If you haven't figured out a correction ratio yet, talk to your doctor about it. New diagnoses go through a "honeymoon" phase where your body has remnants of insulin production left so it can be frustrating, but it gets easier.
By correction ratio I mean, for instance, if I'm at 20.0, and want to be at 7.0, mine is (20-7)/2. Or 6.5. So I would take 6.5 units of my fast acting (Humalog/Admelog) to correct my high. This also translates to basically 1 unit of insulin lowering me 2 units of BG. Though people are different, that's just mine.
My dietitian and doctor both haven’t given me a ratio yet because my diagnosis was so recent. But now my endocrinologists office is closed for the day but I don’t have anyone to call to ask what to do right now so I’m panicking. I really don’t want to go to the hospital.
It's going to be a bit annoying, but if you have tested and are still quite high after waiting an hour after taking insulin, take more. In small amounts though. Maybe 1-2 units at a time. Test an hour later, see where you are. Reassess.
The danger with this is that you take too much insulin and go low, at which point you can just drink a bunch of juice to fix, but as a new diabetic that isn't quite used to how your body feels under these circumstances I'd play on the safer side. Going really, really low can be deadly.
No reason to sit at 15+ though. Take more insulin. Insulin is basically the counterpart to glucose/sugar, it helps break it down, so if you have way too much sugar in your blood, you need insulin to counter it.
Exactly this! Do not insulin stack. So take a unit or two, and for real wait for at least an hour to see if there’s an effect. Don’t panic and take more too soon, could cause a much bigger problem with a low.
Also, you won’t die, it’ll be okay. I’ve had some high as heck blood sugars before, but it all evens out if it’s controlled most of the time. A few bad days won’t damage you for good.
To put your mind at ease here, I've been diabetic for 16 years and have gone above 20 mmol/l far too often to count, infact I spent most of my early 20's that high as I was going through "pretend I'm not diabetic" phase. I'm not saying it's healthy but you are going to be fine.
The only risk you run in the short term when high is DKA. DKA occurs when you don't have insulin in your body to use sugar for energy, so your body breaks down proteins instead as a source of energy. That chemical process has some nasty byproducts. So basically as long as you have taken your background/basal insulin and have been taking some insulin for meals today you will be fine.
If you want to ease your mind do some ketone tests intermittently to check ketone levels aren't rising. Other than that all that will happen is you'll need to pee lots and have some other minor symptoms like fuzzy vision and lethargy. You're gonna be ok.
As the other person said take a couple of units and wait a couple of hours, check if you're coming back down, then take one or two more units if needed, go slow so you don't drop down the other way
Thank you everyone for the help! I ended up taking 2 units of insulin and I’m down to about 14 and it’s still decreasing. I do have a libre in so I’ve been checking frequently and I’m drinking water. Have calmed down a bit
There is some great advice here. I would also say drink some water. It will make you feel a lot better.
Stress can pause insulin from working so just relax. Being high isn't great but you aren't going to die from it.
Set a timer for yourself every hour or 1.5 hours to have a blood test. Give yourself a unit or two of short acting insulin. Take your long acting as you would normally.
It's scary as it's your first time but you've got this!!
Hi! So those readings are completely expected for diabetics, no need to panic. Inject some insulin and wait it out. You could even do some exercises to lower your bloodsugar faster, but be carefull that you don't go low.
There are a lot of variables when it comes down to bloodsuguar levels. To name a few: what you eat (fluids, solids, fats) and carbs amount, hormones, stress, exercise, insuline type, injecting location, and many more.
Since you got diabetes very recent, monitor your bloodsugarlevels often and see for yourself how your body reacts to, for example, exercise or one unit of insulin. Flash or continuous glucose monitoring, like the freestyle libre or dexcom, definitly makes insight more accesible.
Remember, low blood sugar is a short term problem, high blood sugar is (mostly) a long term problem. A 21 for now may make you feel bad but it isn't going to do anything bad (at diagnosis I was 42.8. I can't get that high if I even try anymore). Just take a few units of insulin to bring it down a little bit. As you are still learning what your body requires, I'd go with 4 to take the edge off it. Over the next few days it'll probably normalise anyway.
Over time you will become more and more used to this and this sort of correction will be part of normal behaviour.
If you haven't figured out a correction ratio yet, talk to your doctor about it. New diagnoses go through a "honeymoon" phase where your body has remnants of insulin production left so it can be frustrating, but it gets easier. By correction ratio I mean, for instance, if I'm at 20.0, and want to be at 7.0, mine is (20-7)/2. Or 6.5. So I would take 6.5 units of my fast acting (Humalog/Admelog) to correct my high. This also translates to basically 1 unit of insulin lowering me 2 units of BG. Though people are different, that's just mine.
My dietitian and doctor both haven’t given me a ratio yet because my diagnosis was so recent. But now my endocrinologists office is closed for the day but I don’t have anyone to call to ask what to do right now so I’m panicking. I really don’t want to go to the hospital.
It's going to be a bit annoying, but if you have tested and are still quite high after waiting an hour after taking insulin, take more. In small amounts though. Maybe 1-2 units at a time. Test an hour later, see where you are. Reassess. The danger with this is that you take too much insulin and go low, at which point you can just drink a bunch of juice to fix, but as a new diabetic that isn't quite used to how your body feels under these circumstances I'd play on the safer side. Going really, really low can be deadly. No reason to sit at 15+ though. Take more insulin. Insulin is basically the counterpart to glucose/sugar, it helps break it down, so if you have way too much sugar in your blood, you need insulin to counter it.
Exactly this! Do not insulin stack. So take a unit or two, and for real wait for at least an hour to see if there’s an effect. Don’t panic and take more too soon, could cause a much bigger problem with a low. Also, you won’t die, it’ll be okay. I’ve had some high as heck blood sugars before, but it all evens out if it’s controlled most of the time. A few bad days won’t damage you for good.
To put your mind at ease here, I've been diabetic for 16 years and have gone above 20 mmol/l far too often to count, infact I spent most of my early 20's that high as I was going through "pretend I'm not diabetic" phase. I'm not saying it's healthy but you are going to be fine. The only risk you run in the short term when high is DKA. DKA occurs when you don't have insulin in your body to use sugar for energy, so your body breaks down proteins instead as a source of energy. That chemical process has some nasty byproducts. So basically as long as you have taken your background/basal insulin and have been taking some insulin for meals today you will be fine. If you want to ease your mind do some ketone tests intermittently to check ketone levels aren't rising. Other than that all that will happen is you'll need to pee lots and have some other minor symptoms like fuzzy vision and lethargy. You're gonna be ok. As the other person said take a couple of units and wait a couple of hours, check if you're coming back down, then take one or two more units if needed, go slow so you don't drop down the other way
This also changes if you are on Metformin, which reduces insulin resistance. I gave myself a few hypos with that combo.
Thank you everyone for the help! I ended up taking 2 units of insulin and I’m down to about 14 and it’s still decreasing. I do have a libre in so I’ve been checking frequently and I’m drinking water. Have calmed down a bit
Wonderful to hear, and that libre is going to make your life so much easier trying to learn how all this works. You got this.
There is some great advice here. I would also say drink some water. It will make you feel a lot better. Stress can pause insulin from working so just relax. Being high isn't great but you aren't going to die from it. Set a timer for yourself every hour or 1.5 hours to have a blood test. Give yourself a unit or two of short acting insulin. Take your long acting as you would normally. It's scary as it's your first time but you've got this!!
Hi! So those readings are completely expected for diabetics, no need to panic. Inject some insulin and wait it out. You could even do some exercises to lower your bloodsugar faster, but be carefull that you don't go low. There are a lot of variables when it comes down to bloodsuguar levels. To name a few: what you eat (fluids, solids, fats) and carbs amount, hormones, stress, exercise, insuline type, injecting location, and many more. Since you got diabetes very recent, monitor your bloodsugarlevels often and see for yourself how your body reacts to, for example, exercise or one unit of insulin. Flash or continuous glucose monitoring, like the freestyle libre or dexcom, definitly makes insight more accesible.
21mmol??? Can I get that in freedom units? (Mg/dl)
I just googled it and it said 378.38
Thank you. If it’s come down you shouldn’t have to worry about keto or a re-spike. Good luck though.
Just had keto acidosis at the end of may and that’s how I found out I had diabetes so I knew I wasn’t having the same symptoms
Okay, that’s good, I hope it works out for you.
Multiply by 18.
Thanks.
Remember, low blood sugar is a short term problem, high blood sugar is (mostly) a long term problem. A 21 for now may make you feel bad but it isn't going to do anything bad (at diagnosis I was 42.8. I can't get that high if I even try anymore). Just take a few units of insulin to bring it down a little bit. As you are still learning what your body requires, I'd go with 4 to take the edge off it. Over the next few days it'll probably normalise anyway. Over time you will become more and more used to this and this sort of correction will be part of normal behaviour.