Trying not to overcorrect!

[jenb]

Well, here I sit at 1:10 a.m. with the "low munchies". I have had my one strawberry, two cherries and YES - about a tablespoon of ganache. I'm trying to wait til these carbs kick in before I eat anything else (I'm pretty sure I really don't need more food!), so I thought I'd post here and see if anyone's around.

Here's my tale of woe: Had dinner with a friend. I usually do a series of small boluses when I'm out socially, taking hourly readings and injecting 1 to 1.5 units of Novolog as the situation warrants. I'm pretty diligent about recording my intake, but tonight I'm sure I neglected to record a 1.5 unit dose and am now facing the result of insulin stacking. Went to bed at about 12:30, felt odd at 12:45, tested and was at 50 and could feel I was dropping. Ate the berries and chocolate (mmmmmm!!!!) and at 1:00 was at 57. Headed in the right direction, but think I might still have a some excess Novolog on board.

More fun with diabetes!

Jen

[PattiM]

When I do what you are doing (feeling low), I eat 4 glucose tabs or drink 1/2 can of regular pop and take my BG every 15 minutes until it hits at least 105. Doing it this way, you don't over treat your low. :)

[viranth]

Why not treat the lows with some oatmeal or other low GI food. It will rise you BG, but it won't spike as much asthose items with more sugar in them.

If I'm out, I normally get a piece of fruit or fruit juice or something like that. Only had soda or sugar once, in my one year and seven months with diabetes, and that was only because they didn't have anything else in that particular store.

[kgm0612]

Hope everything worked out for you during the night, Jen.

When I wake during the night with a low, I usually drink half to one glass of OJ. It brings my BS up quickly and stops me from raiding the refrigerator! LOL

Karen

[Subby]

Why not treat the lows with some oatmeal or other low GI food. It will rise you BG, but it won't spike as much asthose items with more sugar in them.

If I'm out, I normally get a piece of fruit or fruit juice or something like that. Only had soda or sugar once, in my one year and seven months with diabetes, and that was only because they didn't have anything else in that particular store.

Low GI food to treat a low? You trying to promote people passing out as their central nervous system shuts down, Viranth? :)

It's not the speed that's the issue with spiking, it's the amount. Taking small amounts of fast acting (by small I mean portion controlled and probably in the region of 5 - 15g for starters - everyone needs to get a feel for what bumps them up without spiking into high BGs) will get you out of the danger zone in a timely fashion, and land you in good BGs. Of course, you may well have set off a liver dump as well. Got to try to deal with that in whatever way you can, whatever you eat.

[jenb]

When I do what you are doing (feeling low), I eat 4 glucose tabs or drink 1/2 can of regular pop and take my BG every 15 minutes until it hits at least 105. Doing it this way, you don't over treat your low. :)

Thanks, Patti. Ooooh....those 4 glucose tabs would send me skyrocketing. One usually suffices. Tonight I had the fruit at hand and in the end it got me up to a happy 98. All's well that ends well!

Jen

[e||ement]

glad you are feeling better jen!

i get those too...the "low munchies" and they are hard to fight off!

[jenb]

Why not treat the lows with some oatmeal or other low GI food. It will rise you BG, but it won't spike as much asthose items with more sugar in them.

If I'm out, I normally get a piece of fruit or fruit juice or something like that. Only had soda or sugar once, in my one year and seven months with diabetes, and that was only because they didn't have anything else in that particular store.

Sadly, since I do love oatmeal, it is on my personal list of things that cause big spikes. Which I guess would be OK for a low ;) . BUT, too much time to prepare it. I like the fruit idea and treated last night with a strawberry/cherry menu (with a little chocolate thrown in for good measure).

Jen

[GeishaGirl]

Thanks, Patti. Ooooh....those 4 glucose tabs would send me skyrocketing. One usually suffices. Tonight I had the fruit at hand and in the end it got me up to a happy 98. All's well that ends well!

Jen

I always find it funny that, just as we all have different insulin sensitivities, we all have different sensitivity to carbs as well :)

I was getting ready for bed last night and tested at 75. Since I've been having problems with nighttime lows, this was blatantly unacceptable. I must have eaten 5 glucose tabs, tested at 66, and ate about 3 more before, after another 15 minutes, I was at 108, which was acceptable for sleep. I woke up at 98, so I probably didn't spike, or at least not so bad. Those 8 tabs = 32g of carbs, double what most people need. And this is typical of me.

[jenb]

Hope everything worked out for you during the night, Jen.

When I wake during the night with a low, I usually drink half to one glass of OJ. It brings my BS up quickly and stops me from raiding the refrigerator! LOL

Karen

Those refrigerator raids seem harder to avoid in the middle of the night than during mid day. Too bad you can't schedule lows for more convenient times!

Jen

[jenb]

It's not the speed that's the issue with spiking, it's the amount. Taking small amounts of fast acting (by small I mean portion controlled and probably in the region of 5 - 15g for starters - everyone needs to get a feel for what bumps them up without spiking into high BGs) will get you out of the danger zone in a timely fashion, and land you in good BGs. Of course, you may well have set off a liver dump as well. Got to try to deal with that in whatever way you can, whatever you eat.

Couldn't agree more about the small amount of carb. It really pays to know how your own system reacts. One of my pet peeves with the professional diabetes community is the dictum that a low should always be treated with 15 grams of carb. For some of us that's way too much, and I'm sure for some it's not enough. I don't know why educators don't spend more time aiding new diabetics in finding out how much a gram of carb causes their BG to rise...it's really a critical piece of information.

Wow - what a rant! Done now :D .

Jen

[Cormac_Doyle]

You don't mean to imply that just maybe the so-called educators might need a bit of education :) :)

[viranth]

Low GI food to treat a low? You trying to promote people passing out as their central nervous system shuts down, Viranth? :)

It's not the speed that's the issue with spiking, it's the amount. Taking small amounts of fast acting (by small I mean portion controlled and probably in the region of 5 - 15g for starters - everyone needs to get a feel for what bumps them up without spiking into high BGs) will get you out of the danger zone in a timely fashion, and land you in good BGs. Of course, you may well have set off a liver dump as well. Got to try to deal with that in whatever way you can, whatever you eat.

Hehe, no sorry. Hope no one passes out because they read that.

I was talking from my personal experience, where any carb will rise my BG, but it depends on how big of a spike it'll do it in. If I were to eat lets say glucotabs, it could raise me from 4mmol to 8-9mmol quickly, while if I ate a piece of fruit or something like that, I could go from 4mmol to 5-6mmol.

The "hypo feeling" would still be there with the glucotabs after it was back to normal, because it raises so fast and you might overcorrect. While the low GI will make you wait out the hypo feeling, and slowly feeling better and harder to overcorrect.