Testimonial: Insulin is all well and good, but how do you calculate the right dose to take?

To begin with, I was told to take 4 units of insulin during the large meals I ate and to adjust from time to time according to my blood sugar values.

I quickly realized that 4 units was not enough, especially since I started eating sugar (I've been holding back for years, and now I finally have permission to binge!). But it's not easy to assess how much insulin to inject.

I was still having as many hyperglycaemias, so I increased the quantities of insulin, but now I started to have a lot of hypoglycemia... Discouraging...

At my next appointment with the pregnancy diabetes clinic, I did not come across “a good day.” The resident is trying to assess my food diary. Let me explain to you. I had come to make a kind of chart of the quantity of insulin according to what I ate, without really knowing how to calculate the carbohydrates I was taking. It went something like this:

A meal of pasta, rice, or potatoes: I take an X quantity of insulin.

A meal of meat and vegetables only: I was not taking insulin.

Every meal where I added dessert, I added Y amounts of insulin.

I explain my charter to the resident, she sees that 60% of the time it gives a healthy blood sugar level. She doesn't understand why I don't always take the same amount of insulin at every meal. (It seems obvious to me... I don't always eat the same thing!!)

The endocrinologist arrives and tells me that since I don't take the same amount of insulin at every meal, he can't really help me any more. But his great recommendation: exercising after dinner will help me reduce my hyperglycemia... Phew... (Just to give you an idea, I'm already starting to look like a whale, I don't want to go jogging).

I will have to wait for another appointment and find “a good day” to meet Dr. Competent. She then sets me up an appointment with a nutritionist specializing in diabetes, who teaches me how to precisely calculate the number of carbohydrates I take per meal and calculate my insulin ratios based on the meal of the day (as we are not active also after each meal), you have to compensate by adjusting the insulin ratio. In my case, for example, I need to double the amount of insulin I take for one dinner compared to the same amount of carbohydrates consumed at another meal).

Since this wonderful encounter, and thanks to the fact that I was finally explained to me how to manage my diabetes, my blood sugar levels are still good! Finally, the guilt associated with my diet is gone!

But this learning lasted the first 5 months of my pregnancy, it's crazy how much time we lose with incompetent people...

Diabetic friends, insist on the professionals, diabetes is a disease that can be controlled when it is well understood.

‍