It is very easy to keep score in this game. The rules are very simple, and there are only 2 rules.
If you don’t swim, the disease wins.
If you swim - no matter how crappy your BG turns out, no matter how much you spike or drop, no matter how tough it is and how horrible things were all day, as long as you get in the pool, you win.
It is that simple.
Get in the pool, and you won the day.
Please don’t ever lose sight of that.
i guess that that would make me a winner for the day 
OK, so i wasn’t in the pool today. i had some obligations over the bridge in the City. one of those obligations was getting my hair cut. i generally do this about once every six months. (i’ve had a very boring hairstyle ). basically, i wanted to tell you about this just for fun: i had 10 inches of hair lobbed off, giving me that Jean Seberg pixie cut. my husband likes me best with very short hair, so i didn’t have worries that he wouldn’t like it. i wore it short all through college when i was on the swim team. and i had forgotten about that…how easy it was.
do you have any idea how hard it is to stuff all that long hair into a swim cap? OMG. what a PITA 
well, its the perfect hair cut for me. and it will be much much easier to swim with .
the lengths i will go to make swimming even easier 
!!!
i’ll be back in the pool this Thursday. i’ll let you know how the pixie prevails.
PS: anything 10 inches and longer can be donated to Locks of Love ( a charity which makes wigs for cancer patients; the hair salon even comes to you with a tape measure to see if your hair makes the grade.)
and thats all the news…
DM
Let’s see a pic, DM!
maybe you should have shaved it all 
But - I agree with @Eric, we want an a la Jean Seberg pic!!
i have once shaved my hair to an army length, but as cute as i looked, i grew it out. i cut it really short again, and i donated my hair. my hubby loves it short on me; he thinks its very chic and sexy, so i took the plunge and cut it again.
watching them lob off all that hair, i realized that there was no going back OMG.
will send you a pic asap 
maybe i should take a pic in my swim cap
Haha! It’ll grow! But I chopped off most of my hair about eight years ago, and I would never go with long hair again – it’s so much easier short. And I can’t even imagine being in the pool with a lot of hair!
I’m glad you’re pulling out all the stops to make swimming happen for you! 
OMG, having to pull my hair into a tight bun and shove it into that darned swim cap was a nightmare. way too much hair to fit into that tiny little cap. i’m no ester williams, you know
Well, Jean Seberg ain’t too bad either
on “the other” forum ( TuD ) i had a pic of me holding my little siamese kitten. i look much healthier these days, and age has agreed with me, so i will deff send you an updated pic; i am much happier now, especially since i have been swimming and eating all these diff foods, experimenting…and living UNLIMITED
(so much wasted time on fear. so much life to not enjoy it. do it all every day, whatever “that all” is for you.)
Excellent advice!!!
And I hope for you that as you proceed unlimited that you’ll quickly forget about the wasted time on fear. Maybe it wasn’t wasted exactly? Just time that’s helping you to appreciate where you are at now!
Experiments are a great Education:
this morning i spiked after bfast. not certain why b/c my overnight and morning BGs were excellent. 80s to low 100s. i went from 120 before bfast and then 180 2.5 hours post. ugh. was thinking that this was going to truly interfere with my swimming but i was still determined to prep for the pool, so i ignored the fact that my BG was high. i did not take a correction b/c i will not swim with any IOB, and i not only want to get rid of my bfast bolus, but i want to get rid of my basal insulin as well. so i let it ride. as it turned out, my BG came down on its own
at 1:30 my BG was 138 and i walked to the pool
2pm BG 138
2:30 BG 113 (huge drop and the only thing i can think of that will account for this is that my first 1/2 hour i pushed really hard.) took 1 Gtab and got right back into the pool.
3pm BG 84 took another Gtab and got back into the pool
3:15 BG 82
3:30 BG 77 got out of the pool and took 1.5 units manually (didn’t let my pump tell me how much to bolus for, just gave myself what i thought would be a substantial basal replenishment from the 4 hours off of my pump on 0% insulin) i tested again right before i was leaving the gym, and my BGs were already starting to climb ( BG 109.) its amazing how fast this happens! and by the time i got home, i re-tested and my BG had climbed to 142.
i ignored the elevation and bolused 50% of coverage for 32 gms of carbs and 32 gms of protein (my favorite chocolate shakes) (and i took a nibble on some yogurt as well )
so here’s the deal: one of my original goals was to swim at 130 BG and under and swim a nice flatline. i’ve gotten the flatlines pretty well, but today was a major accomplishment. i swam on much lower BGs and even continued swimming when i was below 100. i know i got out of the pool after only 1.5 hours, but when my BG was 77, well, i admit that i got a little nervous. i probably would have plateaued at that point, or i could have taken another Gtablet and get back into the pool and swim for another half hour; but i must say that i was not able to enjoy my swim as much due to the lower BGs. i wanted to do a nice HARD swim today, and i would only allow myself to go at a moderate pace. i was simply too focused on my sugar levels, fearing i would go below 70 and sink .
But, tomorrow is another day: and as i said when i began todays post, experiments make for a great education. now i know that my goals are reasonable and realistic and achievable. this is a very empowering adventure. 
and PS: my Jean Seberg haircut fits perfectly inside of my swim cap !!!
@daisymae, these are GREAT numbers. We are just starting swimming season again, and for the first time on the pump. I can only hope that we can reach your levels after a couple of months of experiments
I love that you kept on swimming till the 80s, and I love that you stopped in the 70s! I am viewing your “decision stream” post facto and thinking – imho these are great decisions!
Did you consider taking 2 Gtabs at 77, waiting 5 minutes, then going back in? I am curious. I am not faulting your thoughts at all, on the contrary – just wondering what your considerations were.
Hi Michel,
yes, when i reached 77 i definitely considered taking another Gtab and trying for the next 1/2 hour. i just wasn’t certain how comfortable my swim would be; i like being as relaxed as possible. i like my mind to wander, i like to focus my attention to everything and nothing at all. at a BG of 82, i was starting to lose that place in my mind and focus more on “can i do this without crashing? am i crashing now and don’t even know it? etc etc” so at that point of my swim, when i reached 77, i felt i had had enough. i wanted to end my swim and go out on a good note.
DM this is a great that you kept going. And you are building this a little more each time, and getting comfortable and fearless and you keep moving forward each time which is tremendous.
You never would have tried something like this a few months ago! You are building each time.
I want to highlight something…
After you stopped swimming at 77, did you take any more sugar?
Between the 77 and 109, did you eat anything?
no, i didn’t eat anything. i didn’t eat ( drink ) anything until after i got home when i bloused for the 2 shakes; i bloused for 50% of their total carbs. both shakes come to 32 gms or both carbs and proteins, so i bolused 1.6 units. i did this manually. didn’t do any corrections at all.
curious to know why my 2.5 hours post bolus was so high ( 170 ).
We can talk about that 170 in a minute…
But first, focus on the 77 to 109.
Do you see anything in that?!? There is something there very important I want you to consider. Something that pushes you to the next level of bold!
i am going to guess with something you’ve been telling me for a while now: " dose hard right after your swim." or maybe that i was swimming less aerobically and more anerobically, which causes my BG to spike??? oh, help me; i havent a clue.
There was nothing wrong with your decisions and effort today. But I am just pointing this out for future reference, and to help embolden you a bit more…
You got down to 77 and stopped. You said you “got a little nervous”, and that is perfectly understandable. Nothing wrong with that.
But after you stopped, with no more carbs, or gtabs, or anything you went from 77…to 109… to 142. All pretty quick, right?
Now of course stopping your swim made your BG rise faster than if you had not stopped.
But…if you had not stopped and kept going at 77, is it possible you had already bottomed out, and would not have kept dropping?
The combination of no insulin for 4 hours, and the gtabs you had at 2:30 and at 3:00, perhaps that 77 was a low as you would get, and if you had kept going, you may not have dropped much more…
Just something to consider for the future.