Birthday Celebrations and Bad Eating!

Well today is my birthday! I am 21 and ready to party! No, I'm just kidding, I don't party much (especially in  Calgary working full-time, and of course, diabetes and drinking is hard) so today was more about the crappy food I ate! Woo hoo!

I have diabetes, yes, but I don't believe that a birthday doesn't deserve a burger and cake every once and awhile, but let's be serious, it is hard. Also, I currently regret the burger decision, because of the previous activity.

I wish I ran this fast!

Starting from the beginning, after a long day at work, I came home to do my run (I had to delay it a day cause of lack of sleep, I am weak...) before some birthday celebrations. I was a little concerned, as before my run I had some issues with sugars going up. So even with an impending run, I took some insulin, otherwise I would have felt sluggish for the impending exercise. I followed that up with a cut of my basal, I tried for a 41% reduction, as 50% was sending me low. And guess what? It worked! Ya, that's right, today I actually felt like I somewhat knew what I was doing (you can tell I am SO confident). I came home to sugars at 4.8 (86.4), and was able to have a protein drink before going to dinner and no lows! Sweet sweet justice! I guess hard work, but whatever you prefer!

Too Tempting

Dinner was a little too greasy, and currently I am waiting to see how a burger and ice cream cake effected my sugars (I know, bad food! I just went crazy, and only had a sliver of cake). I also can feel my stomach hating me for having so much grease after a refreshing run. As for the run, I felt way better! My pace is a little bit faster, I am actually working closer to last October's half-marathon time, which makes me happy! Will I be ready for the 10k I have booked for the beginning of July? Currently, I am not sure, and wish I had more confidence. It is the Stampede Road Race (first race back running last year) and to me it signals a year since I picked back up into running.

I also have set myself up on a new phone (Samsung Galaxy S4!), so you will be seeing more pictures of my life on my posts coming up! I know this is a busy post, but I am dropping in to say hi in the midst of a busy night and a bit of celebrating! I have learned my lesson and I am going to eat healthy after runs, then I will also feel better at the end of the day.

Gone But Not Forgotten

One thing I have noticed of late his how little I have noticed my pump. I have come to the point in my pump career where the vessel that is my substitute pancreas on my hip is not a constant thought. Yay! However, the little things that are annoying do come up often and will never go away.

No matter the size, these are the devil!

Examples? Well first off, I seem to walk around corners without a care in the world. Though the extra inches at my waist realize that the wall is there for them to hit. No, I am not saying the pump makes you look fat (I have never been one to care about the vanity of technology), I am just saying that it likes to find corners to hit when it can. Also, the WORST is...door knobs! I have not had a lot of hooks on door knobs, maybe once or twice, but my goodness I have no desire to get my cord yanked so hard! Ya, I should mention that one of the times I got hooked was on a closet door knob while jumping into bed....never again.

Now, these little aches and pains are by no means a reason I wouldn't want a pump. There just always has to be a bad with the good. One of my major struggles this next couple months is the order for my Mio's was the wrong tube length! Again, problem, it is too short. It means every time I change, my pump won't reach the ground, and attached to my pants....I am sure you can figure it out. So I now have an issue of trying to be more aware of my pump cause of the short tube length, but at the same time finally settling to a point of forgetting about it on my hip sometimes. Ugh! Though, as an aside, I like checking for my pump on my hip as I look like a cop looking for their gun, cool right?...Right?

This was just my little rant for the day, I walked into a corner and thought I would talk about it (my life is weird)! On a better note, I have a run coming up tonight, so I will likely be posting about that coming up (cause we know I will have to do a sugars dance), but for now watch out for corners and door knobs. Cheers!

Worst Low So Far...

Ya....well here is the full story for you. It was my usual after run low, I really need to get a handle on that! The problem I had? I realized near the end of my run that my temporary basal was not set properly. I had reduced my basal earlier, but wanted to change the percentage to lower coming into my run. However, I actually had NEVER REDUCED MY BASAL. Something happened and a button was not pressed. Of course, that is an even bigger problem cause I took a bolus an hour before my run (high sugars after lunch).


I am quite proud of myself, because I was able to run 4.26m (6.85km, ya, I am Canadian, but I'm weird) and holding a faster pace. So there is that, but I was lucky to have my man on the run with me, as by the time I wandered into the house, I was acting like a zombie after I passed the drunken sailor stage of the low. A quick check of my sugars...1.4 (25.2)! Exactly as bad as I felt. And let me specify, this, my friends, is the worst low I have had since getting diabetes. It taught me a good lesson, I never want to be there again.

After this incident, I would really like to start running with a monitor (I will be set up on a CGM in the Fall), I just need to get a belt that I like, which I haven't been able to find yet. Any suggestions? Cause that sucked. I am never really too far from my home at this point with my run lengths, and I did use a backpack when training for my half-marathon, but today shows I was a little farther than is safe. I know there are iFitness Belts that look promising and I have heard good things about SPIBelts as they have cases made for pumps, I am just wondering what people have tried. Anyone have any opinions on the matter? This definitely needs to happen, cause I don't always have a running partner.

What happened!?!

So the weather decided to take a turn for a worse last week; the downpours were relentless! I seriously can't believe how bad it was. The problem I have on top of that is the fact that I have become a wimp, and the cold gets to me. I love the rain, don't get me wrong, but it seriously sucks being in the cold!

I ran this Saturday and it went great! Well great is a relative term, but I feel good after not having run for a long time and I am (partially) gaining my stride back. Sugars are still an issue with runs, I try and reduce my meal bolus before my run and I cut my basal to 50%, and I still got a low of 2.4 (43)! I had my usual glass of chocolate milk, but I still don't like those numbers.

The tubing physically came out of
the pink part above, what?!

On another note, I had a hard Sunday, to say the least. My man got food poisoning on Saturday night, and that meant a night of worry and cleaning, which I don't mind, it just scared me. I have a tendency to care alot in most aspects of my life, and the amount I worry for the people I love is immense! Though, diabetes never lets up and my infusion site managed to pull apart from the tubing...at 4 in the morning! Right before I was supposed to finally get a bit of shut-eye for the night, ugh!                  
                                                                                                                                           
This was a very mixed bag of emotions type of weekend and although diabetes isn't always in the forefront of my life, it is a constant companion that never truly goes away. So through everything, I never forget to keep an eye on my sugars and delve into my data on a regular basis. I try not to let it get me down, and diabetes has its "quirky" moments, just to say hi. Anyone have any significant quirks they have found? The infusion set disconnect is the one I found quite comical.

A Good Weekend and my Awesome Pump!

How can you not have an awesome weekend when you get an extra day? With May long this weekend, I was happy when the weather forecasts were wrong and instead of showers we got some awesome sunshine! It was perfect weather for running.

To be honest, my running slid quite a bit this Spring and it is great to be back pounding the pavement during the Summer. However, I started my pump a mere 3 weeks ago and after feeling that I am getting a day-to-day handle on the sugars (seriously, I am pretty sure I could be down 1% for my A1c next time around), it was time to test them with exercise. Lucky enough for me, my runs have been great! I had major issues with sugar spikes after runs before the pump, I couldn't imagine using gels (and I ran a half-marathon in October) because most of my runs I ended with sugars in the 20's (<360). Now, I can start a run around 9 (160), reduce my basal rate, and come home and have a recovery glass of chocolate milk. All without a low or a high. Pumps are amazing and I wouldn't trade it back anytime soon!

Yes, I had an awesome weekend, with two runs, the new Star Trek Into Darkness film (it was great) and a whole lot of time in the great outdoors! Soaking in the sun while I can and maybe next weekend I could even get out to the beach. I love my pump and running and I cannot wait to see how this summer goes!