Monday, May 10, 2010
A Day in the Life
Hmm, if dozens of diabetic bloggers are blogging about a day in the life the day after Mother's Day, aren't they going to come up with a lot of stories about Mother's Day?
OK. I'll talk about the day before Mother's Day, because it shows what a genius I am.
I went out for a ride around South Mountain with Kim P., a type 1 diabetic woman training for Ironman Arizona in November. I had to get up at 4 AM, eat a light breakfast for which I under-bolused, anticipating that I would burn off carbs while riding.
We rode for over 3 and a half hours, with lots of stops for blood sugar tests and refueling. I started with my blood sugar a little high, and gradually worked it into a good range, and Kim started with her blood sugar at the low end, but was able to take in enough carbs to get it where she wanted. And we covered about 50 miles.
We had great weather. It was warming up by the time we finished, but it stayed nice and cool for most of the ride.
Later that day, I went to Saguaro Lake with my brother Jon, to do some open water swimming. Neither of us have been swimming much lately, so we were just going to see how it went.
A blood sugar check before going into the water showed my blood sugar was 95, which would have been a little low to start swimming, but I knew that I had checked at home before heading to the lake, and my blood sugar there was 115. So I was on a downward trend.
So I ate a few glucose tablets before going into the water.
Jon is a much better swimmer than I am, which I expected, but still found a little depressing. Oh, well. I have more room for improvement.
After I had swum about 300 meters, I could feel the infusion site for my pump flapping on my side. I checked it and saw that the adhesive was just barely hanging on, and the cannula was all the way out of my skin.
Jon was a couple of hundred yards away from the beach, so I walked ashore and waited for him to come back in. Then I showed him my infusion set and told him we had to go.
We went to my house, I put in a new infusion site, and I tested at 169. Not too much of a problem. It was getting late, and neither Jon nor I, nor my wife Sue, had eaten anything for dinner, so we went out to dinner at Arriba's Mexican restaurant in Ahwatukee. I had a 20 oz cerveza, some chips and salsa while waiting for our orders, and some kind of chicken dinner with rice, beans and tortillas. It was all delicious.
This is where I demonstrate my genius.
I bolused on instinct, guesstimating carbs and how long they would take to digest. It was an artful dual-wave bolus.
After this, Sue and I went out to the movies and saw Ironman 2. I had a small bag of popcorn, and did another dual wave to cover that. The dual wave with the popcorn is as much because of how slowly it is eaten as it is because of how long it takes to digest.
After the movie and before bed, my blood sugar was 121. When I woke up the next morning, it was 122.
Genius.
Seriously though, I know I just got lucky. It's just that so often I look at the number I get on my blood glucose meter and think, "What the heck?" It is so often not what I want or expect, I like to give myself some credit, deserved or not, when it comes out right.
OK. I'll talk about the day before Mother's Day, because it shows what a genius I am.
I went out for a ride around South Mountain with Kim P., a type 1 diabetic woman training for Ironman Arizona in November. I had to get up at 4 AM, eat a light breakfast for which I under-bolused, anticipating that I would burn off carbs while riding.
We rode for over 3 and a half hours, with lots of stops for blood sugar tests and refueling. I started with my blood sugar a little high, and gradually worked it into a good range, and Kim started with her blood sugar at the low end, but was able to take in enough carbs to get it where she wanted. And we covered about 50 miles.
We had great weather. It was warming up by the time we finished, but it stayed nice and cool for most of the ride.
Later that day, I went to Saguaro Lake with my brother Jon, to do some open water swimming. Neither of us have been swimming much lately, so we were just going to see how it went.
A blood sugar check before going into the water showed my blood sugar was 95, which would have been a little low to start swimming, but I knew that I had checked at home before heading to the lake, and my blood sugar there was 115. So I was on a downward trend.
So I ate a few glucose tablets before going into the water.
Jon is a much better swimmer than I am, which I expected, but still found a little depressing. Oh, well. I have more room for improvement.
After I had swum about 300 meters, I could feel the infusion site for my pump flapping on my side. I checked it and saw that the adhesive was just barely hanging on, and the cannula was all the way out of my skin.
Jon was a couple of hundred yards away from the beach, so I walked ashore and waited for him to come back in. Then I showed him my infusion set and told him we had to go.
We went to my house, I put in a new infusion site, and I tested at 169. Not too much of a problem. It was getting late, and neither Jon nor I, nor my wife Sue, had eaten anything for dinner, so we went out to dinner at Arriba's Mexican restaurant in Ahwatukee. I had a 20 oz cerveza, some chips and salsa while waiting for our orders, and some kind of chicken dinner with rice, beans and tortillas. It was all delicious.
This is where I demonstrate my genius.
I bolused on instinct, guesstimating carbs and how long they would take to digest. It was an artful dual-wave bolus.
After this, Sue and I went out to the movies and saw Ironman 2. I had a small bag of popcorn, and did another dual wave to cover that. The dual wave with the popcorn is as much because of how slowly it is eaten as it is because of how long it takes to digest.
After the movie and before bed, my blood sugar was 121. When I woke up the next morning, it was 122.
Genius.
Seriously though, I know I just got lucky. It's just that so often I look at the number I get on my blood glucose meter and think, "What the heck?" It is so often not what I want or expect, I like to give myself some credit, deserved or not, when it comes out right.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
It's not luck! It is GENIUS! Haha! Seriously though - maybe we can call it some sort of diabetes intuition.
I cracked up about the Mothers Day thing!
I love the dual wave function man. Especially for pizza, popcorn, or a larger then average meal. Glad it worked so nicely for you Jerry.
I also try to stay ahead of the upward curve by bolusing at or before my first bite of food. Yeah whatever, I've gotten better at this, but it's hard to break the habit of insulin as an after thought sometimes.
Luck combined with skill.
Post a Comment