Weird after meal...

Stuboy · #1 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 12:03 AM

Last night we had a roast dinner for tea... Vegetables, potato's, parsnips, and a steak (not sure what meat). After i had a fruit salad type thing for desert.

Before the meal my levels were 10.2 (194.4), about an hour or so after i took my readings again and they went DOWN to 5.0 (90).

This is really wierd i thought they were supposed to go UP! They only thing is, it continued to drop and i started to feel a bit shakey so i took my levels again (this is about another 1.5 hours past) and i'd dropped to 3.3 (59.4).

So i guess last night i had my first hypo. Had three glucose tablets and a sandwhich (brown bread).

Why would it have gone down after a meal? Would the fat in the steak slowed down the carbs in the potato's and veg?

Thnks, still new to all this and it's sorta confused me as it's gone against all my other readings untill now!

corwin · #2 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 12:47 AM

Yes, a high fat content of a meal will slow the carbs. When you gain experience you learn how things effect you personally, in general fat and protein delay the raise in bg but you'll have to find out for yourself how much it does for you.
You handled it very well and didn't panic which is impressive, when I had my first hypo I paniced and ate way too much carbs and went sky high.
This is very common when you just get diagnosed, there are many things to learn both generally about this condition and specificly about your own system. You'll keep getting weird things that goes against what you learned and then you'll figure out new information. The good news is that it gets much easier very quickly.

Stuboy · #3 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 01:47 AM

So it was probably the fat and protein in the steak then!! Would you suggest that i avoid steak? or eat less of it? or eat something sugary to get my levels up a bit before the carbs kick in?

It happened a couple of days ago when i made a salmon salad... to i guess the protein in the fish was the culprit for that. Doesnt exlpain why it DIDN't happen when i had a grilled salmon ceasar salad tho! would the why salmon is cooked make a different perhaps?

dbc · #4 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 02:00 AM

Sounds like your insulin dose needs fine tuning - not surprising if you were only diagnosed a week ago. Most people here experience a couple of weeks "experimenting" to get the ratio of carbs/food eaten to insulin dose right, I'm sure they'll come forward with loads of tips. Have you spoken to a dietician/diabetic educator yet about changes you should consider to your diet? and the effect of various foods on your blood sugar?

corwin · #5 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 02:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuboy

Would you suggest that i avoid steak? or eat less of it? or eat something sugary to get my levels up a bit before the carbs kick in?

Definetly not. In fact these slow absorbing food types make it much easier to control with insulin. Sugar raise your bg in 15 minutes, steak in 6 hours. This cause a much smaller spike and it's much healthier for you. What you do need to figure out, and it will take some time, is how much and when you need to take insulin for your meals. If you got low from what you did now, try less insulin, or injecting later.

KickStart101 · #6 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 02:18 AM

Yes, fat consumed during a meal is an issue but it also
sounds like you took more Insulin than you needed, since
your bg was already high before you started the meal.

Stuboy · #7 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 02:33 AM

i was told to take my insulin 20 minutes before i eat. i took 14units. so if i know that what im about to eat is higher in protein and fat then i should lower the dosage?

seacomp · #8 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 03:15 AM

It's more likely that the meal you ate was lower in carbs than what you normally eat. Eventually, you have to learn to "count carbs" and adjust your insulin dose in line with what you eat.
The fat you eat may or may not be an issue, but until you've adjust your doses for the carb count, you really can't tell.
(And actually before that, you should be sure that your basal dose(s) is correct.)

Stuboy · #9 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 03:20 AM

i dont even know what a basal dose is...

corwin · #10 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 03:24 AM

I'm not sure you mentioned it, what insulin are you taking?

JediSkipdogg · #11 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 04:08 AM

It appears that the main reason you dropped so much was because you gave too much insulin. The insulin worked so well that the food didn't really have a peak to it at all and then you just kept on going down. The fat in the steak may have had something to do with it, but it appears at first that you gave too much since you kept on going down hours after the meal.

Do you have a carb ratio yet? Or how do you decide what insulin to give with food?
Do you have a correction factor when running high? If not, how do you know how much insulin to give to bring you down?

KickStart101 · #12 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuboy

i dont even know what a basal dose is...

The basal dose is the amount of your long acting Insulin(Lantus,
Levemir, etc.)that you take every day.

The bolus dose is the amount of your fast acting Insulin(Humalog,
Novolog, etc.), that you take in the morning, before meals or if your
sugar level is high and you want to get it down to normal levels sooner.

corwin · #13 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 04:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JediSkipdogg

Do you have a carb ratio yet? Or how do you decide what insulin to give with food?
Do you have a correction factor when running high? If not, how do you know how much insulin to give to bring you down?

Jedi, buddy, the guy knows he's diabetic for exactly 1 week, you expect him to know all that? I didn't have a ratio, only a constant amount, and I gave no correction shots at all for at least few weeks post dx. There's a lot to learn at first, it takes time.

JediSkipdogg · #14 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corwin

Jedi, buddy, the guy knows he's diabetic for exactly 1 week, you expect him to know all that? I didn't have a ratio, only a constant amount, and I gave no correction shots at all for at least few weeks post dx. There's a lot to learn at first, it takes time.

Actually, alot of places are starting people on carb ratios before they leave the hospital. It's easier to learn carb counting and a basic correction factor than it is to use a sliding scale or just a give 15 units at dinner and eat this and only this or eat whatever you want. So for liability reasons, many places won't let one leave the hospital without basic carb counting for a type 1.

corwin · #15 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 04:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JediSkipdogg

Actually, alot of places are starting people on carb ratios before they leave the hospital. It's easier to learn carb counting and a basic correction factor than it is to use a sliding scale or just a give 15 units at dinner and eat this and only this or eat whatever you want. So for liability reasons, many places won't let one leave the hospital without basic carb counting for a type 1.

I didn't know that. Sounds way too much info in such a short time, but I'll take your word for it. For me they just told me at first to eat very few carbs, around 30g and inject 2u for every meal, then slowly tought me how to count the carbs, eat more and bolus\correct whenever needed.