Daisy Mae's swimming BG thread

Sports & Exercise
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today begins another experiment. experiment number 8 .

i am taking your suggestions as far as i understand them: at 11:30am i took .2 units of insulin and i turned off my basal to 0% for 2 hours. (i usually walk to the pool, which takes about 15 minutes, so i wanted to make certain that i timed my 2 hour TB so that my pump would not return to 100% before i got changed and into the water)

my BG was 107 when i turned on the TB. now its a waiting game. i will re-test in 1 hour. then i will re-test in another 15 minutes, and then another, before i leave for the gym. if i am on the low side, i will take a nibble of my candy bar (which always works very quickly). i will test before i jump in the pool.

once i am in the pool, i will re-test every 20 - 30 minutes. hopefully i won’t crash, but the last time i tried this method, it kept me on the high side for the duration of my swim, and i was able to swim for 2 straight hours. i hope that is what will happen today.

i just want to mention, that i have been on 120% basal, and it seems to be keeping my BGs in my target range.glad about that.

i will keep everyone posted.
DM

342

That all sounds good!

So that 0.20 units should be mostly gone by the time you get in the pool, just a little bit of it left. But hopefully it will prevent you from spiking too much while you are waiting to swim.

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Perhaps obvious but assuming public pool, do you let the Lifeguard/Manager know the situation in case you need assistance?

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all the life guards know me. i am the “diabetic swimmer” :blush: its at the local YMCA. a beautiful gym and pool. thx for asking.

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after one hour on 0% basal, my BG has only elevated to 117. i am waiting to retest in 1/2 hour.
looks like i might need some of that candy bar before i leave.

what do you think? i am nervous about going into the pool below 130.

346

The past few days you’ve been running higher than normal, taking more basal, so it seems like you might not drop as much, but I know you don’t like to start low.

Instead of eating, you could also wait an extra 1/2 hour and see what you are. It would either be a little bit of carbs before, or waiting a longer time to let your insulin deplete.

If you are nervous below 130, either eat or wait a little bit longer. Whichever makes you feel safer!

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i think i would prefer to eat a bit. waiting longer would only make it more difficult to get a lane to myself. the kids arrive at around 4pm, which is why i like to be finished by then.

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so i waited another 45 minutes and i only came up to 118. i just took a bite of my Baby Ruth bar, so we’ll see how that goes. i will retest in 15 minutes.

i know that you exercise in the BG 70s, but how safe is it for me to swim at 118? i mean, can i expect to remain stable with no crashing and no spikes?

if all of these other swimmers on this thread, it seems that i should be fine. but, as usual, i feel scared.

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The only way I can exercise at 70 is with either :
a) no basal
b) fueling while running
or
c) a very high intensity workout that causes my BG to go up instead of drop…

That’s the only way I can do it.

So for you, fueling while swimming means you have to stop, which is not what you want to do. And high intensity is good, but it won’t (and can’t) last for two hours. So cutting basal is your best bet!

How long has it been for you now since you cut basal? It’s been 2 hours, right?

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its been exactly 2 hours with 0% basal. i just tested and my BG was 126. i’m going to walk over to the pool now. hopefully, by the time i get there, my BGs will have come up. i am hoping that the cut in my basal will show itself a little later, like when i actually arrive at the gym. we shall see. i am wishing that i hadn’t taken that .2 units earlier.

say some prayers. :wink:

351

I understand. That 0.2 units was just anticipating what has been happening with your BG and higher basal rates recently. But, look on the bright side. Almost all of that 0.2 is gone now! Take a bite of chocolate to get you up a bit. You will be fine. And if you test low when swimming, eat some more. I often fuel while running. It’s fine to do that.

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EXPERIMENT # 8 :slight_smile:

OMG! HOLY COW! AWESOME! BEYOND BELIEF! taking all of your advice, trying to follow all your suggestions despite my fears and trepidations, something wonderful happened: i swam for 2 hours, non-stop (except to test) hard and strong with complete comfort, and thought that if i hadn’t been off of my basal for 5 hours, i would have swam longer !!! i am incredulous. :smile:

here are the stats:
11:45 turned off pump 0% basal and gave myself .2 units of insulin my bg was 107, 12:45 my BG was only 117, then at 1:30 my BG was 118. at 1:45 my BG was 126 so i had a very small bite of a Baby Ruth bar and walked briskly to the pool ( 15 minutes). i detached my pump at 2:10 and my BG was 137. ok, i was climbing enough to feel safe to swim.

so here goes (i jump into the pool at 2:15) BG 137
swam for 1/2 hour then tested at 2:45 BG 147 (feeling safe and comfortable; no signs of crashing)
@ 3:15 BG 148
@ 3:45 BG 143
@ 4:15 BG 164

i thought that the rise in bg might be due to the stronger swim???
@ 4:20 i manually bloused 2.4 units to 1) replace some of the basal that i had missed all day, and 2) to keep from spiking post-swim.

how i came up with this amount of insulin is beyond me. i had already been without basal for 5 hours; how much insulin could i need? i didnt have a clue. my BGs were high when i got out of the pool, so i was hoping to short-stop the rise. this is still something that eludes me completely, but hopefully my guess will pay off.

got into the shower, dried off, reattached my pump@ 120% basal, and then briskly walked home (another 15 minutes) and here i am,
shoveling turkey down my throat :blush:

it is now 5:30pm and i just tested; my BG was 180 ( my sugars went UP not DOWN) i think that this is most likely due to not having any basal on board for so many hours, but i am not certain. and even though i am high, i think that this experiment was a success.

all i need to do is take most of what i learned today, and modify it a bit so that tomorrow’s swim will be even better. i think i need to find a way to be off my basal for such a long period of time, and still keep my BGs in target range. perhaps i needed to be more aggressive with my post-swim bolus.

please let me know what you think and how you think i can improve upon this miraculous event.

thank you thank you thank you !!!
DM the fish

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353

We find after a day of unusually vigorous exercise that we have to watch for lows later that night. Often times we will run a reduced basal for hours afterwards coupled with extra nighttime checks to be sure.

If there were 1 or 2 actual lows (for us less than 65 is a real low - higher than 65 is an “almost” low) during that day then that would make the chances of a nighttime low greater and more difficult to deal with.

Just FYI. Obviously everybody is different.

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thomas, does your child go high at all after working out? is he/she on a pump or mdi?

i will not go to bed if i am hovering around 80. but, this past week, i have had to up my basal by 20% (temp basal rate) b/c of some unknown insulin resistance. the TB has worked perfectly in that it is keeping my BGs in target range as they would be otherwise. i guess this will be just another part of my “experiment.” :wink:[quote=“Thomas, post:353, topic:894”]
and more difficult to deal with.
[/quote]

how is it more difficult for you to “deal with” it? i am not quite understanding. don’t you just correct with juice and/or carbs, etc ?

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eric, 2 hours post swim, post 2.4 units of “replacement” basal and my BGs are still high (182). instead of using my pumps’s WIZARD, i did a manual (guess) bolus for my dinner. the wizard wanted to give me less insulin b/c of IOB that i gave myself at the gym. i am hoping that i did the right thing. i suppose that i will find out later.

i have a hoarder’s host of sugary delights just waiting for me if i should go low :wink: .

is this BG elevation “normal” ?

also, will you teach me some more tricks so that i could swim even longer than 2 hours? (even if that means giving myself a manual shot during my swim) i am so excited. and now i deffinately feel safe going into the pool at a lower BG.

looking fwd to hearing back from you. DM

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Yay for DM! That’s great! I am so happy for you, it’s wonderful!

This:

No drops at all!

Do you remember what I said to you about a month ago? That eventually you would be able to start at 120? You are getting close to that now! :grinning:

So this will take some time to get the exact amount, but you will really need to hit a big bolus post-swim. And that is exactly what you are saying, so you are already on top of it, you already know what you need to do.

One other tip would be to take some insulin about 30 minutes before you are done, with a pen. It’s fast and you don’t need to spend any time reconnecting your pump.

When you did your 3:45 BG check, if you did a small bolus right then with a pen, and then you have another 30 minutes of swimming, and follow up with a bigger bolus after you finish your swimming, that would prevent you from spiking so high. That little bit, 30 minutes before you are done, that helps a lot! Try it!

For all that time with no basal and being disconnected, that is normal. We can work on your post-swim. Doing a little bit with a pen will help. That is the next project. :wink:

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@Eric, the Diabetic Whisperer. :smiley:

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how much is a big bolus? i only gave myself 2.4 units post swim. i knew i should have given myself more insulin, but i wanted to be conservative.

what can i do for tomorrows swim that will be more helpful? i did get a lot out of waiting another 1/2 hour on the 0% TB before jumping in the pool. i think tomorrow i will set up my timing differently to accommodate this. i think i’ll start at 11am instead of 11:30.

btw, i pigged out at dinner with major dosages of protein and carbs and hydration. i am hoping that that will make tomorrows swim even easier. fuel for the fire.

i don’t have a Novolog pen at home, only the long acting ones (Lantis, etc). i will call my endo in the morning and see if he can call it into the pharmacy for me. ( i am seeing him in 2 weeks and i can get a sample from him for free, so part of me wants to wait it out, but the other part of me wants immediate gratification)

i am going to be on the look out for the BG lows that Thomas mentioned. i doubt i will see anything until a couple hours post dinner. but who knows.

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i just remembered what i wanted to share with you (and all of you out there who’s endos have a very antiquated way of treating D; when i see my endo, i can’t wait to show him all of the progress that i have made and how none (NONE) of his suggestions helped much at all. my CDEd was much more helpful and open minded. she said that she didn’t have one answer for me; everything is trial and error, so experiment. i would much rather someone be honest with me than give me a spoon of BS thats just shy of being worthless…or worse. (but he truly is a great doctor who i have been with for almost 30 years and he is a T1 D on the pump as well.)

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Sorry. I was completely unclear.

A “difficult” low is one which either does not rise a given number of BG points for a given fast-carb amount (based on our experience) OR one which does rise as expected within 20 minutes but then in a short time (like 45 minutes after the carbs to correct the low) there is ANOTHER low.

Like something actively pulling her down. At which point we would get more aggressive.