yes, that is what i meant. .025 units (oops) but i might just have some malt balls anyways 
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SWIMMING OFF A HIGH BG EXPERIMENT #1 :
for whatever reason, while i was waiting to turn off my pump and prep for my swim, my BG jumped from 98 to 142 within just an hour. i had already long finished Bfast, my BGs had been perfectly in target, and then POW, out of nowhere 142.
so first things first: i washed my hands carefully, and then i re-tested. same thing. 142. then i tested again on my other hand’s finger. same thing. 142.
well, i wasnt going to let that detract or discourage me from swimming. i would just have to go to plan “B.” i turend off my pump, as usual, and pre-bolused .7 units (not only to keep from spiking, but to hopefully bring my BG down to a more reasonable pre-swim range; 110 would have been fine. instead, while i waited for the basal IOB to leave my system, instead of BG coming down, it continued to rise upwards.
now i usually wait 2 hours with 0% basal BEFORE i even leave the house for the pool, which brings me to 2.5 hours off all basal by the time i am set to jump in. today, however, i decided to leave 15 minutes earlier in the hope that i could somehow swim off that high BG especially before it had gotten any higher.
so, today my numbers stunk. but, i did have a great, exhausting swim. the pool was so crowded, that i had to share a lane with four other swimmers. the max is 5, and when its at max, you have to stand around and wait for a lane to open up; well that screws up my schedule, so even though it bothered me that there were so many others i had to share the lane with, i was happy that i could maintain my schedule. timing is very important to me (LOL). another good thing was that when sharing a lane, you must keep pace with the other swimmers and go in circles instead of just back and forth. so, i was really forced to push myself to swim faster than usual; this helped me to get a great work-out in and build my confidence greatly.
now the thing that made this humorous to me is that just last year i wouldnt have dreamed of going into the pool at “such a low BG.” now, if i go into the pool at 110, i am totally comfortable with that. perspective and perception.
so here are the “lousy” stats:
1:15 BG 155
1:50 BG 146
2:20 BG 117
2:50 BG 113
3:20 BG 105
(and, obviously, no Gtabs necessary today 
.)
signing off,
DM
PS: wont be swimming tomorrow, but will be back in the pool both thursday and friday. and, just to keep you up to date, since i have returned to drinking my BOOST shakes after my swim, instead of the milk with Ovaltine, i have neither spiked nor crashed after my swim. YAY for the BOOST!
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LAST NIGHT WAS A BG NIGHTMARE AND HOW I GOT THROUGH IT, EXPERIMENT #1:
well usually after a concurrent swim day, i will need to lower my basal rates slightly (5%). however last night at 5:30pm my BGs began to climb for absolutely no apparent reason. it was nothing i did, nothing i ate, nothing i was going to do…just absolutely nothing i could think of. so i did a few things to make certain all was working well: i changed my pump site, i changed my reservoir, i changed my insulin. I did a correction, and then i waited.but within just one hour, my BG had climbed even more. i turned on an elevated TB of 110% and i pre- bolused for dinner (i was extremely hungry, but i waited 45 minutes for my BG to nudge its way down a bit before eating)
right after dinner, my BG was 191. i know that i had IOB, but i decided to give myself 2 units with an IM shot in my thigh ( a decent bloke sent me these 1/2 needles just for my IM shots) i jabbed it in and massaged my thigh to get the juices working) if all were right in the world with ISF, i should have come down to a BG of about 100, but at 11:40pm i had only come down to 149.
i was tired, so i went to bed. i keep my alarm (i dont use a dexcom yet) bedside and it woke me up at 2am. again my BG was high so i raised my TB to120%. i woke up at 4am and was still very high, so i bumped up my TB to 125% and thought “F-it” did a minor correction and went back to sleep. when i woke up this morning my BG was 50. i turned down the TB to 105%, took 2 Gtabs and waited for my BG to come up. an hour later, my BG was 75, so i turned off the TB completely and ate my Bfast.
now i dont know what the heck happened yesterday, but today everything returned to normal. now i dont want to jinx myself, because the evening is upon me, but i am happy as all hell that i had a regular day. no spikes, no crashes, just normal, in target ranges. phew.
i am hoping that yesterday will not repeat itself, one b/c it sucked, and 2 b/c i want to have a great swim tomorrow and dont want to have to be recovering from the crazy roller coaster we can get from time to time.
just thought i would post this so that you guys know that sometimes, whatever i do with my very best efforts, things bomb. i had a bad day yesterday, and a bad night. i’ll check in with you tomorrow after my swim 
signing off,
DM
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BG BACK TO NORMAL SWIMMING EXPERIMENT # 365:
after changing my pump set out twice, my basals returned to their normal range. i think i must have had either air bubbles in my tubing (i use a tethered pump), or a bad infusion site. once i changed everything (including my insulin), everything i moaned about in my last post was a thing of the past. phew!
so i was back in the pool today, feeling strong and ready to go. my BGs were on the low side, but i kept trusting that i had no IOB, including 0% basal for the past 2.5 hours (by the time i jumped in the pool). i had to actually get out of the pool 5 minutes early b/c i was feeling a bit weak and wanted to check my BG. but all in all, it was a great swim workout.
here are today’s stats (they may surprise you) :
1:20 BG 93 (took 1 Gtab)
2pm BG 89 (took 1/2 a Tab)
2:30 BG 75 ( took a chip of a Tab)
2:55 BG 67 (bolused 2 units)
3:30 BG 62
i hope that tonight goes well. i just finished drinking my re-fuel shakes and plan to eat a hearty dinner around 6:30pm.
signing off,
DM
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NEW FORM SWIMMING EXPERIMENT #1:
so today is friday, and i love to swim hard before the weekend (when i just sit around and sloth).
i decided to try something new: i changed the form of my stroke. the funny thing is that although it was rather modified from my usual form, it felt as natural as could be…as if i had been swimming this way from the very beginning. it involved more of a “dolphin” posture as well as more use of my upper arms and back. my kick has always been very strong, so that was not what i needed to focus on.
this was incredible. i was able to swim both more efficiently and much faster. i had to get use to a change in my breathing, but that took no more than 5 minutes. and it all felt natural and wonderful. i really did feel like a dolphin must .
also, as hard as i was swimming, i fueled myself with more Gtabs than usual, and dared myself to swim at lower BGs than i have in the past (well yesterday was pretty close)
here are the stats:
1:20 BG 104 (took 1.5 tabs)
2pm BG 73 (took 1.5 tabs)
2:30 BG 73 (took 1 tab)
3pm BG 95 (probably didnt need the previous tab, but i was a little nervous being on the cusp of going much lower; maybe next time, when i know that my BG is plateauing i will only take 1/2 tab)
i bolused 2 units to cover my 4 hours off my pump, and then 1.6 units to cover my 2 Boost “replacement” shakes. ( i am contemplating having a little banana with fresh, home made peanut butter as well .)
i am anticipating going low this evening, but my pantry and fridge are stocked with yummy fast carbs, just waiting to be eaten. i will have to consult with my guru, eric, about whether i should do a TB or suspend my pump for 1/2 hour (which i had to do last night). (he knows that i am not a big fan of the TB, despite the fact that i will use them when utterly necessary.)
anyway, thats all the news that’s fit to print. i hope everyone enjoys their weekend. i know i will enjoy mine (being a coach potato, watching soccer with my husband 
).
singing off,
DM
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Outstanding numbers! A really awesome job today.
If you skip that last gtab, you can start to feel more comfortable being in the 70’s when you are exercising.
Maybe when you have only 30 minutes to go, next time you will consider skipping it and seeing where your BG takes you?
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A NEW EXPERIMENT GONE “WRONG” # 1:
when i was prepping for my swim this morning (i start at 11am so i have no IOB left over from bfast), my BG was 91. usually i pre-bolus a small amount of insulin to keep me from spiking while i turn my basal off; the amount of my bolus depends on my BG at the time i am going to shut off my pump. i will typically give myself anywhere from .3 units to .8 units. but, today my BG was only 91, so i thought i would give a .2 unit bolus a try. (i was trending down at the time i made this judgement call) i also made another ill-advised decision: i would take 1/2 a gtab , wait 1/2 hour, test again and see where my sugars were going. not much movement, so i took another 1/2 a gtab. here is where i made my second mistake. i deffinately did NOT need that second 1/2 tab. and, the .2 units were not enough to cover my potential spike. needless to say, my BG spiked, and i went into the pool rather high for me (now that i have been daring and swimming with lower BG numbers; refer to last recent swim stats )
despite the high BGs, i had an awesome swim. i followed through on using my newly found form, and i was able to swim faster and with very little difficulty than in my previous swims. and the stroke felt very natural. i focused on my stroke coordination, my adjusted breathing, and the strength of my muscles i was now using. i just know that my shoulders and upper arms are going to hurt later .
here are today’s (embarrassing) stats:
1:25 BG 150
2pm BG 148
2:30 BG 124
3pm BG 117
tomorrow i am off; i am going with my husband, sister-in-law , and her friend to a DAVID BOWIE
exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. (we spent a long time waiting to get these tickets ) so although i wont be swimming, i know we will be having a really great time. AND, i’ll be back in the pool thursday and friday afternoon.(YAY)
hope you are all well.
signing off,
DM
It’s all good DM! If you learned something, you got value out of the day. You know what I always tell you about the gtabs. Wait!!
Also, this is very informative:
Quiz time!
Usually you do not drop that much. 33 points is more of a drop than usual. Do you know why you dropped more today?
(do not forget that 33 number, that might be useful for you!)
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ideas:
b/c i did not give myself enough of a pre-bolus?
b/c i was swimming a new stroke which used more muscles than i normally use.
b/c i was trying harder to swim off the high BG???
tell me, tell me, tell me!!! 
Your body will use any combination of fuel it can for activity - fat metabolism, muscle glycogen, liver glycogen, and blood glucose. It just uses whatever is easier and makes the most sense for it to use.
Normally when you swim, you are getting in the pool a bit lower, and taking a gtab right when you start.
Here is an example:
You might be at 100, take 1 gtab, swim 30 minutes, get out and test at 90. So you think, “I only dropped 10 points, that is not too bad…”
In the example above, you took 1 gtab. And your body also got about another 1/2 of a gram of glucose out of your blood, which is the drop from 100 to 90.
So today, since you did not take any gtabs, you just got glucose out of your blood.
Since you did not take gtabs, your body took more from your blood. So you had a bigger drop than normal.
Does that make sense?
Another way of saying it - when you take gtabs before starting, that is also glucose that your body is taking out of your blood, so it is like the 33 point drop you had today, except it is glucose you put into your blood right when you started.
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yes it makes perfect sense. thursday i wont take any tabs until i need them when i am at the pool. (unless, of course, i am crashing before i get to the pool .)
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LESS INSULIN REPLACEMENT POST SWIM EXPERIMENT #1:
today i decided something new for warding off the post swim lows/crashes that i am still struggling with. instead of bolusing 2 units when i hook back up to my pump (after 4 hours without any basal insulin), i gave myself slightly less: 1.8 units. (i wanted to start off conservatively to see if there was any change but without that change being too dramatic)
also, instead of bolusing 50% of insulin for my replenishment drinks (32 gms total), i only bolused 1.4 units.
i am eager to see if this gives me more control over my BGs. i will try anything to avoid the post swim crashing!!! i have tried suspending my pump, i have tried to not pre-bolus before eating dinner, i have tried TBs, i have eaten every kind of fast carbs, without bolusing, to ward off the crash.
if anyone has any ideas that have either worked for them or seem like they might just help, i am completely open to trying them!!!
today was a great swim. my numbers werent good. (i dont know why, either) i took no gtabs at all from start to finish. for whatever reason, the pool was freezing today, but it was empty. i had a lane completely to myself for 1.5 hours!!!
here are the stats:
1:20 BG 137
2pm BG 133
2:30 BG 116
3pm BG 103 (bolused 1.8 units)
3:25 pm bolused 1.4 units
4pm BG 111 (drank refuel shakes after a 1/2 hour pre-bolus)
the reason i wait so long to drink my shakes after bolusing is b/c after i get out of the pool, my BGs start to spike. i give myself a basal replacement shot, but it takes time for that insulin to catch up with the time of missed basal. i could get out of the pool at 103, but within minutes, my BG will shoot up to 130. so, i wait till i am in target range to start drinking my shakes.
(just thought i would include that info, as i dont believe i ever had before)
signing off,
DM
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That’s proof of what I have told you - when you swim, you are not diabetic.
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maybe i should move out of brooklyn and find a nice place somewhere to build a pool of my own in which i could swim 24/7. i would never need insulin again. and i could come up out of the water on occasion and have a small meal, and then go right back into the pool and continue swimming.
my bathing suit would become very very worn out though.
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Just take over a cabana at an olympic sized pool in a hot location of the world, then you would have built in service from the cabana boy, and you wouldn’t have to do so many flip turns.
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i like your thinking. 
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I am not sure of the qualifications, but I am going to apply for the cabana boy job.
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i wonder if the salary is half decent ? would he work for tips? does he get a christmas bonus?
does he live in my chateau in the left wing? or does he live in his own cabana?
so many questions…
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Seeing you swim would be payment enough.
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awh shucks
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