I found out yesterday that I'm "on the verge" of t2. I have to track numbers, carbs etc.. increase exercise and lose wt and go back in 8 weeks or so to see MD. No meds yet... My question is when do you check your blood sugar with type 2? I thought she said before every meal but that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. I figured you would want to see how you react to food/meals. also, other than fasting in the morning less than 110, what numbers do you want to see? Thanks for any information.
I too was just dxd with t2. Dr want a week of numbers before deciding what to put me on. I think they want the pre-meal numbers so that they know how well your body reacts to the food over the time between meals. The numbers right after meals seem not to represent the ability to use the sugar, but how much sugar/carbs we injested (which is supposed to be lower, right) At least that is how I took it.
I check because of the family history of type 2 - some foods really elevate my bg (like my mother's banana bread which I no longer eat). I've gone gluten free and eat significantly less refined carbs or processed foods and it shows on the meter. I check before eating and then every 30 minutes after the meal to watch when it peaks and when it gets back to normal or target. It's very interesting. I think post prandial (after meal) blood checks are a vital picture of what's happening in the body. Anyone can have normal fasting bg. (I don't do this everyday because my A1c is still in the normal range - but if you want to know what's happening with your body and food and you don't have access to a continuous glucose monitor, I recommend some diligent/comprehensive bg checking to get a full picture. The more you log (foods, quantity consumed etc.) the more info you will have and the more mindful you may eat.
My husband is type 2, ironic since my son is type 1. Hubby was told to check in the morning and before bed but that seems strange to me because I'd think they'd want him to check after meals. He is on metformin and on chol. meds. and he might be going on insulin.
I have been type 2 for over 14 yrs now. The first 2 years I managed with just diet and exercise (didn't always work the best). My dr wanted a fasting occasionally, and then 2 hours after meals. At that time he was only having me check 2 times a day. After two yrs I went on oral meds also. About 6 yrs ago I started using insulin and have much better control now. My dd was dx'd with type 1 4 yrs after I was dx'd with type 2.
I have come to realize over the course of 3.5 yrs that we know more than the doctors do on this subject (or for me type 1 b/c of my daughter). I don't know much about type 2. The doctor told a friend of mine who was just dx type 2with an a1c of 10.5 to stop checking daily and only check once a week. Yeah well that is gonna help her out now ain't it!!! not. I was just told to get a fasting bs and see the doctor on Monday I told her that the fasting one is going to be normal I only see a spike after a high carb intake (alot of bread) but she is the doctor and she knows best...yeah right. Anyways i am new to type 2 have not been diagnosed did have an a1c of 6.7 so I guess we will see...
I suspect this is going to be one of those YMMV things. When I showed my doctor a log of my pre and post meal BG tests he said that those are good to fine tune treatments like insulin, but that the main measure for type 2 is the early morning fasting reading and the A1C (mine was 6.5). One warning - in this world it may not be a good thing to be diagnosed as diabetic. If you are 'pre-diabetic' and can self-treat with diet and exercise and weight loss it might be a good idea to avoid getting that doctor's diagnosis. It will make getting health or life insurance a major pain, expensive and maybe impossible. I'm not suggesting that we ignore type 2 - just that the push to diagnose it earlier and earlier has its down side.
True very true. I went to doctor and they did an a1c and theirs came back as 5.6 so normal. I wonder why such a difference?
The reason for the doctor saying that is that doctors tend to look at fasting to see if the meds are working. With type 2 you need more information than that. You need to know how foods affect your blood sugars, etc. and testing before and after meals and before and after exercise, etc will give you that information and help you make adjustments. Testing only once a day or a few times a week just doesn't give one the necessary information that is needed to manage type 2 diabetes.
The same as you would with type 1. The thing with type 2 is you may want to not only check before meals but also at the one hour point and more after meals to find out when you peak after a meal and to see how high the peak goes. Also to see how the food you eat affects your blood sugars. Now if you peak really high with a certain food, you then want to make some adjustments by eating less of that food or if you find that food just sends your blood sugars into the stratosphere you may want to avoid that food until you find a version of that food that works. Remember some type 2 meds can drop you like a rock when you least expect it. Glyburide is a great one for this, so you do want to test and treat if you are low. There is another type 2 med that causes lows and the lows from that med can only be treated with glucose which you don't see very often anymore.
