i was thinking about doing a .5 bolus and 10% TB 2 hours before my swim. do you think that the tb is too much at 10% ?
my bedtime bg is 113 and has been steady for the past couple hours since apprx 5:30pm. its 10:30pm now. i think keeping my regular basal setting will be okay. i will get up during the night to test and see how i am doing.
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MONDAY JUNE 26th EXPERIMENT # 15:
11am bg 130 took .5 units and lowered basal to10% for 2 1/2 hours
12:30 bg 122
1pm bg 141
1:30 bg 159
2pm bg 171 pre-swim, got into pool
2:30 bg 147
3pm bg 131
3:30 bg 134
4pm bg 129 post swim manual pump bolus of 1.5 units
moderate swim for 1st 1/2 hour, stronger swim for next hour, then last 1/2 hour, strong swim. felt very strong and refreshed from the rest period over the w/end and all the carbo-loading yesterday.
still wanting to figure out how to not get so high at beginning of swim. do i need to set a higher temp basal, do i need higher bolus pre-swim, do i need a shorter temp basal??? my bgs came down after the first 1/2 hour, and then pretty much plataued and kind of flatlined. that part was great, but it didnât start until after the first 1/2 hour. but, all in all, this was probably my most successful swim yet. i am feeling less anxious and more flexible to suggestions, trials and errors (which are NOT really errors at all), and my feelings about experimenting are much less fearful.
GOALS:
- to be able to start my swim at 120/130
- to swim for a longer period of time comfortably ( perhaps 2 1/2 hours)
- to continue to be determined to not see these experiments as failures if they do not go âperfectlyâ
- to continue to enjoy myself and feel proud of my accomplishments and to feel UNLIMITED
PS: i went to the beginning of this thread, and i re-read my experiments from where this all began. i was truly surprised at how far i have come; and i donât mean this in ANY way to sound boastful. i mean, i am learning to trust all of you who have helped me to get this far. without you, iâd of probably drowned by now 
(LOL)
PPS: i see my endo on wednesday of this week. i canât wait to tell him that all of the ârulesâ for exercise that he offered me were pointless and unsuccessful, and that all of what i learned was from you guys; he will, and i donât doubt this for 1 single second, be asking me why i am testing so much. he will tell me that i test too much and shouldnât have to; that i am too OCD; he might not say it like that, but you get my meaning. also, i am very curious about what my A1c% will be since i have had so many high bgs in order to start my swimming before i learned how to flatline under 150. my last A1c was 6.2 ; i am guessing that this one will be closer to 7%. iâll let you all know !!
and again, all feedback is welcome and encouraged .
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Please donât take this in the wrong way, but either of those A1câs is fine in my book. If you understand why your A1c is where it is (i.e. it isnât a surprise) then I think you are in control of the situation and living your life the way you want. Perfect A1câs donât predict a perfect life with no complications, and living your life the way you have been discussing on this thread is inspiring. Take Control, Keep Control.
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Hey, this looks like a pretty good day. We can make it even better.
Itâs DM swimming quiz time!
Letâs walk through it step by step. I want to ask you one question at a time.
You had a 42 point drop today.
Question 1:
If you had either a higher temp basal or a shorter temp basal today, the 42 point drop would have been:
a) more
or
b) less
Less???
next question, please.
I probably didnât phrase it well. My fault.
Your temp basal was at 10% today for 2 1/2 hours.
If your temp basal was 20% today (higher) and you did it for 2 1/2 hours, would you have dropped more than 42 points? Or less?
OR
If your temp basal was 10% today and you did it for only 2 hours instead of 2 1/2 hours (shorter), would you have dropped more than 42 points? Or less?
Think through that, the answer is the same for both. 
i want to say âlessâ but the truth is that i havenât a clue. if my basal is higher, i donât think i would have spiked as high. if i did the tb for a shorter period, i would have been getting into the pool at a lower bg, so i would have most likely dropped less.
now please tell me the answer. i am waiting w/ baited breath .
A drop from 200 to 150, or 170 to 120 is still a 50 point drop either way.
The thing that causes your drop is the amount of insulin still floating around in your body.
True, both a shorter TB or higher TB would cause you to get into the pool with a lower BG, but the drop would be caused by having more basal insulin that is still in your body and hasnât finished working itâs way to being done.
Both of those would cause the same thing, a bigger drop. But you donât want a bigger drop, you want less of a drop.
So you donât want to do either of those.
So for a moment, letâs not worry about your starting BG. Only worry about having less of a drop. LESS insulin in your body means LESS of a drop.
Higher temp basal means more insulin. A shorter temp basal means more insulin (we donât want that).
Make sense so far?
yes. makes complete sense. so would i just give myself a larger bolus at the time that i lower my temp basal? and, would i just turn off my pump for 2 1/2 hours prior from getting into the poolâŚfor example, turn tb to 0% for 2 1/2 hours before swimming ??? same as i was originally trying to do.
b/c before, for a diff experiment, i still spiked when i turned off my pump basal. how do i not spike?
or could i give myself that bolus 1 hour AFTER i turn off my basal? i donât know; iâm just thinking out loud . trying to think outside of the box.
maybe give myself that pre-swim bolus earlier than when i turn off my basal?
Yes, both a shorter TB or a higher TB would cause the same thing, a bigger drop. So you donât want to do either of those.
You want to start less than 170. So the answer to this question:
Is a higher bolus pre-swim.
All these are good things to think through. Remember, you want LESS insulin in your body when you start. So the SOONER you do your pre-swim bolus, the more time it has to flush out, right?
Repeat for emphasis:
The SOONER you do your pre-swim bolus, the more time it has to flush out.
Today you did a pre-swim bolus of 0.5 units 2 1/2 hours before, and lowered basal to 10% for 2 1/2 hours.
So you tell me what your formula will be for tomorrow!
2 goals - less insulin floating in your body when you start swimming, and a lower starting BGâŚ
bolus 1/2 hour before turning off tb. 0% tb for 2 1/2 hours???
Sounds good!
How much of a pre-swim bolus depends on your BG at the time. Get some ideas in your mind now, but when the time comes, just feel it!
okay. food for thought. i will bolus depending how my bgs are tomorrow morning. this is an awful lot of prep work for a 2 hour swim 
. i am definitely going to have to lengthen my swim time to make the most of this situation.
PS: i hit my bolus hard for dinner. my WIZARD told me one thing, and i told it to do another. weâll see how that works out. (my bgs spiked high after the swim, despite my large âcorrectionâ bolus post swim; but they seem to be coming back down into range. hopefully bedtime and overnight bgs will be in target so that when i wake up for bfast tomorrow, i will be in a good place for this new experiment.)
So remind me to discuss this some time with you about your spikes. Depending on how fast you are swimming and what your workout pattern is, your swimming can either drop you, keep you mostly level, or spike you. This depends on how hard you are working.
Slower swims where you are mostly using fat metabolism will keep you more level (or at least not drop you as much). Harder swims - tough but you feel like you can do it for an hour - will drop you. And really hard swims, where you can only keep the pace for 10-20 minutes, can spike you.
The order you do your swimming workout will affect your BG. Thatâs some stuff to think about in the future (after you hit your other 4 goals and get your numbers real solid). And after you beat up your Endo on Wednesday.
FYI: i just finished drinking my nighttime 2C of warm milk; donât know how my bgs will be throughout the night, but i will wake myself up during the night to test. i think that i will only swim for 90 minutes tomorrow. i am eager to see how the new experiment goes. my last bg was 129, post dinnerâs large bolus. i expected to come down to about 80, so i was surprised that i was as high as i was.
will keep you posted. thats all the news thats fit to print .
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preparing for experiement # 16.
anything can happen today. last night was rough. i woke up at 3am w/ bg of 70. took 1 Gtab and went back to sleep. woke up at 7am at 42, took 3 Gtabs and some peanut butter and waited 1/2 hour. bg went up to 135. bolused for bfast and in 2 1/2 hours bg had gone down to 66. (WTF???) took 1 Gtab and waited 1 hour. just retested and bg was 62; took 2 GTabs, and am waiting 1/2 hour to shut off my pump for 2 1/2 hours to prep for my swim. if my BG is over 80, i will give myself a mini dose of insulin to help keep me away from the spike i get when i shut of my pump. if i am lower than 80, i will not give myself any insulin. so, its a waiting game now.
anyones guess or input very much appreciated.
Daisy Mae
Did you get enough carbs after you finished yesterday? I mean, quick carbs right away with insulin to cover it? That is so very important!
You burned up a lot of your muscle glycogen yesterday. Last night your body was replacing it. The only way it is able to replace it - if you donât carb up right away when you finish - is to pull glucose out of your blood all night long. Thatâs what makes you drop.
Did you eat enough dinner?
Zero % today for 2 1/2 hours will set you up nicely. If you are still too low after 2 1/2 hours (too low, like less than 100), wait 3 hours instead of 2 1/2.
But I donât think that will be a problem. I think today you said an easier 90 minutes, so you should be fine today.