so its holiday time and we will no doubt be presented with several large food feasts. we all know the food that we are anticipating. everything yummy and irresistable.some families make their stuffing with more carbs than others (so we just ballpark it and guess) then there is the cranberry sauce, the sweet potatoes with marshmellows, on and on of deliciousness. OH, and lets not forget the pies : pumpkin and peacan, etc.
but we are unlimited, so we’ll come up with some bolus formula so that we can indulge and enjoy ourselves!!!
so, that being said, how will you navigate and enjoy your meals? we all have tricks up our sleeves
We will do the best for Liam and deal with whatever happens. We aren’t going to restrict any food from him and deal with highs and lows as they come because that’s truly the only way we can allow him to be unlimited. He’ll pick what he wants to eat, and we’ll bolus as best we can (some foods family members make I have no idea how many carbs are in them.) Since we have a pretty good idea what he will eat and what he won’t, if he picks something that we’re sure he won’t eat, we will just hold off on that part of the bolus until we’ve seen he actually eats it OR we’ll compensate what he didn’t eat, with something that he is eating.
I was wondering the same thing; first holiday season on insulin for me! I figured since it’s just once a year, I’ll do my best guess at bolusing, eat sensible portions, and deal with what comes after.
The carb in a pumpkin pie is easy to figure out if the recipe is basically the recipe on the can. Total carb including crust averages 360. That’s the same number as degrees in a circle, which makes it easy to subdivide: for instance, 1/8 of a circle is 45 degrees, and 1/8 of a pie is 45 carb. Of course, YPMV.
That’s my one and only Thanksgiving trick, and to my knowledge it only works with pumpkin pie, since I have never come across any other recipe that is round and has total carb of 360.
Eat. Dose with best Carb guess as we go. Let Dexcom tell us after the fact how to fix it.
We just did a sensor change today. So, I think rather then restart the same sensor next week, I will try and get “buy-in” to put a new sensor in. This will give us more accurate cgm data for Thanksgiving including the weekend.
Different people is definately different. Some people can go for months and months. We typically get 11~13 days from our Dexcom G5 sensor. So rather than hope we get a good 13 day of accurate data and then find out this sensor gives us crap data at 11 days, if I change it out a couple days before Thanksgiving so we are within the first 7 days for the Thursday and the entire weekend, then I will be able to push the odds into our favor.
In terms of how much time must elapse to increase the accuracy of a sensor, it is likely somewhere around 2 or 3 days (from start of sensor). AFAIK, the accuracy will be better once you have 6 good calibrations in place with the initial double calibration counting as a single calibration. I try to get 6 calibrations within the first 2 days. Then we typically switch to just one calibration per day. Realizing this is neither FDA approved nor recommended by Dexcom. This quickly gets into the larger topic of how best to calibrate a Dexcom.
Also partake in the large selection of cookies, cakes and other pastries that are sure to be present. (before and after dinner…on all 4 days.) hehehehe
Not only how will you bolus, but for those who pre-bolus, how do you handle timing when not in control of the mealtime? My family always manages to eat later than planned, which was manageable enough when I was doing a 15 min pre-bolus (had a little wiggle room before crashing), but now that I usually pre-bolus 45 mins, if I miss that mark, I started dropping fast very quickly.
Welcome to my life. One tactic is to do half your bolus up front, then the rest when you see the food being put on the table or as soon as you can after that. You may want to adjust that “half” up or down, depending. And in the meantime make sure you sit near the crackers. Plus you have the advantage of your Afrezza to rescue you from highs that might result from giving the remaining dose too late.
all up front, and then re-bolusing as i go along when the deserts present themselves. i mean, its only turkey, not beef welliington. turkey i have never had a problem bolusing for. also, if you can get away without pre-bolusing, eat the protein first, then introduce the carby stuff later on in your meal. or, pre-bolus for a guess of what you will be eating, and keep something sugary nearby so if you do start to crash, you can just take a sip of soda while you’re waiting for the main course to arrive. and then, if that wont work for you, you can simply forget the pre-bolus altogether and just eat right away (possibly the way you might do it if you were to go out to a restaurant that was unfamiliar)
of course, if you’re lucky enough to have a CGM, you will have a clue about the direction of you BG and you can accomodate that.
hope that some of this makes sense. perhaps it will help. the other thing i learned here at FUD is to estimate your carb needs and then double your bolus for them, b/c inevitably, you will be picking off other peoples plates, having seconds, eating more than you expected to. the the whole point of Thanksgiving is GRATITUDE, so dont measure yourself by your numbers. you can always correct as needed. ENJOY!
and, make certain to have a slice from all of the different pies !
(before and after dinner…on all 4 days.) hehehehe
