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Blood Glucose Monitoring:<br />
When to Test<br />
Checking your blood glucose levels is<br />
important. You need the information<br />
to 1) Make insulin changes, and<br />
2) See if you made the correct<br />
adjustments.<br />
Many people using flexible insulin<br />
therapy check their blood glucose<br />
before each meal and at bedtime.<br />
Your Diabetes Team may also ask you<br />
to check your blood glucose two hours<br />
after a meal. (This reading will show<br />
how well the mealtime insulin dose is<br />
working.) In addition, to make sure<br />
that you are not having hypoglycemia<br />
at night, it is sometimes important<br />
to check blood glucose at 3AM.<br />
The 3 AM blood glucose, although<br />
inconvenient, is important because<br />
it can help guide the decision to<br />
change your nighttime basal insulin.<br />
It is common for blood glucose to<br />
drop before 3 AM and then to rise<br />
by morning. Figure 3 shows the<br />
effects of different types of insulin<br />
on your blood glucose at different<br />
times of day.<br />
Figure 3<br />
Effects of Previous <strong>Insulin</strong> Dose on<br />
Blood Glucose Readings Tested at<br />
Mealtimes and Bedtime<br />
<strong>Insulin</strong> Dose Blood Glucose<br />
Breakfast Lispro Breakfast BGM<br />
Lunch Lispro Lunch BGM<br />
Supper Lispro Supper BGM<br />
Bedtime Lantus Bedtime BGM<br />
HINT: If your blood glucose meter can<br />
do mealtime averaging, this can help you<br />
find the times of day that your blood<br />
glucose levels are usually too high or low.<br />
Along with your careful reflections about<br />
your carbohydrate intake, stress and<br />
activity levels, this may also guide<br />
your insulin adjustments.<br />
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