Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Why exercise is "tricky" for T1Diabetes, episode 3

Just a quick recap;
Episode 1 answer was that exercise is "tricky"for people with type 1 diabetes because it can cause low blood sugars (bs) and therefore you may end up eating to replace the calories you used and therefore rendering exercise as a form of weight management as a bit of a lost cause.

The answer from episode 2 is that some hypos prevent rational thinking and even though you have taken all the precautions you can you still might end up in a "pickle". I had a low towards the end of my walk and despite having my meter and glucose in my pocket I still thought I had to get home to treat my low.


Now on to episode 3.

On day 3 of my walking/get in shape experiment, I decided to reduce my basal insulin programme for one hour before my walk, which coincides with actual breakfast time. 

The result being that my bs were a little high at walk time at 11.4mmols. My walk was uneventful and when I got home my bs was 3.6mmols which is hypo but lets face it, it's not 2.9! So I treated and added the digestive biscuit just because these hypos are getting old:-( Anyway, the packet of digestives are gone now so I think my hips are somewhat safe or maybe they're really never safe:-)

The next day, what did I do? Well I switched my healthy breakfast to a healthier one. I seem to have this desire to make my life as difficult as possible. So lets skip ahead to the first day where everything works out perfectly.

Day 5 of my new regime. My new tactic is going to be suspend my pump and so cutting off delivery of insulin completely for the duration of the walk. My before walk bs was 6.0. Could not be better! The number of my dreams! After my walk my bs was 4.0 - I see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Day 6; I decided to reduce my breakfast insulin by just 0.25 of a unit just to see if that would keep my in the safe bs number zone. Eureka! I did forget to test before my walk which might mean that I'm getting ahead of myself but my after walk bs was 5.8. 

Tomorrow is another day and hopefully all this extra bs testing is not for nothing and that I can scale it back soon.

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