Only you guys know how scary this is. I drive 200 miles to a new job. It’s outdoors and very physical. It’s 100 degrees. The CGM and smart watch are helping me see BG is going low but I have enough glucose tabs and food. And gator aide. I need it all on first day at work and avoid hypoglycemia. A poorly timed hypo could ruin my first impressions. Type two diabetics don’t do well in the heat and this is well known. It’s because of high blood sugar and dehydration. So I’m rolling over to turn off the light in the hotel room and my infusion site comes off. Okay another adjustment. I think I brought skin tak. I brought all the bags in from the car but my pump supplies aren’t here. Check and recheck for another bag. I’ll have to use shots of novolog. For one day. I’m going home the next day. But I need good blood sugars. Then I see my test strips and meter aren’t here. Which reminds me it was all in a fanny pack that I wore in the car and put next to the ice chest under an insulation. And I knew the fanny pack was in the insulation which I pulled out of the car and found the fanny pack with pump supplies.
I have days when I seriously believe I would misplace my head if it weren’t, you know . . . and diabetes doesn’t even need to be involved. Part of the human experience. But when something vital is affected, it sure can be scary, all right. No question.
Reminds me of my 10-day overseas trip a few years back – when I thought I had packed plenty of everything (no pump, though, i was on MDI at the time) - and one by one each of my diabetes “tools” failed me in one way or another: My CGM sensor started coming lose, and had forgotten a spare, but that didn’t matter, because my charger wouldn’t charge my receiver… Turned out I was SHORT on test strips… A Novolog pen cracked - so instead of having a spare, I was counting units VERY closely… The only thin i did have was PLENTY of Levemir, but that wasn’t going to help…
it all worked out fine in the end, but there were moments…
Had days like that myself. The truth is, we can survive a day or two of bad management-- if that bad management is on the high side. But in a highly physically demanding setting, it’s not easy to be careful. Please take care and be as careful as you can.
The last 15 minutes of this video may be your salvation. (you did say you were type 2)
diet
more on LCHF ketogenic with athletes
Great presentations. I think the approach really does work.
Actually I am currently trying this in desperation to lose weight.
So for the past 5 days I have cut the insulin completely (I am testing blood sugars, and I plan to use correction if I see any sugars higher than 180 - which I haven’t yet seen).
I am alternating fast days (limit to 500 calories / day comprising fat/ protein and a glass of wine - 15 g of alcohol was mentioned in the presentation as part of the early 1900s management approach) with very low carb days where I am trying to eat < 30 g of carbs /day and where I don’t count calories, but actually calories are still fairly low). My blood sugars have ranged from around 100 fasting, up to 135, down to a low yesterday evening of 82 (in the evening with no dinner). Maybe this response makes it more likely I am type 2? I am walking a lot every day (10,000+ steps), and some days also doing intervals on the treadmill. My weight is fluctuating quite a bit between fast and non-fast days but is trending downwards (est 1 kg in 5 days).
My overall blood sugars are higher than they would be with insulin, particularly fasting levels, but not dramatically so. Not good enough to meet Bernstein standards, though. Will see how this progresses in the next days.
So this tells me I could survive if diet was the only tool I had (and assuming no major change in pancreas function), though I would be hungry and I’d probably end up pretty thin (i don’t want to be thin - I do want to be athletic looking - or as athletic as a 45 yo can be). Of course if there was limited food choices I may need to decide between eating carbs or not eating at all - which could be terrible.
My identical twin sister (non-diabetic) is also following this eating approach for the past 4 months and has lost 12 kg using weeks of sticking with the plan interspersed with weeks of keeping weight stable. I am motivated to do the same now because I don’t want to be the fat one in the family.
I do think this eating behavior is toeing a fine line between great discipline and scientific logic, and an eating disorder!! The fact that I am doing this in desperation to lose weight rather than as a scientific way to manage blood sugars - possibly puts me closer to the latter camp.