Re: interpreting readings (need help pls)

rk <p_haha_medium@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Danni and I just grabbed a small package of chocolate
donuts and each package was 44gm. Danni tested 88mg when
she started to eat, I tested at 98mg. At 90mins I snagged her again
and she was at 141mg. I'd injected 3.2u and I was at 117mg.
I ate a few pieces of watermelon to up me slightly to ward off the
pending low that would be coming on. At 90mins Mike tested at
108mg. Other times when I'll test her, she's not been over 110mg.
But I usually test her at 2hrs.

Anyhow.. I'm slightly worried about that 141mg she pulled. Should
I start keeping a closer eye on her? I'm going to test her again
before and after dinner to get a better idea if theres anything else
going on. We're having BBQ burgers w/bean salad and watermelon.
It's a fantastic evening outside and we're taking full advantage of it!

Also, those were my donuts for when I have to take Mike to work
at 4:30am.. I need a kick starter to wake me up. She asked me for
one and like normal, I said yes without thinking. She's actually been
doing quite well in watching what she's been eating.

So yes, I'm asking the T2's what do you think about her reading(s)?

Firstly, if ever I find an individual unexpectedly high reading I
immediately clean my fingers and test again. It's surprising how often
that makes the high reading go away. So what had she been eating
before the reading? Doughnuts? With sugar on them? :-)

If the reading persists I worry enough to try the situation again. In
the case of such a spike at 90 mins I'd worry that there might be a
higher reading earlier, esp. after something that would shoot me up as
fast as a doughnut. Of course a T1 using insulin may well respond very
differently. The BG peak for me after a doughnut would arrive at
between 35 and 50 mins, probably depending on how well I chewed it
(the effect of the salivary enzymes on the starch) and how fast I ate
it, e.g. did I eat half, pause for several minutes, and then finish
it?

There are too many things which can affect BG readings in a T2 for me
to take any single high BG reading as conclusive evidence of anything
*except* that I have a high BG (which has been confirmed by an
immediate second test after cleaning if it was unexpected). I'll
become suspicious after one unexpected and confirmed high reading and
repeat the experiment on another day.

I personally try to keep my *spikes* under 140 because of the research
evidence that that a one hour pp of >140 is where several
complications start to develop. I go further in searching for spike
location earlier than at one hour pp, because where high readings are
concerned, by one hour my BG has usually already fallen from its peak,
and I've noticed that some of my symptoms of high BGs, such as
neuropathy, occur in combination with peaks of >140 even when one hour
pps are <140. I also know that cardiovascular complications don't
start at BGs of over 140, they start at over 100 or even earlier, and
having had a heart attack already I'm specially concerned about them.

For those of you interested in the research evidence concerning BG
levels at which damage has been shown to occur I refer you to Jenny's
excellent web site, "What They Don't Tell You About Diabetes", which
Kurt would call amateur because he's a paper qualification fetishist,
but which I call professional because speaking as a research scientist
I consider it to be of an excellent professional standard.

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/

Note by the way that the timing of BG peak isn't a property of a food
item, it's a property of the relationship between your *personal* GI
for that food item *plus* the timing and size of any insulin you may
naturally produce or have injected, and if injected, its type. This is
not something anyone should have to do research to discover, it's just
a natural property of a combination of two anatagonistic processes, a
filling process, and an emptying process, when both processes ramp up
to a peak rate and down again, and start asynchronously. Consider for
example a basin which is filled by a tap, and emptied by a tap on the
waste pipe. Let's suppose the filling tap is openened very gradually
to maximum over a period of half and hour, and then turned slowly off
again. Now lets suppose someone does the same with the waste pipe
tap. Now lets suppose they start at different times. When is the basin
going to be at its fullest?

Depends on the rates of ramping up and down and when they started. Now
think of the filling tap as BG input from the guts after eating a
meal, and the waste pipe tap as insulin. If you think about that for a
while you could end up knowing more about BG peak timings than many
researchers who have published papers on the topic. Do some
experimental spread sheets on it and you certainly will :-)

Many people make the mistake of not realising that food GIs are
personal and for you can vary from those in published tables,
*especially* if you are diabetic. If you're a T1 diabetic you may find
that your personal GIs for food items will change if you change your
insulin dosing regime, and for T2s they may change as you change
medication or as you lose pancreas Beta cells or change insulin
resistance.

--
Chris Malcolm cam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

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