A break

I just read Kerri’s post, ”An open letter to my Pancreas”. I need to join the pack of admirers of her writing style and sense of humor :-) Still, as always, she’s got a point, an important one: Things sure would be much easier if Mr. Pancreas would fulfil its job and not just part of it!

At the moment I am trying to figure out how to predict the effect of cycling on my BG. Usually, my cycling to and from work and activities do not pose any large challenges. Sure, the BG will be lowered a bit, but usually no more than 2-3.0 mM (26-54 mg/dl) on ride of 8-12 km, which does not necessarily pose any threat to my well-being. The last couple of days however, it seems like my bike rides, notably those in the afternoons will send my BG into an almost vertical decent.

Yesterday, I tested at 4:15 PM and got a 6.2 (112) reading. This seemed reasonable. I had a slight bolus from a bun that I ate at 3:00 PM, and because I was heading for indoor soccer practise at 5 PM, the basal was reduced to 60 % at 4:00 PM. The trip to the sports facility where we practise is little more than 4 km. I didn’t have a head wind or anything. I was in a hurry, though, because I had been busy at work (needed to finish a presentation I was to do today), so I was a little late. When I arrived the others were ready to start warm up, and I just thought I would quickly change my close and join them. I did feel a bit light headed, but thought it was just the stress of the still unfinished presentation and me being late. It wasn’t. When I tested just before joining the others, I was 1.7 (31)!! Quite a drop in just 45 min I think! I took me an additional 45 min to get back up in safe range to play, which I of course was rather annoyed with. I didn’t go to the sports facility just to sit around and watch the others play and have fun, I wanted to play myself, but couldn’t because of my BG. I only got to play for about 30 min – we stopped early because we were only 7 people and indoor soccer is quite strenuous when you are constantly involved (the others had been playing 3 against 3 while I had tried to get my BG back up, and once I joined we started a rotating substitution where each player would get 5 min break, thus continuously changing the constitution of the teams to allow every one play with as well as against each other). Fortunately, the anticipated rebound of this low wasn’t too bad. I was 12.1 (218) by bed time, not having been higher – at least what I know of ;-)

Today I went to Glostrup (near Copenhagen) to do the presentation that I had finished during the train ride. Everything went well. I felt - and was indeed - low at lunch, 2.2 (40), probably because I had lunch a little later than usual and having had a busy program all morning, without thinking about where the BG might be at. When I got back to work in Odense in the middle of the afternoon, I had a snack, covered by an appropriate small bolus, worked for a couple of hours and then prepared to head home. I did a test before heading home: 8.6 (155) at 4:30 PM, so this should be enough to get me home without any problems. It takes me approximately 30 min to ride home on my bike, today with a little head wind, but not too much. On my way home I noticed that I started yarning. Not because I felt particularly tired, just because I needed to. To me that is a sign of a BG not being where it is supposed to. Usually it is going low, but sometimes high – why does some symptoms have to be ambiguous? Anyway, I got home and because we were due to eat within 30 min, I didn’t got to do a test right away. I just took part in the preparation of our dinner and then tested at 5:45 PM: 2.8 (50). Dropping 5.8 (104) in just 75 min seems a bit drastic, I think, considering that I didn’t have much insulin in the system (last bolus of 0.8 U at 3:00 PM and basal only being 0.3 U/h from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM). I would just love a break from this!