[ShintoBean]

Ok, so I can't find my pumping insulin books, I think my mom has them . . .

What exactly is a good post-prandial number?

After increasing my basal (I'm on a pump), I finally got a fasting number of 90, I had about 50 g of carbs for breakfast (oatmeal), and took 7.1 units. 2 hours later my BS was 172. I feel dumb posing this question, but is this good? I'm trying to figure out if I need to change my I:C ratio, it's currently 1:7.

Thanks, Shannon

[Subby]

Your post prandial seems a bit high. A jump of about 36 or so is probably a worthy target for you to aim for at this stage. Before you go tinkering with your I:C though, there are a couple of questions:

- did you take a test at 4 hours? This is very useful to see if you may have deferred insulin action (such as through absorption issues). Given a good basal and no other big factors (eg, strenuous exercise, more snacks), the 4-5 hour test may reveal a bit. If it's coming right down then, some strategies might like to look at more low carb and low GI food, and/or pre-bolusing (pausing before the meal to let the insulin kick in), IF one is completely comfortable doing that. Of course be extra careful of hypos. Pausing 20 minutes or more before meals really helped my post meal spikes. Many people seem to have success with a small pause.

What did you have for breakfast? Many breakfast foods spike me, personally. How are other meals going at the 2 and 4 hour mark?

[shiftzor]

2 and a half hours after a meal you should be within 10mmol (180mg/dl) and 5mmol/L (90mg/dl). More importantly you should be within 2mmol/L (20mg/dl) of your post meal BG. High GI/Glycemic load meals can mean that your BG is still high at 2 and a half hours mark, but they will usually come down within the hour after that. Depends on the meal as fatty meals can cause spikes later on in the day, testing at the 4 hour mark and even 6 hour mark can highlight these problems. Basically only way to find out is to keep testing.

[Lloyd]

My target is 90.

-Lloyd

[shabbie]

novorapid works for 3 hours for me, no drop after the 3rd hour. so at 2 hours i should be pretty close to 6.0/108 so that i will be at my perfect score of around 5.3/95 after the third hour.

of course other factors come into play here like what youve eaten and what style of bolus you used. but general rule of thumb for me is as above.

[Alice]

Two hours after I like to be under 120...but I don't sweat the "spikes" prior...I always drop quickly and need a little padding. I continue to drop normally after 2-3 hours...so I need a little padding to handle the Humalog.

I find the biggest difference in post-meal numbers is determined by when I take the initial bolus...or split bolus, etc. Fast carbs...I try to take 15 minutes earlier. Slow carbs such as pasta and such, then I take after eating.

This has helped premature lows.

[ShintoBean]

Thanks for all the great advice. I did have oatmeal, which does have a high GI (I think). At 4 hours post (right before lunch) it had gone down to 141, still not great, I guess. However, two hours after that, it was about 150, and then two hours after that, i was having hypoglycemia in the middle of the supermarket!
Blargh, Anyways, atleast by dinner time, it was a perfectly sensible 105, we'll see how I do in about an hour . . .
Shannon

[Alice]

If I'm reading your post correctly...your hypo came about 8 hours after taking the bolus for the oatmeal, right? In that case, your low may be coming from your basal insulin...not the fast-acting. That probably tapered off around 4 hours.

Am I reading this correct?...you were a long way from that oatmeal bolus when you had the hypo?

[ShintoBean]

Nope, sorry, I forgot to mention that, at lunch I had about 30 carbs and the insulin to match it. So the low was about 3.5-4 hours after that.

[Eddy]

I:

• am thrilled if I hit the 80s
• am happy with the 90s
• shrug off the 100-110 range
• generally correct if above 110
• wonder what I did wrong if above 120.

(Note that there are plenty of occasions where I wonder what I did wrong...)