The other day I decided that it was time to manually log my blood sugars again, along with the calorie and carb intakes. I feel that by writing them down, I am able to hold myself more accountable for them and I am a bit more aware of the numbers and certain trends. When I don’t log, I may know that my sugars have been trending high, but I don’t know exactly why or what the trends are. Read More
Category: Blog 365
Results from My Endo Appointment
Today was the big endo appointment. I haven’t had one since July because my previous one was cancelled and I couldn’t get in until now. This was a big appointment because there have been a lot of changes in my life. The main ones were my diet and being on Apidra full time which means that I am using less insulin. Over the past week, I have talked about the multiple lows that I am getting every single night and during the day, so I have been making a few adjustments to basal rates and carb ratios trying to find the perfect match.
Endo Appointment Tomorrow
This is a late night post, but I’ve been pretty busy all day trying to catch up on some work. I’ve also been preparing for my endo appointment tomorrow. I have not “prepared” for an appointment in probably 7 years. I usually just grab my meter and go to the doctors office and that’s it. Not this time. I’ve been writing some things down because my diabetes has been extra wacky lately. Read More
How Low Can You Go?
Unfortunately, I am not talking about doing the limbo, I am talking about blood sugars. The reason that I am writing this is because last night brought about the lowest blood sugar that I have had in my 9 years of having diabetes. At least, the lowest that I have recorded by testing my blood sugar. I have been doing a lot of testing with my insulin to carb ratios and basal rates and measuring out the food instead of just guessing, so I am going low a lot lately. Last night was a bad one.
After eating dinner and even having a bowl of Frosted Flakes as a snake before bed, I tried to go to sleep around 10:30-11:00, which is way too early for me. But don’t worry, I didn’t stay asleep for very long, because I was woken up at about 1:30 a.m. with a low blood sugar. I don’t usually test my sugar when it’s low, because I know it’s low, so I just try and treat it and test later. This time, I decided to test my blood sugar before drinking down two big ole’ glasses of orange juice. The meter said, 41. That is the lowest blood sugar that I have ever had. I had one at 45 a few years ago, but nothing lower than that.
It took me 2 glasses of orange juice, 7 munchkins (they were left over from Sunday breakfast) and a granola bar. After I felt good enough to allow myself to go back to sleep, I woke up 6 hours later and my blood sugar was 161. So, even after all that sugar that went into my body, I didn’t even really over-treat the low like I do every single other time.
What is the lowest blood sugar that you ever had?
Flying Home with Diabetes
I am actually on the plane right now as I am typing this post. I am returning back to south Florida right now after 10 days in Pennsylvania with friends and family. It was a great trip and I spent a lot of great time with my family. As I mentioned the other day, I also ate a lot of food and used a lot of insulin. I am excited to get back onto a healthy eating schedule starting already tomorrow. But, it’s back to reality tomorrow. Take down the Christmas stuff, unpack all the crap that we got for Christmas and try and get back to a normal lifestyle.
Before I do all that, I have to fly back first, and that’s what I’m doing right now. I still get nervous before I fly every time and that messes with my blood sugar. I really try to have my blood sugar around 160-180 when I fly. I don’t want to go low and I don’t want to go high.
Do you have an ideal blood sugar number that you prefer when you are going to fly?
Lots and Lots of Insulin
I have been up in Pennsylvania for over a week now spending some great time with my family. Along with that family time comes a lot of food. A lot of food means a lot of insulin. I have been going through insulin like it is water, literally. On an average day, I use about 180-190 units of insulin. That’s with my high basal rates, plus my unhealthy eating. Add in being back at home with all of my favorite restaurants, I have been averaging 250 units of insulin a day for the last few days. Some people don’t even use 250 units a month, let alone in a single day.
This is something that I am not proud of, and I know that I need to make up for all the extra insulin used by cutting back on the amount of insulin that I use when I get back to Florida and eat healthier again.
This all goes back to the whole idea of balance in my life. I need to balance out this mass eating and insulin intake that I have been going through this past week and eat very low carb and keep my boluses to as low as possible for at least a week.
We shall see how well the low – carb adventure goes when I get back tomorrow.
My Own 365 Thanks to Steve Richert
2012 brought a lot of great things into my life. This is not going to be a post that talks about all of them, but just one thing in particular that has caused me to create a challenge for myself. I’m sure most of you have heard of Steve Richert from Living Vertical and his Project 365 in which he will be climbing every day for 365 straight days. I met Steve in Indianapolis at the Roche Social Media Summit and hearing him speak gave me a lot of motivation. From time to time I tend to lose that motivation and get into a lazy valley and can’t seem to get myself out of it. But then I think about the great and awesome things that others are doing that are so much more difficult than the things that I am trying to accomplish, and it tends to pull me out of that rut.
This all leads into my own 365 day challenge. I have challenged myself to post for 365 straight days. If Steve can climb a freaking mountain or a wall every day for 365 days, I think that I can write a blog post, or post a picture or an interview or do something for 365 straight days.
So, thank you Steve for challenging me without even knowing it.