Type 1 - post swim hyperglycemia

Need some advice on leveling out blood sugars after swimming. I'm on a Medtronic insulin pump. I've done lots of testing around this matter but haven't found the answer to get the blood sugars I'm targeting.

I've tried eating carbs of various forms (pre-swim) to see what effects it has. I've tried glucose tabs, bananas, apples, & granola bars. I have a fairly unpredictable job so cutting back on basal rate two hour prior doesn't work as BS will be effected if I can't get away to exercise.

if I start out with anything lower than 120 I eat 15-25g of carbs, wait 30 min. then hit the water. Pre-swim, (147) Post Swim (93) are great but 2-3 hours later I find I go high, up to 190-200. Not sure if the high is from too many carbs but if the post swim #s are great, I'm loath to change that. Perhaps its due to being disconnected for an hour while in the water and changing time. I'm actually only swimming gently for 20 minutes. But even then, if I were to square wave the basal I've missed its still too little to bring me back to normal range. (i.e. if my missed basal is 1.1/hour, my correction would be 2.3 to bring down the 196 bs.

A while back my pre-swim BS was 88 so I took 10 glucose tabs to raise my up to a safe level (targeting 130-150 BS) before I hit the water. 10 minutes after the tablets I was only 123 to ate 3 more tabs. Post swim was 123 (great) but 3 hours later I was 309.

I think it probably matters what kind of carbs you take to raise the levels for a safe swim as I would have thought glucose tabs have the shortest duration, fruit a slightly longer and granola bars the longest effect. So I do believe the type of carbs eaten have vastly different effects.

non-exercise note: Milk is very nifty in that it has lactose for a quick rise, protein to last med length and fat to last longest. Perfect for a 10:30pm BS of 70 to wake up to a 103. It all depends on those accurate basal rates. but still...

Any ideas on how to prevent the hyperglycemia 2-3 hours post swim?

I have been swimming for about a year now. After alot of trial and error I have found that cutting my basal rate 70% two hours prior to swimming and fixing an omelet seems to keep me pretty stable. I do not bolus for the omelet. I found having my BG in the 110 to 130 range works best for me. If I test right before swimming and I am lower than 110 I will eat five to ten carbs. Most times I finish up with a BG of 85. I am only swimming for 30 to 40 minutes and I am wearing my pump while swimming. Sometimes I will need to do a correction 30 to 60 minutes later after my swim. Good luck with your swimming.

I've found that stuff like granola takes several hours to process and I'd guess that's the culprit. I think that's why it's useful for hiking, because it keeps you going for a long time and is a lot of food in a concentrated package. I don't swim but run and I try to aim for faster acting sugar supplies, like skim milk or V8 before I run, just enough to get me there but it burns off quickly.