, NSA Oreos…low carb in Canada is very much a niche market. I’m lucky enough to live in a part of Canada that has FlatOut wraps and we have a few online companies that ship cheaply, but I really wish I could shop more locally. The only reliable low carb products are diet soft drinks and Russell Stover candies.
In other, related news, my most recent A1C was 5.9! 
Got the Fastclix lancing device yesterday and its MUCH better than the Bayer Phaser™. (Real name Bayer Microlet 2)
Congrats kushiel! 
Good job!