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Interesting post...I guess I consider anything over 180 to be considered plenty of a spike...especially 235. With a blood glucose at 235 we might as well consider our blood sugar to be like low grade maple syrup! None of the metabolic processes can take place well, none of our nerve endings are getting the nutrients they need, and of course, our overall circulation is hindered, which will irritate our nerve endings further.
I wish you the best of luck in learning more about your diabetes, and I hope this program helped you improve your goals for your blood sugars. You'd be surprised at what an instantaneous difference a lower-junk food (no chips), higher protein and vegetable diet can do for your blood sugar control without you even trying! As soon as you eliminate the main thing your body doesn't process well (carbs aka. SUGAR) your blood sugar won't have to work so hard to keep up with you.
Good luck. Continue learning!
Hi Gina,
I was wondering how you go about titrating and manipulating your insulin before or even during exercise when you workout? Sometimes I put my pump on suspend, sometimes I've tried a temporary basal rate, but can't quite seem to get the balance...always end up high or low. How you titrate? And do you adjust your carbohydrate intake around that time?
Thanks for any help.
-Elise
Elise,
Your question will actually be answered in my MYD post # 3 but, I will tell you what I do here as well.
Now, this is what just works for me because me and my team tested all different ways to prevent lows when I am at the gym and after.
If I know that I will be working out which is pretty much 4 days a week. I try to stay on a schedule where I go at the same time everyday. So, my time 3:30pm. At 2:30pm I will check my blood sugar, and if I am lower than a blood sugar of 180, I will set a temporary basal of 50%. Why 180? From trial and error I found that if I am lower than 180 and don't turn my pump basal rate down I am guaranteed to have a low at exactly 20 minutes into my workout.
This is only if I am lower than that number. If I am already at 180 I will not turn my basal down an hour before.
Ok we aren't done. Now, when I get to the gym an hour later I will check my blood sugar again right before I am about to workout. If my blood sugar is still lower than 180 I will then turn my temporary basal to 0% if I will be doing any sort of cardio, even if it is for a short amount of time. Again because of tracking all of my blood sugars and logging my exercise we were able to see that during exercise my body natural lowers my blood sugars without the need for extra insulin. (In some people's cases they need more insulin during exercise due to adrenaline)
If I am at 180-250 I will not turn my basal to 0% I will just let my normal rate run. Just so you know if you are over 250, you shouldn't workout till your blood sugars are down because you are more at risk to get ketones in your urine.
About a half hour into my workout I will check my blood sugar again to make sure I am not dropping or going too high. If I notice that my blood sugar is staying stable I will not do anything. If I notice I am considerabley lower, I will put myself into a cool down mode, take some sips of gatorade check blood again and if it goes up I will continue. If it is still going down, or even going to high I will stop the workout! As much as that annoys me. I will then log it and tell my doctor especially if it happens a couple of days in a row. This way we can make some adjustments.
Depending on the intensity of my cardio sometimes plays a factor. Also if I add something new into the my workout as well. So, writing down is your ally.
Right after the workout, I will then turn my temporary basal to 50%. This prevents lows a couple of hours after. Because exercising has long term affects, your body is still buring sometimes up to 24 hours later! I learned that in the mastering your diabetes class from an exercise physiologist that specializes in diabetes. That will be day 4 of my blog series!
Anyway, hope that this helps. Let me know if you need anything else.
Oh wow, Elise, check out this post over here cuz it seems very simple and methodical. Not a whole lot of guessing or re-checking, just checking before and after, and during only if you need to, but this post has some educational stuff about planning carbs and protein and insulin depending on what type of exercise you're doing? Which is totally something I never used to realize was important!
here's the link: exercise & lows
-Val
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I'm so glad you wrote about this! The course looks amazing. Thanks for the insights. I already called them about the 2010 class schedule. Thanks, Gina!
Hello Anonymous,
It changed my life. Be sure to read the next 4 blog posts they will be filled with great experiences that I had during the course. Amazing! I can't wait for everyone to read about it!