GETTING BACK INTO THE POOL (after 2 years away)

Sports & Exercise
41

I had to use The Force this afternoon. I tested my BGs and the meter showed 139 (WTF??? How on earth???) so I cleaned my fingers and retested. Same thing. So I bolused a rather hefty correction. I tested again in an hour and my BG was 100. How the heck? And now I had alll of this IOB. I was in the car in the middle of nowhere. Would arrive home in about 20 minutes and be ready for dinner. Typically for the meal I would b having I would need .7U to cover. By the time I was ready to eat, I had .4U OB. so I bolused .3U, sat down and ate. It was the only thing I could think of. A complete reaction. Who the hell knows if I did the right thing or not, but hey, Sh*t happens. I gave it my best shot.

I know that this has absolutely NOTHING to do with swimming. I was just trying to relate about using The Force.

But I plan on being back in the pool tomorrow. I will try some new bolus tricks. I think I may still have a few good ones up my sleeve :rofl:

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42

INCREASED MY BASALS; EXPERIMENT #1:

so this morning I woke up at 51. Low, I know. I took a Gtab and waited to retest. I popped up to 102 before my bfast bolus. No biggy, right? But when I tested again at 10:45am, my BG had spiked to 136. Holy moly! Well, I had had it with this. I knew this wasnā€™t simply nerves about swimming, bc I didnt swim yesterday and I experienced a similar problem. So ASAP, I increased my basals starting at 8am thru 5pm. right across the board. Iā€™d had it with these high sugars. enough was enough.

so, when I left for the pool at 11:55am, my BG was 122. when I got to the locker room, my BG was 115. I took 1/2 a Glucose Tab (2gm, which will usually raise my sugars by 10 points) at exactly 12:15pm I slid into the pool.

Today, for whatever reason, my swim went by so quickly, I didnt even think to look at my watch and get out of the pool. I swam slowly, I know, but it felt effortless. Just luxurious. Wonderful. My happiest place to be. But I knew, on doctorsā€™ orders that I could not swim more than that a day. not yet anyway. So begrudgingly, I climbed out of the pool and went upstairs to shower. My post swim BG was 81 !!! Yahoo!!!

Got dressed and raced home before the downpour. When it was 15 minutes to get upstairs I bolused 3.2 U for my shakes (1:10 ICR) . when I got up to my apartment, I retested and my BG was 76, even better, right?

I waited to see what kind of rise I would get and how long it would take before the rise began.So my initial bolus was at 1:20pm, and by 1:35 my BGs began to climb to 87. Thats 10 points in just 15 minutes. So I experimented and gave myself an extra .7U in the hopes that I would catch the spike ( I gave myself only .5U on Monday and it clearly wasnā€™t enough. I am VERY insulin sensitive, so I was hoping that that extra .2U might b the answer for today; also, I was taking into account the fact that I had raised my basals for the entire afternoon/early evening) Within another 20 minutes, my BG had climbed to 93. on the riseā€¦

But, as Eric keeps advising me, this is all an experiment. weā€™re not looking for perfection here, just information. I am a gatherer.

Here are some basic stats that may be easier to look at:

6:30am BG 51. took 4gms glucose
8:15am BG 107 bolused 1:7 ICR for 1C Goat Milk Yogurt and handful of fresh walnuts

10:45am BG 132 (SH*t) raised my basals starting at 8am, 10am,12pm, and 3pm. Left the rest alone.

11:55am BG 122. left the house at a mad pace for the Y
12:10pm BG 115 took 1/2 a Gtab and went down to the pool
12:15pm slid into the pool and began my swim
12:45pm BG 81 (finished my swim, and went up to the locker rooms to shower )
1:20pm BG 76 bolused 3.2 U for 32gms carbs/protein
1:35pm BG 87 Bolused .7U as rise began
1:50pm BG 93
2:10pm BG 112

hereā€™s hoping that the .7U was enough. Also for my next swim, I will pre-bolus as soon as I get back up to the locker room instead of waiting for the rise. I will hopefully catch it before it happens, with the goal of remaining rather flat. Mind you, 112 is nothing to sneeze at, but at the rate I am rising and bc of the spike after my last swim, I want to b at least closer to my TR after all is said and done. and just personally, and I mean NO judgement on others BG management (and choices of their management), I dont like being higher than 110. I am uncomfortable with that. I would have to say that my favorite range is 80-110. I know thats keeping it tight, but after all my years of neglectful management, I have suffered consequences. I know we Ds are all different. But, as consequences go, I have foot and leg neuropathy, hand neuropathy, and gastroparises. I dont want to add to the list. I am grateful that my eyes are healthy and I would like them to remain so.

I cannot believe the physical pain I am in, but what continues to propel me forward is that I know that with the exercise, I will heal better (and possibly quicker :pray: ) and get completely off of these darn opioids. I had to take 2 muscle relaxers when I finished my Boost Shakes, and it is helping a bit. I had no muscle spasms in my back today, just terrible tightness and moderate pain. It wasnā€™t hard to swim through it, but it became bad once I got home. Iā€™m a tough broad though, so I can tolerate it. Apparently I can tolerate an awful lot more than I ever thought to ask of myself.

so tomorrows a rest day, but I will b back in the pool again on Thursday. Weā€™ll see how the new basals and newest correction works out tonight, and I will have more info to assess then.

signing out,

DM

PS: last nights bolus experiment worked out seamlessly. That .3U extra I added on to my previous (erroneous) bolus was just the right trick. my BGs stayed in line and I went to bed with a BG of 82. Yay for me. Yay for The Force.

PPS: Its now 3pm, and my latest BG is 111. perhaps I hit the nail on the head :pray:

11 Likes
43

@daisymae If thatā€™s a ā€œspikeā€ for you, Iā€™ll trade ya for mine!! Sounds to me like maybe a ā€œriseā€, a ā€œswellā€, a ā€œmodicum of increase,ā€ possibly an ā€œadjustmentā€ā€¦but a long ways from a ā€œspikeā€ā€¦unless of course it continues on the trajectory for another 1/2 hour or hour or so! YDMV, eh?! :upside_down_face:

Glad youā€™re progressing!

5 Likes
44

I say ā€œspikeā€ bc last time round, my BGs went from 112 to 148 in a matter of hours. And I would consider that a spike, non?

Tonight things seemed to work out well. I think bc I increased my basal. I never went below 69 and never went above 112. I just finished my dinner and my BG was 76. So things are looking on the up and up.

Ya know, I have been recovering so long that I forgot what exercise takes out of me. I dont ache particularly, but boy oh boy is my body tired. Perhaps more ā€œrestfulā€ than exhausted. It feels wonderful.

Im really looking forward to getting back into the pool on Friday! Ive been so accustomed to swimming or ā€œrunningā€ for 2 hour periods that a 1/2 hour of laps goes by so quickly. It hardly seems like exerciseā€¦more like a warm-up. But I dont want to injure myself and have to go through another long recovery period. Ive come this far, and I want so badly to continue to heal and get back to where I was. Im just taking this one day at a time.

Thanks for your input though!! :heartbeat:

5 Likes
45

@daisymae I truly hope to have my numbers under as good of control as you do yours! (All seriousness!) Iā€™m good with my TIR per the standard (70-180), Iā€™m neckinā€™ that standard down slow but sure (70-150); but Iā€™m just not done yetā€¦one day, the Good Lord willing, the creek donā€™t rise, and I live that long! (Hey, Iā€™m gettinā€™ up there you know!)

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46

Tom, sounds like youre doing great! Keep up the good work. And, I hope that creek dont rise :pray: :rofl:

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47

Excellent results, DM!! Sounds like the extra bolus was perfect to keep you under 112. :thinking: Did you end up having to take any extra carbs for it or reduce basal? Iā€™m like you, I like to stay under 120 but in reality I usually have to be satisfied with under 140 or sometimes even higher post meal! I will often try to head the spike off by giving a few fake carbs so Loop will do the bolus while still maintaining by basal. This sometimes necessitates carbs because of the stacking. Usually a sip or two of juice works well.

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48

Trying, Thanks for asking. Much later in the evening my BGs dropped into the low 50s. I had a little trouble bringing them back up. (around 6 & 7pm)

I think that bc I raised my basals, I didnt need as much insulin to compensate for how long I was off my pump. Tomorrow I am going to go back to the .5U extra (in addition to my bolus for my shakes ). Im still testing that out. But bc I swim during my 12pm basal profile (.5U/hour) and I am off my pump then for 45+ minutes, the .5U should b enough. If all else fails I would try a lowered TB for a few hours. But I am only swimming for 1/2 hour, which for you and I is not a lot of exercise time, so I doubt I need to do a TB. However, since I havent worked these muscles in 2 years, the energy I put into my swim may register differently in my body (like I am having to work harder to swim for 1/2 an hour as if I were swimming for 2 hours.) Hope I am making sense.

4 Likes
49

How was your nighttime?

Make sure you are replenishing your glycogen stores. Eat your carbs!

4 Likes
50

Yes, you are making perfect sense! Yes, it is hard to get back into your sport after time off. I agree, youā€™ll need time to work back into your routine with more stable BG results. I had the same problem, but to a less severe level, after reduced running during the winter. It took a few weeks to understand my BG and insulin requirements, and Iā€™m still not yet back to usual levels.

I think the 0.5u makes sense. Coincidentally, that is my usual amount that I take about .5 to 1 mile before end of run. We are similar in size and have similar basals :grinning:

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51

weā€™ve talked about this before!!! I remember. when I was exercising regularly, I would turn off my TB 1 hour before I finished my run, then I would take the replacement once I got home. Worked for me.

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52

my nighttime was on the low side, kept having to refuel. But, my overnight was a horror show. Very high (150s) but caught it immediately with corrections. Yes I am refueling with carbs!!!

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53

GAUGING MY PROGRESS AS I MOVE FORWARD EXPERIEMENT #1:

When I used to swim my usual 2 hours, I was able to swim two lengths of the pool in 45 seconds. I was in great shape :wink: . Today I decided to look at my watch and see how long the same distance took me to get from one end of the pool and back again. It took 1 minute and 15 seconds. I have some work to do. But it was still a great swim, no doubt. And my pain was minimal, and I have that glorious ā€œswimmersā€™ high.ā€ I am definitely buzzing, despite it only being a half hours work (not counting the 40 minutes of speed walking to and from the pool.)

Yesterday I had some crazy BGs. I probably should have just put myself on a lower TB, but I opted for refueling with modest amounts of carbs instead. I would eat, I was able to get up to 96, then an hour and a half later, I was back down to 70. then I would eat again, rise, then back down again, and again and again till bedtime.

Night time was a different story. when I went to bed, my BG was 70. but by midnight, without explanation, my BG had spiked to 135. I bolused a .6U correction and set my alarm for 2:30am and went back to sleep. At 2:30, my BG had come down to 104. I went back to sleep. I slept VERY soundly. Thoroughly rested, I was awake at 7am and my BG had spiked again to 125. I did a quick correction of .5U and chilled out before bfast at 8am.

stats:

10:30am BG 105
12pm BG 124 walk to pool
12:20 BG 118 took 1gm fast carbs and went down to pool and jumped right in
12:55 BG 73 finished swim, crazy dash upstairs to shower and speedy walk home.
1:30 BG 82 Bolused 3.2U plus additional .5U extra (experiment ) to cover 32gms refuel and time off pump basal (.5U/hour, swam 45 minutes, plus shower and getting dried off and dressed)

wonā€™t know what happens later till it happens but will keep u in the loop. Am off for the weekend, but ill b back in the pool on Monday. Cant wait.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, and thank you all a million for your well wishes and cheering me on. I doubt I could ever do any of this without you. Youā€™ve got my back and have encouraged me all the wayā€¦and thereā€™s still a ways to go! I am up for the challenge.

signing out,

DM

8 Likes
54

EARLY ON, BUT THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE LATEST UPDATE:

So its been 1 hour since I finished my refuel. I spiked from 82 (at 1:30) to 140 at 3:20 (just 1 hour after finishing my shakes)

Im gonna let it ride and see what happens. No playing around with corrections. ( but, just to say, I usually stay relatively flat after eating.)

Darn it all. (but I still have 1.5U OB)

5 Likes
55

PS: (LATER THE SAME DAY)

so all went well without any corrections. my BGs came down to 90 by 5pm and then 78 by 7:30. I dont know why I have spiked certain times while drinking the exact same ā€œfoodā€ refuel, and not spiked during others. This is however, only my 4th swim, so I am still working on the pesky little glitches. But perhaps our beloved genius ERIC will have some helpful insight.

Just thought I would keep you in the loop with some results.

Good night all,

DM

6 Likes
56

So it goes back to what I said before. You canā€™t use a formula because there is too much you donā€™t know and too much that is not the same from day-to-day.

This is your 3rd swim this week, right? There is a pretty big difference between your 1st and your 3rd in the same week.

If you were to swim every day, certainly your BG would trend much lower and you would need less insulin than if you only went swimming once a month, right?

In the same way, the 3rd of the week is not going to be the same as the 1st of the week.

5 Likes
57

Yes, this was my 3rd swim this week. I had forgotten all about that. You used to encourage (really should b read ā€œPersuadeā€) me to swim 5 days a week (if not 7) so that I could just lower all of my basals and that the swimming just became part of my regular routine. Right now I am not up to swimming that much (im just glad that I can even put my bathing suit on by myself! :rofl: ).( btw, yesterday I put my suit on backwards at first and it took a few to figure out what was wrong with it! ) I guess I will continue to b patient and do the very best that I can with my management.

Thanks for the reminder. But I do have to say that I really do like formulas.

6 Likes
58

JUICE, JUICE,JUICE, THE ā€œBOBBY EXPERIEMENTā€ #1:

2.5 hours after breakfast this morning, my BG was 74. I took 6gms fast carbs and retested in 1/2 hour. My sugars had only come up to 88. I REALY didnt want to b bothered by doing a lowered TB for an hour, so I did what my husband and I refer to as ā€œThe Bobby Methodā€ which is another way of saying : ā€œOh Daisy Mae, just drink a large glass of juice, bring your sugars up nice and high and get on with it!!!ā€ So, thats what I did. I had 1/3C Apple Cider, waited another 1/2 hour, brought my BGs up to 128 and made a mad dash to the pool. I cut 5 minutes off of my previous weeksā€™ mad dashes and got there in 15 minutes flat! Wow. Out of breath and my back was in excruciating pain. Felt like death (didnt want to take any pain meds before my swim cause I didnt want to sink, so I thought it best to just deal with the pain instead.)

When I got to the pool, my BGs had come down to 118 (a 10 point drop just from the speedy walk). I took 2gms of fast carbs and jumped into the pool. Timing myself, I realized that I had cut 20 seconds off of my lap time from just last week. That may not seem like a lot to you, but for me to see any progress at all was very very encouraging! My work was, well, working.

When I got out of the pool and tested my BG was 65. I went upstairs to shower off and get dressed, pretty certain that having been off my pump for a total of almost 1 hour, my sugars would certainly rise as they had each time in the past. So, after the shower, I re-tested, but my sugars had not come up (not yet anyway, and I was impatient and reactive). I decided, without much thought, to take 2gms of fast carbs before leaving the locker room, and I walked home. After all , how much damage could 2gms of carbs do to my BGs anyway?

Well, by the time I had gotten home , just 20 minutes after those 2gms of pesky carbs, my BG had come up from 65 to 101. Wow, huh? Not a nightmare, I know, but being the perfectionist that I am, I felt that somehow I had failed myself. but then again, who knows, maybe they would have just come up that high all on there own. I MUST remember, as Eric keeps reminding me, I am gathering information here. it is not a contest. And, I know that in reality, many, if not most, diabetics would be thrilled to have a BG of 101! I mean, get real, DM. Come back to Earth :rofl: .

Stats:

2:30am BG 60 took 4gms fast carbs and went back to sleep.
7am BG 85 got up and got ready for bfast.
10:45 BG 74 took 6gms fast carbs and hung out watching Law and Order
11:30 BG 88 drank 1/3C apple cider
12pm BG 128 mad dash to pool
12:20 BG 118 took 2gms carbs and jumped into pool
12:55 BG 65 went upstairs to shower and change
1:10 BG still 65 took 2gms carbs and walked quickly home
got home, hung up all my wet swim gear and towel, took a deep breath, two muscle relaxers (no pain meds yet) and sat down at my computer to breathe. High as a kite, as usual. (aint that Grand!!!) Retested my sugars:
1:30 Bg 101 bolused for Boost shakes and replacement basal (3.7U)
I waited 25 minutes for my insulin to really kick in, in the hopes that I would not spike as high as I have in the past. Sometimes this trick has worked, and other times it has been a complete failure. But, as I stated before: ā€œI am gathering information, and it is not a contest.ā€

It was a wonderful swim. I feel proud that I was able to both walk faster to the pool and that I was able to cut a little off of my lap time. This is only my 3rd week back in the pool. Any progress is good progress in my book :star_struck: :wink: .

I hope this evening goes smoothly. but I will adjust to accommodate, and everything will b just fine. I am Unlimited for Gods sake!

Signing out,

DM

PS: since I have been swimming I have been able to cut my basal profiles by 1/3% !!

7 Likes
59

I think the best part out of all of this is that you realized you can swim at 65 and itā€™s not really that big a deal. As long as you donā€™t have more insulin working and you had sufficient carbs, 65 is nothing.

That tells me your basal is too high!

4 Likes
60

as I mentioned in my post, I finally got sick and tired of dealing with correcting low BGs and lowered my entire profiles today. Its gonna take a little tinkering bc although at dinnertime (post Boost Shakes) my sugars had come back into perfect TR of 100 (I only went as high as 125 1 hour after I finished drinking them). But 4 hours post dinner, my BG was 121. I did a correction, and Iā€™ll see what happens overnight. I may have been a little too aggressive though :rofl: But thereā€™s always those delicious late night snacks after midnight :wink:

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