I have Type 1 diabetes and I’m struggling with high blood sugar, especially after meals. I use Actrapid for corrections and Insulatard (NPH) as basal insulin.
I’d like to hear from others:
How do you correct high blood sugar safely?
Do you wait before eating when sugar is high?
Any tips to avoid ove
Is it possible for you to get fast acting/ultra acting insulin? Fiasp/novo-rapid or similar?
My daughter has type 1, she use novo-rapid and we usually always pre bolus for 15-20 minutes and even longer If have to correct or with a high carb meal. We do not let her eat with a steady "higher" (125-130mgdl+) blood sugar, we let it start to drop down before eating. With a lower blood sugar (75-90mgdl) we let the pre bolus work 10-15 minutes for her to not spike.
A pre bolus is the most important to not spike we have found, also to stay on top and make adjustments to her carb ratio and correction factor/basal.
Thanks a lot 🙏🙏🙏🙏
That's really interesting. I've been T1d for 55 years and have lately struggled with higher readings towards mealtimes. I never thought of not taking the two insulin at the same time so will try it. Appreciate that this reply wasn't meant for me but thank you all the same 🙂
What do you eat and how high do you get?
Some meals are tricky to manage so I just try to avoid them 😄
But yes, the general advice is to wait between injecting and eating. As far as I know, with Actrapid you have to wait like 20 minutes even when your blood sugar is good. If it's high, you have to wait even more.
The trifecta for me is water, exercise, and of course insulin.
Corrections happen faster if you break your 10 unit dose into 3 or 5 injections of 2 or 3 units each.
Ok downvote my Doctor 's advice.. great.
Thanks for sharing. Can you explain how you space the doses when you split a correction? For example, how much time do you wait between each 2–3 unit injection, and how do you avoid insulin stacking or late lows?
There's a limit to how fast the cell fluid around the shot can disperse your insulin into circulation. You can't get around this limit by boosting more insulin in the same shot. It just takes longer to absorb, and often winds up crashing you later.
You can increase the rate of absorption by dividing the dose and creating 2, 3, or 5 injection sites. Stick the needle in twice, three times in a row, injecting a few units into each one. No reason to delay. It won't absorb 2x, 3x, or 5x faster but it won't take as long to bring down a spike.
No, I don't change the needle between sticks. :)
You always have a 10% chance of sticking a nerve and it stings like fire. Taking 3 shots triples your chance of this, but big boy pants means you leave it in long enough to get a couple of units in.
I do this! Usually just split it in to two needle stabs helps it come down twice as fast!! Also works if I'm about to eat something HIGH carb...5 guys milkshake I'm looking at you...really gets the insulin working fast enough to counter the high quick carbs
Split 2 ways doesn't double the rate for me. Split 5 ways it might double the rate but there's diminishing returns.
Based on my uncontrolled study with n=1. :)
I had a 5 guys milkshake once. Never again.
I split it with my aunt. My blood sugar before was 98. I only had half of the half I kept for myself. By the first hour after, I was up to 200. By the second hour- over 300.
Must be some sort of dark magic in that. And it wasn't good enough to do a repeat in my opinion.
How long ago were you diagnosed, and has anyone spoken to you about insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring systems?
I ask because it sounds like you are on the exact same roller coaster I spent years dealing with. I started using a pump, and it tightened up my control a great deal.
Pump is not available In mu country ..