Daisy Mae's swimming BG thread

Sports & Exercise
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1873

WHATS UP WITH THESE LOW BLOOD SUGARS EXPERIMENT #1:

so throughout my entire night, my blood sugars were in the low 50s. i woke up every couple of hours and took some Gtabs. finally, at 6am i had gotten my BG up to 84, so it seemed like a great time to take advantage and have a nice bfast. but by 11am, my BG was back down to 69. i was ready to prep for my swim, so i took 1.5 Gtabs and bolused .2 units and turned off my pump. then it was a waiting game on ZB for the next 2 hours. i truly expected my BG to come up. 1/2 hour later,my BG was STILL 69; i took one more Gtab, and waited another 1/2 hour. when i was ready to leave for the pool, my BG was 110. finally!!! so i took another Gtab and walked to the pool. when i got there, my BG was 130, so i felt confident and jumped right in and tried to swim my heart out.

here are todays stats:

1:25 BG 130
2pm BG 101 (took 2 tabs, waited 5 minutes and jumped back in)
2:30 BG 62 ( very disappointed, i put on my flip flops and left the pool)

so only an hour swim today and a lot of frustration.i drank my chocolate shakes (perhaps the best part of my day :wink:) and now i am just going to take it easy and put things into perspective. its a much better place when i have gratitude than when i am filled with self-pity. so i think i will choose the gratitude :sunny: theres always tomorrow !!!

signing off,
DM

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1874

Sorry to hear about your frustrating day. I always find that when you think you have the diabetes dragon slayed, something about your condition changes and the dragon rises out of the ashes like a phoenix to find a new way to bother you.

hang in there.

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@Chris Me, too! It’s like I jinx myself just for having good feelings!!

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TOO MANY GLUCOSE TABLETS BEFORE MY SWIM EXPERIMENT #1:

well after last week’s swimming crash, i was very hesitant to get into the pool with a BG below 140/150, so when i got to the pool and tested, and my BG was 128, i thought, “better take 2 tabs just to be certain i will stay afloat.” BIG MISTAKE. 1 tablet would have done the job perfectly. and ya know, as soon as i put that second tablet in my mouth and started chewing, i KNEW i should have spit it out…but i didnt. OOPS. my BG spiked almost immediately (within 10 minutes). i went from 128 to 157.

But the good thing about my spike, was that i knew i could swim my absolute hardest without any chance of crashing. i wanted, also, to swim off the high BG. so i swam like it was nobody’s business. hard and stronger than i think i have ever swam. instead of my usual 1 minute for 2 lengths of the pool, i swam 45 seconds for the 2 lengths. (possibly even less). it was awesome. i fully enjoyed myself. part of me was even thinking that i feel my best in the water swimming while i am high, b/c i can completely relax and let my mind wander wherever it goes without any concern whatsoever about going low. i can push myself harder, and perhaps that will allow me to increase my speed even more than it already is. maybe, just maybe, i have become too judgemental with myself about my BG numbers. as if there is a competition that i have to win, having the lowest possible numbers sustained for 90 minutes and a post-swim flat line. I dont know. all i do know is that today went well and that i am feeling great. i really feel at peace with myself. my body is very very sore right now, but its a good kind of sore. and the endorphin rush isnt bad at all :wink:

here are todays stats:

1:15 bg 128 (took 2 glucose tabs and jumped in)
1:55 bg 163
2:25 bg 136
2:55 bg 112 (bolused 2.2 units, showered and dashed home)
3:20 bolused 1.6 units for re-fuel (50% of 32 gms)
3:35 bg 113 drank my Boost Shakes.

we’ll see how the evening goes. i will be having a nice high protein/carb dinner and swim again tomorrow. i made a morning basal change (after getting sick and tired of doing a correction at the same time every day for the past week), so i am eager to see if i made a sensible choice. anyhow, thats all the latest; hope this helps some other athlete in any way, shape or form. maybe it will even help someone to not be overly judgemental about themselves; i have a D friend who is constantly saying to me, " YOU ARE NOT YOUR NUMBERS". i’d like to keep that in mind. especially b/c i will be seeing my endo in May and i will find out my latest A1c. i think my last one was 5.3%…but the time before that it was 4.9%. i tend to compete with myself unnecessarily.

signing out,
DM

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1877

Hmmmm. I can’t think of anyone specifically who could use hearing that, but I’ll make sure she thinks about it. :wink:

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1878

my curiosity is killing me… :rofl:

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Guess what !!! tomorrow i will get a chance to do it all again and “Trust my Feelings” before i inhale and chomp down a tablet. :blush:

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TRUSTING MY FEELINGS EXPERIMENT #1:

so today i took Eric’s advice and trusted my feelings and took NO Gtabs before my swim. i decided to let it ride and that if i went low during my swim, THEN i would takes some tabs. i guess its like when i know that my BG is dropping, i can curtail a crash, but if i am just on the low side, i dont need to treat with anything. dont treat a problem that is not a problem. so today i just jumped in and swam hard. it was a good day, and i know that tonight i will have to cut my basal down by, maybe, 10% for a couple of hours (i might even change my dinnertime ICR to give me slightly less insulin). (last night was a night of lows, bringing me into the 40s again and again despite chewing on glucose tablets throughout the wee hours)

here are today’s stats:

1:50 bg 140
2:20 bg 125
2:50 bg 97
3:20 bg 87
3:50 bg 82

i’m feeling great and although i just enjoyed 2 of my chocolate shakes, i am really looking forward to my dinner. i could eat a horse right now. :rofl:

signing off,
DM

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CONSECUTIVE SWIM DAYS EXPERIMENT #1:

last night i had to change my ICR for my dinner from 1:12 to 1:14. i probably could have gotten away with 1:16, but i didnt want to push my luck. of course i was thinking about the possibilities of going low and having some chocolate… :wink: in any case, it worked out just fine.(and i had some chocolate anyway.)

i also used a 10% lowered TB for overnight, and that worked out well also.

tonight i am going to have a re-fuel dinner. i am not celebrating the first night of Passover, so i am cheating and having leavened bread with my tuna. tomorrow and the rest of the week i will be stuck eating matza, which is ok, but not my favorite carb. (although i do LOVE matza bri and i will be having a lot of that with applesauce )

today’s swim was probably the hardest i have ever swam. my BG was high when i jumped in, so i was fearless about pushing myself. and, i figured that since it was Friday and i was taking the weekend off, as usual, and that our Passover Seder was tomorrow and i would be stuffing my face, it was well worth the effort. i have to admit that i am SOOOOO sore right now, and that i know it will only get worse as the evening comes upon me. i am going to take a whopping dose of Advil with some Tylenol hoping that will fend off some of the pain. Eric takes this Tart Cherry Juice after his runs for this purpose and he swears by it. i tried it once and my sugars spiked immediately. YDMV…but whats new, right?

its funny that there is no secret formula that works the same every time, day after day for us. i see it most blatantly in my swim preps. my BG is perfect when i start; i shut off my pump, i pre-bolus a certain amount so that i dont spike while my pump is off…some days i give myself a little larger bolus than others, but by such minimal increments that it doesnt seem like it should make such a drastic difference. sometimes, when i turn off my pump for the first 2 hours, my BG doesnt even elevate. sometimes, it even goes down. but then there are days like today when my BG just climbed and climbed, and by the time i had gotten to the pool i had gone from a BG of 85 to a BG of 150 !!! Just going with the flow… :blush:

here are today’s stats:

1:40 bg 150
2:15 bg 148
2:45 bg 112
3:15 bg 110
3: 55 bg 94

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY AND KOSHER PASSOVER AND A HAPPY EASTER. EAT WELL AND ENJOY ONE ANOTHER.

singing off,
DM

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On days like that I suggest starting your swim a little sooner. You don’t have to always wait 2 hours. If you are spiking up like that, you could start it after 1.5 hours instead.

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JUST AN ORDINARY SWIM EXPERIMENT #1:

i guess not every swim can be exceptional. but today’s swim gave me a solid workout and relaxation. i also was able to enjoy some peaceful solitude b/c there was literally no one in the pool other than 2 men in the slow lane doing lopsided back strokes :wink:.

a lesson i guess i needed to learn again, though, did make itself abundantly clear: watch out for the strength of carbs after 2.5 hours of zero basal.

i had been low throughout the night, waking up just having to take one glucose tablet after another every couple of hours. when i got up for bfast, my sugars were still low, despite all efforts. so i waited another 1/2 hour, hoping they would come up. finally, i got frustrated and bolused anyway and ate a nice meal.

when i started my swim prep and turned off my basal, my BG was 89. then, after 2.5 hours of ZB my BG had only come up to 115. so, before jumping into the pool, i took 2 tablets. why didnt i remember what happened last week when i (also) over-did it with the tabs? i just get so nervous about jumping in and then crashing. i want to swim hard and fast, and i know that lowers my BGs substantially, so i think i need to keep my sugars high in order to accomplish that. but the reality is that i have barely any IOB, no bolus, just whats left over from my basal from before i turned off my pump. maybe when this situation presents itself again, i will think it through more thoroughly and hold back on the carb-overdose.

in any case, i got in a good workout, and i am feeling really good physically, so i cant really complain about anything. life is good in Daisy Mae Land today. tomorrow i see the physical therapist for my back, in Manhattan, so i wont be in the pool. but i will be back there both Thursday and Friday.

here are today’s stats:

11:30 bg 89 turned off pump and bolused .2 units to avoid spike
1:50 bg 115 arrived at pool and changed into my swimsuit; took 2 Gtabs
2:25 bg 136
2:55 bg 129 swam as hard as i could in an effort to bring my BG down and to really push myself
3:25 bg 107 (which reflected how hard i had swam my last stretch) i bolused 2.2 units to replace missed basal, dashed home, bolused 50% of my carbs for my re-fuel shakes, and now i’ll see how the evening goes.

hoping everyone had a lovely holiday! :sunny:
signing off for today,
DM

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This is such an important thing to highlight! Really really! Great to see that point made.

Great numbers once again! Awesome stuff!

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TALKING TO MY BODY EXPERIMENT #1:

a while back…maybe a year ago, i asked Eric about how i could intensify my performance in my swims. his words to me were simple: " just tell your body what to do and the body will do it." well, what i wanted was to increase my speed. when i began swimming, i was deligated to the “slow” lane. now i swim in the “medium/fast” lane. it took a while, but i got there. i still consider myself a “medium” pace swimmer, but i have definitely improved my pace.

today, i pushed myself particularly hard. recently, my pace has been a 1 minute length back and forth. then i got it down to 45 seconds, but today, i got it down to 40 seconds!!! i just kept up this ongoing dialogue with myself with each stroke: “faster, faster, stronger, stronger, harder harder, YOU CAN DO THIS!!!” and i swam for 90 minutes huffing and puffing till i could hardly breath. i am home now and i still feel out of breath. :blush: today’s swim was awesome. and i feel really great about myself.

for that entire 90 minutes, i was not diabetic. i was a swimmer, an athlete. and it felt wonderful. and i get to do it all again tomorrow!!!

here are today’s stats:

1:50 bg 140
2:25 bg 130
2:55 bg 109
3:25 bg 71

signing off for today,
DM

PS: i changed my ICR for dinner tonight, so i’ll be taking less insulin. whenever my legs and arms feel like rubber after my swim, i know i’m gonna need less insulin. and probably a lowered TB overnight.

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I love this!! I tried that today on my 2 hour run at the Preserve, and it worked. Doesn’t always, but with a BG in range, as it was today during most of the run, it is more likely to work!! :slight_smile:

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i know that you tend to stay in a nice low range during your runs. how do you manage this? if i dont start on the high side, i just crash immediately. and thats on ZB.

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@daisymae Oh, yes, but I sometimes go too low!! I can’t do a ZB like you. I wish I could, but I would just go straight up! I also really find it difficult to run if I’m too high. I shoot for a BG < 100, because anything over that I just don’t have the energy to run!:frowning: I do reduce my basal a 1/2 hour before running by 80%, and I have no IOB, so that helps. Each day varies. I sometimes will start going low an hour into the run and then I will eat a carb. Usually 1 or 2 fruit gummies (approx 2-4 gms). It takes about 20 minutes or so to start having an effect though, so I try to catch the low early.

Your numbers are fantastic though! I rarely see you crash. I’m amazed with your results! I try to pattern myself after you! I know we are doing different activities, and I think swimming requires muscle use throughout the body, so you are probably using up any glucose you happen to have in your body (or released by your liver) a lot faster than what running triggers. This is a subject for @Eric though as I don’t fully understand the mechanics!

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Love it. I have found the same. An unnecessary carb, even during exercise, can cause problems, but an unnecessary carb on top of zero basal is just dangerous.

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today i was on ZB for 2 hours and 45 minutes before jumping into the pool. after all that time, with no IOB, my BG was only 87.

have you ever tried doing a small bolus BEFORE turning off your pump? thats what i do and i think that it definitely keeps me from spiking. but, as you mentioned, i think that swimming may use different muscles than running.

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Wow, that is amazing!! No, I’ve not tried doing a small bolus BEFORE turning off my pump. Thank you for this suggestion! I have noticed that you did this before. What would be a SMALL bolus for the 2 hours of ZB before exercise? I mean percentage wise? For example, if your BG is 80, and you plan to exercise in 2 hours. Do you estimate the bolus based on a percentage of the basal you will be missing? If you don’t mind me asking, what was your bolus today before you switched the pump off?

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