fyeahdiabeticcat

So you know when you go out to eat, and the food shows up so you’re trying to take your insulin? And everyone you’re with starts eating their food? And the waiter comes by and asks you how it is before you’ve even touched it? And you get PISSED OFF?

Maybe, maybe not. But if you do, here’s a tip I devised with my nurse practitioner:

When you get to the restaurant, check your blood sugar right away. Go ahead and calculate and take your correction insulin, as well as enough to cover an arbitrary amount of carbs you know for certain you will eat. For me, this number is around 30 grams, possibly more if I know I’m ordering something carb heavy like pasta.

That way, your fast acting insulin can work into your system before you eat. Novolog and Humalog start working in 15 minutes and peak in 45-90. By taking it early you reduce that after meal spike, and you can go ahead and chow down when the food shows up.

Then after you’ve seen and calculated how many carbs you end up actually eating, you subtract the first amount you used and cover for the difference. 

I know I used to have the fear of going low—but it helps to remember fast-acting doesn’t mean immediate. And if by some off chance the restaurant is really really busy and you do end up going low—juice and coke, baby, juice and coke.