My mother is diabetic and always made a big deal out of how horrible it was to have to be constantly poking her fingers to monitor her glucose levels. For that reason, I was pretty fearful about the whole monitoring thing when I got started. However, I've found that the finger poking really isn't a big deal at all for me. It doesn't really hurt and the pokes seem to heal up more or less immediately.
Learning how my blood sugar responds to different foods and different times of day has been an interesting experiment. For example, my numbers always seem to be higher than desired first thing in the morning and after dinner (if I don't take my walk). However, they are generally completely within range from breakfast to dinner time, provided I don't go overboard with the simple carbohydrates. Also, I've found that when I feel physical hunger, it corresponds directly to fairly low blood sugar readings. The hunger is real - rather than in my head.
According to the nutritionist, my target #s are as follows:
Waking: <90 (I've never been under 100 since I started monitoring)
One hour after breakfast, lunch, or dinner: <140
Two hours after breakfast, lunch, or dinner: <120
One band-related question that came up in my discussion with the diabetes nurse educator and the nutritionist was when, exactly, one is to begin measuring the "hour after a meal". Does the clock start ticking with the first bite or the last? As a bandster, the time span between that first and last bite of a meal, in my experience, is often between 30 and 60 minutes.
Amusingly, neither could definitively answer the question, but they suggested I go ahead an measure my time from the last bite. The other funny thing they pointed out was that if I took an hour to eat a meal and then waited an hour after to measure my blood sugar, I'd almost be ready to start in on my next meal or snack as I'm supposed to be eating six times a day.
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