You didn’t swim yesterday, and you have been building up muscle glycogen stores by eating a big meal and not swimming. So instead of your body sucking every last bit of sugar out of your blood and you dropping 100 points, your body was able to use the muscle glycogen - the carb storage!
That is why I have been telling you to carb up!
Wonderful!
thanks for getting me there. in reflection, it was a wonderful day. also, as you already know, i dont swim on saturdays, so tomorrow will be a good day to fuel up and re-coop.
There is really no significant ability to do that. If you look at the context of the thread, when she is talking about a 100 point drop, it’s clearly insulin that is doing that. Any T1 can try as hard as they want to exercise their way down from a high BG, but it doesn’t work without insulin in any significant way.
Glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) is the insulin-regulated glucose transporter found mainly in the skeletal and muscle system. A lot of the things you google for that subject are non-scientific - like that thing by that Quoreshi guy, or people trying to sell books or pills.
If you go through the progress of the post, you can see what has happened as she has dropped her basal prior to exercise. She is no longer having the 100 point drops. That was the basis for my comment. Any drops caused by anything other than insulin and exercise in this post are trivial compared to the effect the insulin was having.
I think the biggest proof that there is no way for glucose uptake to happen without insulin is just to look at the current research pathways for a cure.
Harold posted this recently:
https://forum.fudiabetes.org/t/the-four-research-pathways-to-a-practical-cure-for-type-1-diabetes/
It is telling that none of the current research pathways involve doing glucose uptake using a transporter without insulin.
I think if there was any validity to using a transporter that does not require insulin, someone would be researching it as an avenue for a cure!
i read the article and what appealed to me the most as far as medications to help T1D was the Glucose-Responsive Insulin aka “smart insulin.” if i got it right, it seems almost like a cure.and if i misunderstood, please let me know; but of all the other “curing” options, this seemed like it would be a dream compared to all of the methods i have tried in all my years of being T1.
(and when i was first dx, i was taking beef and/or pork insulin R. there was nothing like Lantus, or Tresbia, Novolog or Humalog etc. and your entire life depended on the insulin peaking time. also, BG meters were enormous and the wait time was something like 5 minutes to get a reading…and also, carb counting was always a crap shoot depending on BG at the time of pre-bolus testing and the estimated carbs you thought you would be consuming. i was passing out right and left. my life to me was completely misunderstood, overly complicated and confusing. )
today, i am on this site discussing how to use my insulin pump, bolus for insulin, and go SWIMMING 
. life is a charm: EXPERIMENT & EDUCATE.
YAY 
eric, i have been battling all day, trying to bring my very uncooperative bg down from 200. keep giving myself insulin through my pump w/out any result. finally, 1/2 hour ago, i caved and gave myself a manual injection with a shot. now i am playing the waiting game to see if my BGs come down. (if they don’t, i may just change my infusion site or use an elevated temp basal of 120%)
i have been nauseated all day, even despite carbing up; will this effect my swim tomorrow?
looking fwd to hearing back from you,
Daisy Mae
Daisymae,
I look forward to Eric’s answer for you. But I feel compelled to answer since we have so much experience with extended highs and sports. I would expect that what happens today will have little effect on what happens tomorrow. We have battled highs all night many times, and then my son has competed well the next day. In my experience I would say what happens in the preceding 2 hours would have the most effect on your swim.
Hopefully Eric has a better answer than I reasonably quickly.
EDIT: 15 minutes post shot, my BG came down to 155. wondering why this happens as often as it does. sometimes i do wonder about having this pump when needles are so immediately effective. 
(but i do love the simplicity my pump provides me…like for swimming and exercise management)
please offer your wisdom on this subject !!! (MDI v. PUMPS)
Daisy Mae
PPS: tested at 8pm (just 1 hour post injection) and my BG was 103. (all day i am trying and trying to pump insulin corrections, and then 1 shot, and pow, bg comes sliding down into target range)
(i’ll probably crash a bit later, but at least i could comfortably eat some dinner; want to fuel up for my swim tomorrow )
Hi DM!
A few things in your post.
Since you were high all day, it could be that you are sick or coming down with some sickness, or you have a bad or old infusion site, or it is just that you need more basal on the weekends.
Let’s look at it as 3 different possibilities:
It might be that your basal needs are higher today because you took a few days off from swimming. When your body is used to exercise, and you stop it for a few days, that can cause you to need more basal, and also for your body to become less responsive to doses (because the basal helps the doses a lot more than we give it credit for).
Since you said you were nauseated all day, it is possible your BG is not cooperating because you are sick, and when you took a syringe injection, the injection combined with what you had been taking with your pump was enough ‘together’. Pump + syringe finally brought you down.
OR… maybe your infusion site was bad or old, and the insulin was not working well. In that case, the syringe injection worked well. A bad infusion site would also make your basal not work as well, which could cause you to be high also…
So pumps have a few drawbacks, but also have great benefit. Trying to cut your basal off for swimming using MDI is tricky. I have to do it with very carefully timed basal shots and exercising at certain times. Doing that Lantus or Levemir is tricky! It is much easier with a pump.
But with the pump, you are injecting in the same spot for 3 days at a time. Sometimes the infusion site can become less effective.
So which is better? It really depends on which things you find more important to you. I know we have spend a lot of time talking about cutting your basal before swimming. If you wanted to do that with MDI, it would probably require getting Levemir and figuring out exactly how long it lasts for you, and then taking your basal shot a specific number of hours before you swim (like the night before). So you can do it, but there are some tricks.
Let me ask you a few questions:
How long was your infusion in?
How often do you think you have bad infusion sites?
Do you notice differences between different locations?
In general, if you notice a problem like you described lasting for a good part of the day, and you are on day 3 (maybe day 2) of your infusion, I think it’s a good time to bail on the site and put in a new infusion.
So if your infusion is old, bail on it and start a new one.
If your infusion is not old, it might be a consideration that you need a higher basal on weekends when you are not exercising.
So, a lot of stuff here. Hopefully I am making sense.
well, my infusion site is new and i just put it in with fresh insulin yesterday afternoon. my BGs were perfect (even a little on the low side) until after lunch (which is when i carbed up (with protein as well) so i am thinking 2 things: not exercising today and carbo loading may have raised my BGs. and, once i am over 200, it can be challenging to bring it back down. just tested at 10pm and i was at 71. made myself a big cup of warm milk. and btw, my nausea is gone.
but i am very interested on your thoughts about changing my basal profile for non-swimming days. (sat & sun)
The difference can be amazing when you take a day or two off.
Maybe next Sunday you can either a) keep it the same and see if your BG is high again, or b) try a little higher basal and see if it works for you.
Either way you go is a chance to learn.
The only way to know is to try!
eric, the insulin shot worked great last evening for dinner, but soon after, my BG rose again and i woke up at 5am at 210. i changed my entire pump out, including my insulin resevoir, and my BG stayed at 200. i did a correction bolus and it had negligable effects.
if my BG stays high like it is now, should i still turn my basal off for 2 hours before i swim? b/c then my BG will rise even higher. how should i deal with this situation?
i usually turn my basal off at 11:30am for 2 hours before i diconnect from my pump at the pool. currently my BG is 217 with 2 units IOB. i doubt very liekly that i will come down from this high. should i bother doing an elevated basal even if i only have 1.25 hours left before i shut down my basal? or is there another way around this situation?
confused and desperate for answers. i havent a clue as to how to deal with this.
eric, please refer to latest email from me, b/c i forgot to send/reply my questions and info directly to you.
PS: i just tested again, and my BG was 167. maybe there is hope that i dont need to fuss with my pump and i will be able to keep my pump at 100% rather than raising it higher.
how high can my bg go before it is not safe to swim?
Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.
If you are not seeing the same BG like you are used to, and it is higher, I would reduce the length of time you are cutting basal.
If you don’t get below 200, I wouldn’t not cut it at all.
Where are you now?
at 10:30am i increased my temp basal to 120%. i just tested and now, at 1pm i am at 163.
i dont know what to do. i have done corrections, but they havent worked. i was at 210 when i woke up this morning and i gave myself 2 correction units and changed my entire pump out. the infusion site is one that i NEVER used before, so i know that there is no scar tissue there and that it is a completely new site.
should i just turn my pump down to 0% and wait one hour? or wait even less (1/2 hour) ?
looking fwd to hearing back from you asap. i like to get into the pool at 2pm and its now already 1pm. ugh.
did you get my last message or did i F it up???
I saw your post that said you were 167. Is that the msg you mean? I did not get a PM.
I would not shut down for 2 hours today. Maybe 1/2 hour would be ok. Or maybe nothing. It depends on how much you want to drop when you swim.
Since you are having crappy high BG, a good swim might help you with that. If you don’t cut if, you may drop more than you want, but at least it pulls you out of the high BG ditch and gets you back on track. That’s better than chasing a high BG all day.
Just bring some emergency food, some chocolate or candy, and check every 30 minutes.
yes, thats the message that i mean - the post.
okay, so at 163 at 1:15pm, i turned my pump down to 0% set for 1/2 hour. i will test again and see where i’m at, and then hopefully leave for the pool. if i am significantly over 200, but under 300, should i just bag it for the day, or should i still hop into the pool?
when does it become dangerous to swim when i am high?
As far as dangerous, I think you are ok if you are under 300, as long as it is not hard exercise!
Strenuous exercise is not a good idea with high BG, but as long as you have insulin in your body, less than strenuous exercise will help your BG drop and is not dangerous.
Sitting on a couch with high BG does not make it come down as much as exercise. Even something simple like walking will help it drop faster than sitting.
You need some insulin to bring it down. I think you have some from your corrections and you are not cutting as much basal, so you will be ok with that.
So I would still swim, just take it easy. Don’t push yourself, take relaxing laps instead.
ok, that comforts me.
also, i am curious about how much replacement insulin i should take post exercise if i am needing 120% basal when i am NOT swimming. for instance, when i get out of the pool, i will need to set a temp basal of 120% to help keep my bgs closer to target range (i must have a bug or something which is invisable to me). if i am not on the 120% basal, my bgs go into he 200s.
but what i mean is that i ALWAYS need “replacement” insulin after my swim b/c i will swing up and my bgs will rise. do i just take a guess and hope for the best? or do i attempt to make some reasonable educated guess? for instance, i am only going to miss a small portion of my basal as i set it for just 1/2 hour when i was at 163. i hope i can have an easy 1 hour swim (testing at the 1/2 hour mark and having candy on hand). so i wont be missing as much basal as usual (2 hours).
am i making any sense whatsoever?