A Happy Low

I never thought I would ever in my life be thrilled to have a low blood sugar episode, but boy, was I every thrilled this week when it happened!

Let's back up about a week and a half....

The boyfriend and I had just returned home from our summer vacation where we went to visit his family in Ontario. We spent just over a week with them and 95% of the time was spent at their cabin. Much of the week was all about snacking, some drinks, and time in the sun. I was happy to completely discard of all schedules and simply relax and go with the flow. I managed my diabetes as best I could but for those of you that are also using insulin pens for injections, I'm sure you can all relate as to how difficult it can be to bolus when snacking all day long. By the time we got home my blood sugars were quite the mess. I was constantly high and even after sleeping for hours with no food in my system I would wake up with sugars around 10 - 12 mmol/L. I totally expected that after 2 or 3 days of my normal meal routine and cutting back on carbs, that my blood sugars would settle down overnight.

This was definitely not the case. It got to the point where I initially thought my insulin had spoiled during the road trip home. I swapped out my basal and bolus insulins for fresh new ones that I had just gotten from the pharmacy. This did not do the trick either. The numbers were slowly coming down but they were still very high between my meals and I was getting increasingly stressed and frustrated. I tend to feel very sluggish and fatigued when my sugars are high so I was anxious to figure out the problem so I could feel like myself again. I was correcting like mad and couldn't believe the amount of insulin that was being pumped into my body with very little effect.

And then it happened on day 9...that all too familiar shaky, nervous, clammy feeling of low blood sugar. I was pumped to check my blood sugar! Sure enough, I was sitting at 4.6 mmol/L! "Finally", I thought.

Things appear to be back to normal and I couldn't be more relieved. It amazes me at how long it can take to fully cleanse the system and to get back on track. It was all worth it though! It was a much needed time away spent with great family!

Packing with D...

Going to be a quick post today folks! Bright and early tomorrow morning the boyfriend and I are off the see his family in Ontario and spend many of the next 7 days out at their "camp". Camp is Northern Ontario speak for "cottage"! So as many of you know, packing for trips when you're a diabetic is definitely more work. I've already had issues in the past with over packing (and even under packing) but I think I did quite well. We're only going for 7 or 8 days so I didn't have a ton of calculating to do in terms of how much of everything I was going to bring.

Here's what I brought...

• Glucagon was the first to go in!
• Basal and bolus insulin pens
• Large Frio cooling pack
• A full tube of grape flavoured Dex 4
• My vitamin pill holder, full with 1 multi-vitamin and 2 Vitamin D's per day
• Bayer Contour USB and test strips...my new meter which I have absolutely fallen in love with. But, that's a whole different post for when I get back!
• Verio IQ meter and 50 test strips...I haven't actually purchased my own Bayer test strips yet. I got 50 with the meter so I'm bringing the Verio as my backup
• Verio IQ charging cord which is also doubling as my IPhone charger.
• Lots of 4mm pen needles which I got as samples.
• And last but not least, my hypertension meds; Accupril (that's a new addition and another post as well)

And all these supplies fit very nicely in a Lantus bag that I got from my DNE...I finally found a use for it!!

We like to take snacks and a mini lunch on the road with us to save money. And now with diabetes tagging along on our road trips, food is always good to have in the car. Here's our little lunch, complete with a fresh vial of insulin on top so I don't forget it in the morning!!

That's cheese slices, couple of ham sandwich's, yogurt fruit salad (care of Pinterest) and homemade fresh blueberry muffins made by my awesome Mamma!!


See you all when I get back!!