Thanksgiving is Upon Us, how will you be Bolusing?

Thanksgiving is a good opportunity to do the over-bolus technique. Take more than you need for the meal. Double it or more.

After you are finished the dinner portion of the meal, hopefully you took enough insulin so that you start to drop. That’s the perfect time to hit the pumpkin pie.

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oh !! how i love pumpkin pie!!! :blush:

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You mean sweet potato pie. :wink:

I actually sort-of-intentionally-but-not slightly over bolused dinner tonight so I was dropping when it was time to try out some dairy free cheesecake I made. :yum: Started the meal at 83, and 1.5 hrs after the cheesecake was at 86. I consider that a successful practice run for next week.

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wow! congratulations. and how wise of you for doing the practice run! :blush: yay for you!

I can’t really consider it wisdom LOL I ate a meal I have consistently underbolused for in the past, so guessed at what I really would need, thinking I had dessert if my guess was wrong (and it was, haha).

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i am a bit confused about this; i thought the experiment went perfectly. also, why did you under bolus for the meal? or did you mean that you usually under bolus and that this time you didnt?

Right; sorry, I usually underbolus, unintentionally, so last night I added a little extra, guessing it would be sufficient, but I’d have dessert as a backup if I went low. My guess was wrong in that being the right amount (started to drop), but it was successful looking at it from an over bolusing to manage dessert perspective. I ended up using @Eric’s strategy of waiting til I was dropping, then dosing more insulin and eating dessert. :slightly_smiling_face:

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erics stratagy is always the best stratagy to go on. its worked for me each and every time. also, his entire attitude towards being a D and living as if he’s not is always very refreshing. he has taught me so much about courage and experimenting.

one of the things he taught me in the very beginning of my swimming experiments was that nothing is a failure, and not to worry, b/c tomorrow i will still be a D and still have another chance to try again. i have kept that in the back of my mind every day. :sunny:7

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Thanks for that reminder! Hit a new record high today; feeling like I need to give up on the idea of eating cereal ever again. :slightly_frowning_face:

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took a little time with patience and experimenting, but i finally, this morning, found a s ercret to eating lg bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. now YDMV but for me, i bolused for the cerial carbs, and then i added an additional .5 units of insulin. i went from a morning fasting BG of 85 to a 3.5 hour post of 115.

dont give up before the miracle. (unless you dont really like cerial :wink: )

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Meanwhile, elsewhere in North America, I may have finally found my formula for bagels: instead of multiplying weight in grams by 0.5 (the usual recommendation for breads) to get the carbs, multiply by 0.7 and extend the bolus, 50% up front and the rest over 1.5 hours. Well at least it worked beautifully yesterday, and once gives me hope.

Which is to say, there is nothing you need to give up on eating. You have your whole life to experiment. And what tasty, satisfying experiments!

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Thanks, y’all. I did decide last night while up with the baby that I would try cereal again this morning, being quicker to dose/dosing more…

…and I still ended up at 200 within 30 minutes of eating! Oh, well, at least I know what DOESN’T work. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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@Pianoplayer7008
What were you at an hour later? (ie - 1-1/2 hrs after eating)

IMHO a single 30 minute reading after food does not necessarily indicate a problem.

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@Beacher
Do you think that is due to a bagel being a different type of bread then the typical sliced bread used for sandwiches? Or would you suspect it has more to do with the quantity eaten at one sitting to be (typically) larger than a couple of “sandwich” sized slices?

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i agree with Thomas. 1/2 hour is much too soon to determine whether you are actually spiking. you may not have a flat line during this period, but it takes (at least for me) about 2 -2 1/2 hours after eating to determine whether i hit the mark or not. also, depending on how long i pre-bolused for, (for things like the oatmeal i have been eating, i pre-bolus for 1/2 hour) this way it gives time for the insulin to start working its magic. if i test 1/2 hour after finishing, i might even see a low BG b/c the food has not even hit my system yet. but thats just me, YDMV. maybe you need to do what i have been doing:

i bolus for my breakfast carbs as usual, then i add an additional bolus immediately after that. the first time i did this, i bolused an extra unit. it was too much. so the next time i bolused only .5 units, and it worked out perfectly. i tried the experiment again today, and i got the same successful results. so now i have my “oatmeal formula.” :sunny:

dont give up yet. i encourage you to continue trying. you’ll find your sweet spot with the insulin. all our prayers are with you, and we are here to help and to root you on. keep up the good work. and remember, the only failure is in not trying.

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Only down to 162 (that’s with taking more Afrezza an hour ago). I know that’s not terrible - I’m curious if occasional excursions to the 200s are necessarily a bad thing as long as you don’t stay up there long?

This is today (left) and yesterday (right). Didn’t spike as high, but it’s coming down slower, which makes sense, as yesterday I dosed 4u Afrezza up front and 8u correction; today was 8u up front and 4u correction - should’ve probably done an 8u correction today, but I believe my pancreas kicks in belatedly around the 1.5-2 hr mark, and then I go low, so going to see if the slower drop leaves me in range rather than low.

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I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that—it’s something that wasn’t really possible to study well pre-CGM, and it will take very large, longitudinal studies that follow people using CGMs long enough to determine eventual complications to know that.

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A good quality bagel is all carb and needs to be mitigated with cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers, and fresh tomato. Oh yeah, and a bigger bolus! :smiley_cat:

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have you considered using a dual bolus? are you on a pump or MDI? on my pump, i can spread out the insulin delivery. you could give yourself enough up front to keep from spiking, and then the rest of you bolus to keep from crashing. something like 75 % up front, followed by 35% over 1.5 or 2 hours (YDMV ,though ) just a suggestion. i have to do this with many different foods that are slow to digest.

it may help. keep asking questions !!!

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(Good) bagels are nearly magical in their carb-density. I remember when the old exchange books claimed half a bagel was equivalent to a slice of bread. They must have been basing that off of generic fake fluffy bagels (aka rolls with holes) you can buy in a supermarket—the real, good ones are denser and chewier and way way more than that.

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