Category Archives: Random Glucose

Highs vs. Lows.

May 23, 2013 – 9:30 am

Seems to me there’s a disparity in dealing with high glucose versus dealing with low glucose. Okay, maybe it’s not as serious as a disparity, but I’m trying to keep this light here, okay?

When my BG is low, I find that there are many things that I can use (read: ingest) to get myself back into a safe range. Among them:
 
 
– Juice

– Glucolifts (Cherry… yum)

– Honey

– Goetze’s Caramel Creams (addictive)

– Fruit

– Level Life Glucose Gel (kinda like the Mandarin Orange)

– Smarties (which are Rockets north of the border)

– Rockets (which are Smarties here in the USA)

– Insert your favorite here (Nutella, Maple Syrup, etc.)

– And, as a last resort, Glucagon
 
 
That’s at least nine items that I can use to bring up my glucose from an unsafe level. Having low BG is no picnic, of course. But those options almost feel like a reward for suffering through hypoglycemia. Almost. But not quite.

But what if my glucose is high? What if my pump has an issue delivering insulin, or it’s a hot day and the insulin loses its effectiveness, or I under-bolus for lunch? Now, I’m hovering near 300 mg/dL and I only have three options available to combat the high BG:
 
 
– Insulin

– Drink lots of water

– Exercise (while drinking lots of water)
 
 
That’s not a lot of options. And they’re not very appealing either. Also, if you have Type 2, you may not be on insulin therapy, so you may be left with only two options. Woo-freakin’-hoo.

In a way, having fewer choices when you’re high takes a lot of the guesswork out of what you need to do. You’ve just gotta do it, right? Using one, or two, or three methods. And it’s likely that you’ll have to wait to get yourself back into range. I mean, when you’re low you drink some juice, pop some glucose-laden product, and you’re often back in range within minutes. When you’re high, you can give a correction bolus of insulin, drink lots of water, and go for a run, and you’ll still have to wait some time before your BG comes back down.

I think this disparity in available options and time needed to correct explain why I absolutely hate being high, and why I try to do everything I can to avoid it. That doesn’t mean that I’m doing everything I can to be low. It just means that I don’t worry about being low as much as I worry about being high, if you know what I mean. Plus, I’ve got to admit, I hate how it makes me feel.

I suppose I could use this discussion to push for development and approval of faster-acting insulin. But I’m not thinking about that right now. I’m thinking about how high BG makes me feel, physically and mentally. And how that’s completely different from how I feel about low BG.

What about you? Do you worry more about high BG than low BG? Do you still worry about low BG, but secretly like the fact that it allows you some seemingly guilt-free indulgence? I’d love to hear what you think about both ends of the glucose spectrum.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Tagged , , , , | Comments (11)

Almost Wordless Wednesday – It means a little more today.

April 17, 2013 – 9:42 am

I took the time to donate blood back in February. Late last week, I received this in the mail. Even though it’s pretty much a form letter, it still made me feel good.

Now, after the senseless tragedy in Boston, and the call for additional blood donors to help those who are still being treated, it means just a little bit more.

DSC00780

If you live in the USA, and you have diabetes, and you are, in the words of the American Red Cross, “well controlled on insulin or oral medications”, you may be eligible to donate blood. And I encourage you to consider doing so. You never know when it may be needed.

In addition to being Type 1, I’m Type O Positive. That may mean nothing to many, but may mean the world to others. Consider donating today.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Also posted in Diabetes | Tagged , , | Comments (5)

A fun day on the glucoaster.

April 2, 2013 – 8:13 am

CINCINNATI, OHIO– Reds Opening Day here is a blast. It really is like a holiday here in the city where professional baseball started in 1869. Kids still play hooky from school and adults still blow off work for the afternoon. Thousands pack the streets to see the Findlay Market parade wind its way through downtown. 45,000-plus pack the ballpark for the game.

I had a great time, even though my team lost. But unfortunately, I also took an unexpected ride on the glucoaster most of the day. Here’s how it went down.

After a site change first thing in the morning, I had breakfast and bolused accordingly. My brother-in-law Bob (they’re his tickets) and I decided to get a workout in at the downtown YMCA. Prior to leaving(about 10:45), my BG was at 147 mg/dL. Just about perfect. So I go and get a good swim in. After, I felt kinda lousy. Nauseous, even. That never happens to me after a workout. I didn’t check right away, figuring I would feel better after a shower. I was wrong.

When I checked after showering, I had my proof: 51 mg/dL. I treated, and then we went to lunch. By then, I was at 92 mg/dL.

Well, we ate lunch and I bolused accordingly. Or so I thought. Anyway, we headed for the ballpark.

The game started at around 4:00, so I knew there was a good chance that I’d be eating dinner at the ballpark. After such a long winter, that actually has a nice ring to it. I checked quickly (because there isn’t one easy place to test there) before hitting the concession stand. I was 173 mg/dL, but I thought I had it under control. And I was wrong again.

I had a Big Red Smokey (too hard to explain… Just look it up) and a small overpriced beer. And I ate about a third of a soft pretzel that Bob and I shared. Really… I bolused for all of this. But when we got back after a thirteen inning loss by my Reds, my BG stood ominously at 391 mg/dL. So now it’s a correction bolus and tons of water the rest of the night.

By 10:30, I had it down to 292 mg/dL. By 11:30 (no more boluses since 8:30), I was at 196. That would have to do. After a long day, I was too tired to fight it any longer.

It was a fantastic day full of pomp and circumstance, partying and reverie. Can’t wait to do it again next year. But honestly, I would have liked it better with a working pancreas. Or better working robot parts.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Comments (4)

Hating the highs.

March 4, 2013 – 12:28 pm

All things being equal, yesterday was a pretty good day. Only things were not all equal… diabetes doesn’t play that way. Okay, well, maybe it wasn’t just the diabetes. Let me explain:

We woke up early (for a Sunday, anyway) at about 6:00 a.m. When I reached the kitchen, I did the normal stuff… make coffee, let the dog out, feed the dog and cat, and check my BG: 81 mg/dL. Great start to the day, right?

I promised to take The Great Spousal Unit over to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge, Maryland on Sunday. So after breakfast, we took off for Maryland’s Eastern Shore– a little over 2 hours away by car. By the time we were nearly there, we stopped for gas and I also needed to make a pit stop (badly). I should have guessed something was going on.

So we go off to the refuge, and it’s beautiful even though we didn’t see much compared to most trips there. After we finished, I decided to make a quick side trip over a public road that goes right through the middle of the preserve. It was there that Maureen spotted the only bald eagle that we saw all day. Wish I had a photo, but he flew away before I could snap it off. After that, and an equally quick sighting of an osprey, we headed off to Cambridge for a late lunch.

Again, I really had to go, but I didn’t think too much of it because I knew where my BG was in the morning, I knew what I didn’t overdo breakfast, and I bloused accordingly. Also, my infusion set had already been in for going on four days, and it had been working well. It was surprising when I checked just before lunch and found a 237 mg/dL on my meter.

Okay, I’m frustrated, but again, I bloused accordingly. I made sure I would be good by about 5 o’clock at the latest. Wroooong.

We took our time coming home, and the way back over the Bay Bridge, through Annapolis, and up to Baltimore wound up taking about 3 hours. When we arrived home (and after I ducked into the bathroom), I checked my glucose again: 249 mg/dL.

Now I’m mad. I almost never have a consistently high day like this. I’m ready to bolus the living daylights out of anything that moves. But I regained my composure and decided to change my infusion site instead. After changing, and to be sure I’m getting all of my bolus this time, I decided to do an injection to cover where my BG was sitting, plus the very limited amount of carbs I was ingesting at what was really more of a grazing than dinner. At this point, I’m absolutely sure that everything will be fine, even with (or especially because of) a new infusion set. Wanna guess how that came out?

I wait until 8:00 to check, and whaddyaknow? I’ve hit a new high for the day! 331 mg/dL. This is where the term “rage blousing” comes from. If it weren’t so late in the day by now, I probably would have rage bloused my behind off. Instead, I decide to do two more things.

One was to do another injection, right away. I figured this still had to be my best option to bring my glucose down.

The other thing I did was something I should have done much earlier in the day. Instead, I waited until I tested again at around 10:30, and saw 348 mg/dL on the meter. When I changed my infusion site earlier, I did not change my reservoir. I had about 100 or so units left in there, and I didn’t want to just toss all that insulin into the trash. So I changed my site and hooked up the old reservoir. But by now I’m thinking, maybe the insulin is bad somehow. I don’t know how this happens… I can’t remember it ever happening before. But, of course, now I’m ready to try anything, so I filled a new reservoir and hooked it up. I know this isn’t how you’re supposed to do these things, but hey, sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Once this was complete, I had pretty much given up, and I went to bed.

And gloriosky, when I woke up this morning, I was right back at 81 mg/dL all over again. Fiiiinnnnaaalllly. Hmmm…. Bad insulin. Who would’ve thunk it? But then again: When you consider this diabetes beast we’re all fighting against, it seems to make perfect sense. In a crazy, don’t count on anything, not gonna play fair kind of way.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Tagged , , , , | Comments (6)

I really did it.

March 1, 2013 – 9:18 am

Okay, lots of views on yesterday’s post. Guess “Let the bloodletting begin” is something that people just can’t roll over without clicking on. So, how did it go yesterday?

For the first time in over 23 years, I gave blood.

DSC00594

This was all done in a meeting room in the building where I work. Let me tell you how things went.

Since my appointment was just before lunch (not a smart idea in retrospect), about 1/2 hour before I went down to do the blood draw, I checked my BG. 81 mg/dL. I didn’t want to be low during the process, so I drank a juice box before I went down.

Once there, I signed in and received an eight-page folder of information to read. It was pretty much what I looked at online… the procedure, who can and can’t donate blood, some information about questions that will be asked during the question and answer session yet to come.

Then I had to go back behind a partition and answer a few more questions. Name, birthdate, etc. They asked me my name a lot during this process. I don’t know if that was because they wanted to make sure I was of sound mind, or if they were trying to catch me giving blood under an assumed name (why anyone would do this, I don’t know).

They also did a temperature check, took my pulse, and did a blood pressure check. Also, they did a finger stick to check the iron level in my blood. There were no tests at all, no questions at all about my diabetes, my blood glucose level, or how I felt.

All the tests they completed were fine, or at least fine enough for me to give blood. Once that was complete, it was time for me to answer a few personal questions in front of a laptop. I won’t go into the detail, but at least a few of them were of a very personal nature. But easy enough to understand, considering how the blood supply needs to be safeguarded.

At this point, I was finally ready to get the needle stuck in my arm and begin the actual blood donation part of the blood donation process. And not only do I bleed into a bag at this point, they also take some samples and set them aside. This is for additional testing, to see if I have hepatitis or HIV, that kind of thing.

In the end, I donated one pint of blood. I actually had the needle in my arm for about 10 minutes, I’m guessing. Start to finish, considering all of the reading, the questions, the screening, and the draining, the process took about 40 minutes. The process was easy, and the Red Cross people they assigned to this effort were well trained and great to talk to. They had Michael Jackson on the Pandora® in the room, and we all had a big laugh when I told them about deejaying back in the 80s, and how I would play some of that stuff both for wild-eyed boys at frat parties and at country club pool parties for the parents of those kids, and how both groups thought that dancing to Michael Jackson was pretty badass at the time. Don’t know why I threw that in there… it just makes me laugh every time I think about it. I was into John Coltrane, John Mellencamp, and George Clinton at the time, so I don’t really have much room to talk.

Anyway, the real thing I was worried about yesterday was the effect that donating blood would have on my BG. Turns out, not that much of an effect at all. After the blood draw, I went back to my desk and got an 84 mg/dL on my meter. I went to lunch and checked about two hours later: 145 mg/dL. When I got home after work, I was down to 79 mg/dL.

I’m not out of the woods yet, of course. The tests run on my blood may come back with something that makes me ineligible to donate again (but I really hope that’s not the case). I was told to expect a letter in the mail in about a week with the results.

The final verdict… donating blood was easy, in this case it was fun, and I will definitely do it again if I’m allowed to do so. Oh, and it was painless. My advice… It’s a personal decision. If you think you’re eligible, consider donating blood. There may be any number of reasons why you can’t or don’t want to do it. But don’t let the diabetes talk you out of it.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Also posted in Diabetes | Tagged , , , | Comments (5)