A few days ago, I had the honor of being interviewed by the team over at Extend Nutrition. In case you’re not familiar, Extend Bars are a specially formulated snack bar that were developed by world-renowned endocrinologist Dr. Francine Kaufman to help prevent overnight low blood sugars. After several attempts of trying to create the perfect concoction in her own kitchen, Dr. Kaufman finally created Extend Bars, which help control blood sugar for up to nine hours. Today, the brand has expanded their line to include a variety of snacks, and their website has a host of diabetes resources, including a blog and multimedia section which is where I landed. Their head of marketing and I got on the phone the other day to talk about bikes, blood sugars, and being a diabetes zen master. Click play to listen to the interview! And visit Extend Nutrition’s website to learn all about their cool products.
I woke up low on Tuesday morning – 53mg/dL. I forced down a tablespoon of frosting before showering and getting ready for work. By 8:30am I had hunkered down at my desk to get some paperwork done while I waited for a work delivery to arrive at my house. Between 8:30 and 10:30am, time completely disappeared into the black hole known as my job. I was on the phone, on email (sometimes at the same time), I talked to my boss, I planned a training with a co-worker, I put out a proverbial fire for a customer, I unloaded my car so my delivery boxes could fit in, I loaded up my sample fridges. I did a whole ton of extremely important things on my work to-do list.
One thing I didn’t do? Check my blood sugar. I didn’t click in to my DexCom, even though it was right there on my desk. I didn’t do a finger stick test before nibbling on the egg whites I made myself while on the phone. I just didn’t bother to check in with my diabetes at all. And that oversight landed me at 202mg/dL by 10:30am when I finally paused and thought to myself “I’m kinda thirsty.”
Although it seems like it might be a nice thing to forget about your diabetes sometimes, the end results are never pretty. I hate it when distractions are what cause me to have a d-management slip up, because I’m normally thinking about this disease all the time. I also hate the fact that I can’t even go two hours without a diabetes problem – I should be able to throw myself whole-heartedly into my work for that long and not have to think about something else.
But that’s the thing about diabetes: no matter how long your work hours are, diabetes is working longer. It’s always on call, and it’s always doing something in the background, even if you’d like for nothing more than for it to be quiet for a minute. If diabetes was a co-worker, it would be constantly faxing, emailing, conference calling you and screwing up your meeting schedule all at the same time. And you’re not even allowed to move cubicles to get away from it. Talk about a hostile work environment!
Summer is on the rapid arrival here in San Diego, and that means warmer days and warmer ocean temperatures. And it means I’ve been able to try out my birthday gift (a surfboard!) that I got back in December, finally. On Saturday, my fiancee and I went out in our wetsuits and put in a solid 45 minutes of surfing. If you think that doesn’t sound like much time, I dare you to try and paddle past just one Pacific ocean wave set without completely running out of breath. It’s an ass kicker and I may be in shape for kickboxing, but not for surfing. This is part of the whole “getting back into it” thing. Anyways….I caught three pretty darn good waves in that 45 minutes, so the day felt like a success to me, even though I got pummeled by an additional three waves in between the successful ones.
I tested before I went out in the water, and I was at a nice, round 100 mg/dL, but since I had bolused for breakfast only two hours before, I decided to eat a snack just to be safe, plus I turned down my basals by 50%.
I haven’t yet devised the perfect waterproofing system for my DexCom yet, so I was out there sans device. And although my basals were down and I knew my BG was at a decent number and I’d had a snack, I couldn’t shake the “low paranoia” that often accompanies water sports for me. When you’re duck diving under waves, gets thrown off your board, and physically working so hard, it starts to feel like you’re low all the time. Something about being in the water makes me have trouble recognizing how I’m really feeling. As I tire from paddling, I get convinced I’m going low. It’s similar to my trouble with distance running: when I’m training for a half marathon, I get sweaty and fatigued, which happen to be low symptoms as well. That’s why running with my DexCom has been such a game changer for me – I now no longer over do the carbs on my long runs. Similar feelings are true for surfing: the pounding water and the physical exertion mask my ability to sort out how I’m really feeling, and the physical symptoms of a low become clouded.
That said, even though I felt like I was heading low, I finished my surf with a BG of 99 – I’d guessed right on my need for more carbs and a reduced basal rate so that worked out. But my enjoyment of surfing was somewhat interrupted by my low concerns. It’s time to get the DexCom a fully functioning water-proof contraption, and I’m going to start by using the flexible, water-proof camera case my fiancee gave me for Christmas (he’s good with the gifts, eh?) and seeing if that fits comfortably under my wetsuit against my chest. If I go low, it will vibrate and I can GU-pack it right there in the water (I always tuck a GU in my wetsuit for surfing adventures). Let me know if anyone else out there has some good ideas for waterproofing Le Dex!
