SweetLifeStories Diabetes Blog

ok, i’m busted.

in the nice warm spring weather, i labored in my rock garden for more than 3 hours when my arms and lips went a little numb. then my legs started to tingle. oops; low blood sugar, i said to myself. candy, need candy NOW!

slipping off garden sneakers, i stumbled into the kitchen. suddenly i remembered: there was a single dark chocolate covered marshmallow peep bunny tucked away (out of sight, out of mind!) in the pantry. Ooh, the perfect fix for my dropping blood sugar.

and it was. then it wasn’t. hare and gone, you know?

rescued, feeling better, i returned to another 2 hours’ work in ze jardin. happy, satiated with a few bites, and glad another peep wasn’t tucked away somewhere (it was that sinfully good).

Jemez Mtns x-c ski trail

A little x-c skiing trip worked its magic last week. Just fantastic how freshly-fallen snow makes my heart leap . . . waking my inner child to remember joyous play in the snow when I was little, and then making it a reality! Trekking up the mountainside, I did better than just keep up with the pace, so that was gratifying. Felt great striding along on level and slightly downhill sections. Stopped for lunch and didn’t even have to take any insulin. That, in itself, seemed magical. The mountains were filled with a quiet winter beauty, making me actually crave more of these winter months touched with episodic snowplay. That sounds crazy, because winter has always been my least favorite season, but every new day brings a chance to see things differently. Winter, almost gone, has somehow wrapped my heart in her soft white blanket.

Kath x-c skiing

What a lazy weekend! Needed it after the shock of my doctor appointment on Friday, so I’m just lying around reading and getting happily mired in Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, thinking about what my own book choice will be when I host my fellow book club friends this coming May.

So you may be wondering: What happened at my Friday appointment? Good communication with my endocrinologist, sound caring advice, and then a little shock(er) as he dictated notes to my PCP:  “. . . osteoporosis assessment needed, with diabetes a contributing factor.” 

WHO THE HECK KNEW THAT SURVIVING DIABETES AS A KID COULD IMPACT SO MANY OTHER ISSUES RELATED TO MY GENERAL HEALTH?!?  And dang-it: To whom do I file my complaint?!? 

I had triumphantly announced to Dr. P:  “I’m exercising a few times a week, snowshoeing (on my shiny new snowshoes), have even gotten back to x-c skiing a few times, and I feel STRONG!”  I wanted to SING it out, I feel so good about being able to do these things. Grateful to be active, too, after living through 2-3 years of lower back pain before undergoing a laminectomy and successful L4-L5 spinal fusion.  So I obviously felt a little crushed to hear my doctor’s words, thinking:  What is the meaning of this?

Seems like no matter what I try to do to make a difference in my life and be healthy in body, heart, and mind, the diabetes is determined to win. What a tug of war! But just as soon as I feel pressed to submit, my competitive side and my blatant defiant streak pop up and remind me:  Stick out your tongue at this threat! Keep doing what you’re doing! Breathe, step forward, and c’mon–pull harder on the rope.

It’s all part of the battle in life, and I can’t give up on doing things that make it meaningful. Every act, each determined thought, makes a difference, right? Let’s have the battle scorecard read: KATHY: 4 (the winner); DIABETES: 2 (bruiser-loser). Take that!

Ah winter! Not the easiest season in which to be active and deal with trying to keep my blood sugars as even as possible, like today, for example:  Hail, sleet, snow, torrential rains (thanks, all you smirking Californians, for sending the 3rd storm of the week this way to the southwest . . .  grin) made it next to impossible to get outside.

But earlier in the week was another story: breaking sunshine after previous snowfall provided a great opportunity to get out and go snowshoeing in the Jemez mountains west of Albuquerque!  It was amazingly beautiful; fresh, deep, powdery snow . . . more than 14″ of it!  I’d signed up for a small-group outing with others who’d already snowshoed this season–unlike me, a bit nervous about how I’d do with the strenuous activity, how I’d manage my blood sugars (especially around people whom I didn’t know), and how to claim time to eat or snack (as needed) if the group was on the move.

On the ride up, our experienced leader announced that it was time to carb-load–a friendly process, I imagine, for your typical athlete. But much less friendly to me with my necessarily low-carb diet.  My mantra in everyday life? Carbs + me = deathly high blood sugars! (not to make you think that I miss out on occasionally allowing myself to have some tasty carbs when I really want something special . . .) So I tested my glucose level:  212!  And then against my better judgment, I ate half a sandwich (taking just a bit of insulin, too) in anticipation of the first part of a several-hour-long workout. Needless to say, I didn’t dare check my b.s. to see what it had risen to in the course of 30 minutes before we actually lurched out of the van to put on our snowshoes and begin our trek! I just figured on the known glucose level of 212 as a safety net. Sure enough, less than 20 minutes’ trek later, I was eating a quarter of my smashed-into-the-fanny pack pb & j. No sweat was lost worrying about the possibility of having high blood sugar at that point or, for that matter, any other time throughout my 3 mile hike!  I even had to lower my basal rate to 85% of its normal output while I snowshoed. That’s the wonderful surprise benefit of vigorous exercise:  Although I worry about my b.s. dropping the whole time, the oxymoron is that as long as I’m moving and expending lots of energy, I can enjoy eating pretty much anything I want! It almost makes me feel normal, and that’s a real joy.

Bless the gift of winter, snowshoeing, and making new friends!

Sunday, Jan 10, 2010

Suddenly just around the bend from the holidays and roaring into the new year, more light is filling the sky. A touch more warmth in the air brings the hope of spring. There’s just something so magical about this time of year and its promise of new beginnings that I love! It gives me both hope and pleasure in the small promises and joys of living day-to-day. It may even be enough to tempt me to try using the new (to me) Minimed QuickSet in my pump which–those of you who are reading the blog may recall–gave me mega headaches and supersized blood sugars the last time I tried this type of set-up.

Went x-c skiing last Friday. Proved to myself that I could get out and do it after 7 years off skiis. But had a few bruising falls and killer-sore ankles, too! Thankfully, the aches and pains lessened over 24 hours. My blood sugars were great during the actual skiing; I got to eat anything I wanted and didn’t even have to take ANY insulin boluses while I was moving. That’s the miracle of this type of exercise mixed with Type I diabetes. On the other hand, the minute I finished and sat down in the bus for the trip back home, whoosh! Up jumped my blood sugar levels . . . and they stayed in the 180-low 200 range for a few hours. But the exercise inspired me enough to plan waking up early Monday morning to tackle an exercise class–something I stopped attending during the holiday pressure and madness.

Hooray, a new day dawns with new opportunity!