Thursday, July 19, 2012

Brooms (and BG levels) Up at Ascendio!

Brooms down before the second game.
This past weekend I went to Orlando to take place in some demo Quidditch matches at Ascendio, a Harry Potter Convention at the Portofino Bay Hotel by Universal. It was another scorcher of a day in Florida, but we were all excited to show these Harry Potter fans how muggles play Quidditch.

Before playing the matches I checked my BG level and it came up with 301. I have recently been having problems with going high after lunch so this wasn't too bad. (I've since been fixing these problems). I did a temp basal of -50% knowing that my BG would be heading down soon after I started playing. However, after 1 game my it was up to 341. I thought this was because of the temp basal and decide to not set one for the next game. After playing that game I tested again and realized I was 565. I think that was the highest BG reading I had ever had, including right after my diagnosis. As I had been instructed by my doctor I checked for ketones next. They registered with a reading of 0.9! Trying to remain calm I gathered all of my supplies and then proceeded to first give myself a shot of fast-acitng insulin and then replace my pod. Within 45 minutes I had dropped over 100 and was headed in the right direction again.
Cruising down the field with Bridget, the ref,
giving me a weird look.

Since it was now 3 o'clock and I hadn't eaten lunch yet I went with a group to Citywalk to get some food. In order to bolus the food and the high blood sugar I was still experiencing I had to go over my bolus limit. This was one of the scariest experiences I've had with an out of whack blood sugar. I know now I must be more careful and pay closer attention to my pods when I'm playing quidditch.

To get away from all of the bad parts of the day I really enjoyed the rest of my day at Ascendio especially a part of the winning team for both games! I also bought myself a Hufflepuff sweater that is designed like the ones worn by the Quidditch players in the Harry Potter movies and an awesome bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be playing Quidditch." So overall it was a fantastic day with a bit of a hiccup thanks to the beetus, but one that I will certainly learn from.

-Keep flying steady

(I think I flew a tad too high...)

Friday, July 13, 2012

Freedom!

For almost a week now I have been released from the chains of the endo and set free into the wild with my new pump, "The Doctor." If you're a Doctor Who fan you'll probably get right away why I've named it such. When I'm changing pods it's as if it's "regenerating." Yeah, I'm a nerd, I know. But it also has the double meaning of it being like a doctor in helping me along with the beetus.

So far this has been very successful. I have had very few numbers above 200 since I've been on the pump and I used to get numbers above 200 more than I would like to admit. I have also not had too many "bad" lows either.

On Saturday I'll be going to Orlando to play Quidditch at Ascendio, which is a Harry Potter convention. I participated in a similar event at LeakyCon last summer so I cannot wait to do it again this year!

-Keep flying steady

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Quidditch vs. the Omnipod: Round 1

Last Saturday was the first time since I started pumping insulin that I had played Quidditch. I had the pod on while playing Quidditch before, but I just had saline solution in then so if anything went wrong it wasn't a big deal. However, I also recently got my new band from bands4life.net so I was ready to try it out and hope for the best.

Me with my omnipod on my left arm and the band over it.
I tried a mix of a temp basal and gatorade to prevent my numbers from dropping too low or going too high from overcompensating and the temp basal seemed to work the best. I started out with a blood glucose at 160 mg/dl and after an hour of playing and an hour of a -50% temp basal I was 117. I then drank I little bit of gatorade and continued playing. I was 134 less than an hour later and 153 an hour after that. So it seemed the gatorade was bringing me up too high while the temp basal kept me where I needed to be. However, since I didn't use it the whole time and didn't extend it past the time I was exercising my bg levels dropped the rest of the night.

The best part of this day of playing Quidditch was that the omnipod never fell off of my arm. The band served it's purpose in keeping it on and I would really recommend to anyone playing sports to where it and keep you omnipod safe from contact and safe from sweating off of your arm.

I had a great 4th of July yesterday complete with fireworks and a cookout. It was one of the largest boluses I've done since starting with the omnipod, but it was worth all of the delicious food.

-Keep flying steady