{"id":32523,"date":"2013-04-22T05:13:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T09:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=32523"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:41:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:41:45","slug":"life-on-insulin-lots-of-planning-little-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=32523","title":{"rendered":"Life on Insulin: Lots of Planning, Little Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normal people do normal things without planning.\u00a0 Eat.\u00a0 Sleep.\u00a0 Run.\u00a0 Anytime.\u00a0 Anywhere.\u00a0 When you live on insulin, though, it\u2019s a totally different story.\u00a0 Spontaneity tends to lead to disaster.\u00a0 So, I plan.\u00a0 This should mean I\u2019m safe, right?\u00a0 But for the last few months I\u2019ve felt like no matter how much I test, plan and measure, I am unable to manage my diabetes correctly.\u00a0 Take the past 12 hours as an example:<\/p>\n

Last night after a relatively early dinner of chicken and vegetables (the only carb was carrots and I bolused generously for them), my blood sugar at 164 at bedtime.\u00a0 I corrected and set an alarm to wake me for a check 90 minutes later.\u00a0 At that time, my BG was still 160 and I had insulin on board.\u00a0 I was worried about hypoglycemia, but I was also exhausted and fell back asleep, without correcting\u00a0<\/p>\n

My alarm went off again at 4:30 a.m. and I got up to run.\u00a0 My BG was 197.\u00a0 WTF?<\/p>\n

I went out tired, basically feeling like crap, and I forgot to lower my basal rate.<\/p>\n

But one mile into the run and three miles into the run, it seemed like my BG was on the way down (184,153) and so I set my temporary basal rate to 30% and continued to run.<\/p>\n

I ran 8 miles and when I was done I tested my blood sugar again, expecting a relatively low result. I hadn\u2019t eaten anything, after all, not even a gel.\u00a0 Why, then, was my BG 176?\u00a0 I mean really \u2013 no food and lots of exercise + insulin should mean low BG, not high.\u00a0 Somebody please explain why my BG was going up.\u00a0 And it gets worse.\u00a0 I went home, showered and tested:\u00a0 216!<\/p>\n

I could use advice now. Any kind of possible explanation would help because on Thursday morning I will be participating in my first Mountain to Valley<\/a> 135 mile (215K) off road relay race.<\/p>\n

I signed up for this race a while ago, when I thought I would be running the Tel Aviv Marathon<\/a> that was supposed to take place three weeks before the Milano Marathon<\/a>. So, I thought I would be well rested, five weeks after my marathon and the idea of running as part of an eight-person team that will be running along side another eight-person team, seemed like a lot of fun. But now when my body is still tired from Milan, the logistics of the race are becoming clear, and my blood sugar is defying all the rules, I\u2019m not all that sure it\u2019s a good idea.<\/p>\n

The race is very different from anything I\u2019ve done before.\u00a0 Each runner runs three different parts, each 5-7 miles long, one or two of which are at night. In between the running we rest, eat and drive each other to the next stop. Some of the parts are very difficult.<\/p>\n

We are bringing sleeping bags so we can catch a few hours sleep here and there, but won\u2019t get more than three hours at a time. I don\u2019t know how that will affect my blood sugar levels.\u00a0 I may need to change my nighttime basal rate, which is higher than my daytime rate.\u00a0 But will anything help?\u00a0 At this point I feel like it\u2019s going to be a mess no matter what I do. Somehow I will drag myself through it.\u00a0 But it\u2019s supposed to be fun.\u00a0 It\u2019s not supposed to be something I stress about and I don\u2019t want to go through life anticipating BG disasters.\u00a0 I want to be in charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Food is going to be the biggest issue in the race. This morning I overheard some of the guys I\u2019ll be running with talking about different food options. Someone said sandwiches, then someone else suggested pizza.<\/p>\n

What will I do? I\u2019m going as part of a running team, but I\u2019m actually totally on my own.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have to plan my meals and bring them with me. \u00a0I can\u2019t just wait to see what happens and go with the flow because while I may not understand what\u2019s happening with my BG levels right now, I do know one thing for sure: If I eat pizza I won\u2019t be running or driving.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be sleeping.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":53098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1501],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLife on Insulin: Lots of Planning, Little Success<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When you live on insulin, though, it\u2019s a totally different story. Spontaneity tends to lead to disaster. 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