Too frequent figner pricks?

[Joh_n]

Hello all friendly diabetic helpers out there,
I am a teenage diabetic with a lingering question about how often to check blood glucose levels. I have been told that I check too often, which I believe, as I am paranoid over the dubious actions of my sugar levels.
I check usually between 12 and 20 times a day; while a previous doctor said this was fine, as I had a wonderful AIC, I was more active then.
Now, older, jaded, and lazy,  I find myself less active and with a worsening AIC. My new doctor says I should try to check only every 2 hours, if not less, as I am most likely correcting for a high or low while my blood sugar is fluctuating.
This doctor says 2 hours is the goal time for me, as that is the time it takes for all the insulin sent in to be processed.

So, this is a generalized question over the validity of this statement, if checking too often is a problem that needs to be corrected; if anyone has any stories about how they were able to convince themselves that they didnt' need to check so often, that would be welcome as well.

Thanks if anyone has any input!

[Joh_n]

Thanks everyone!
I am testing a bit less frequently, and if I do test too close to my last bolus I am trying to remember to add in the active insulin. So far I've been running a bit higher than normal, but my hands and insurance company should be happier in the long run!

[Zoelula]

I'm going to send you two websites by private message (we aren't allowed to post them to the forum) as I think you would get a lot out of sharing experiences with other type 1's many of whom have many many years of experience.

[Zoelula]

Great questions, John! You are correct that bolus (fast-acting) insulin does not work evenly. It takes about 15 minutes to begin working and peaks at about 1.5 hours. I pulled out my copy of Using Insulin to look at the chapter on " unused insulin". He does his computations based on a four hour action, rather than a three and divides it into .25 for each of those hours, so at the 2 hour mark you would have 1/2 left (not the 1/3 I use). He mentions the peak action, but still suggests dividing it evenly so I assume the difference in action is not enough (or too variable!) to warrent dividing it differently. I think the bottom line is that we are all different and we find our own correction factors (how many points a unit of insulin lowers our blood sugar) by trial and error, and the guidelines are just that: guidelines.

As for your last question, I think that after awhile you develop a sense of things and can come to be fairly confident in your I:C ratios that they will give fairly predictable results (until of course, they don't..lol). For myself, unless I've made some error or am eating something unusual I don't worry about it until the two hour mark. Also, according to Walsh's book, he doesn't recommend doing corrections at less than 2 hour intervals because of the risk of " stacking"  insulin doses, and of " not having a clear indication of the effect of the last bolus". One other alternative if you want to catch potential highs and lows ahead of time is to get a CGMS because that actually shows whether the blood sugar is trending upwards or downwards.

[Joh_n]

Thank you for these quick responses. One question that they have stimulated resulted from this statement:"If you took 6 units at noon before lunch and then are too high at 2PM, you have to add in the 1/3 of your dose that is still remaining at two hours or 2 units to whatever number of units you have calculated you need to lower you to your target".  

This says that the insulin distributes itself out evenly over the three hours. . I had not heard this before; I assume this will be different from person to person, but I had no idea that was the way the insulin worked ( I have placed an order for the suggested book, so thanks again). However, it makes more sense to me for insulins' function with respect to time to be more of an exponential decrease, not a linear relationship (so a lot more insulin would be processed in the first hour than in the later ones). Is this idea completely false, or is the relationship strictly linear over the three hours?

And one last question, do you think it would be valid to test to see  how one's sugar is changing, to possibly catch any potential highs or lows?

Thanks again!

[caregiver222]

It may not be necessary, but it won't do any harm, as long as the sites are rotated.

The comment your physician made about "overcorrecting" has some validity.

I think your physicians suggestions are well-taken and make a lot of sense.