Blood sugars on holiday!! and me!!

Berty16

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Hi Everyone!!

This is the first time using the forum so it would be interesting on what feedback I get? I'm currently on holiday in Italy with my wife and am having some interesting blood sugars.

A bit about me:

I'm 32 and I've had T1 diabetes for 12 years now and my control has been up and down. I've recently changed my long acting insulin to 2 injections 1 at night and 1 in the morning which seems to be helping with lows in the middle of the night. I have to admit I do like my grub!!! And am trying to cut down on bread etc. I love my football I play twice a week and will be looking to introduce other activities soon as I'm getting slower on the pitch "can't keep up with the 18 year old anymore" lol!! :-( . I work as a sales rep so a lot of my time is in the car or sitting in front of a screen; or I could be on foot around London Town visiting construction sites, so my daily routine is varied.

Now on holiday and have the occasional glass of wine but am sticking to the same routine as when I'm at home with carb counting etc. please see the example and see what you think?

Before lunch 10.3 mmol (10 units humalog)
Lunch, Mozzarella and tomatoes with small bowl of chips shared.

8.7 mmol after lunch

Lots of walking (4 miles) and was extremely hot 36 degrees

10.1 mmol 2 hours before dinner.

Before dinner (10 units humalog)
Dinner, small Bit of bread (white) beef carpaccio and cheese mouse.
Small amount of tortellini pasta
Salmon with veg and side salad
Also had a glass of white wine. Then 2 barcardi and diet cokes.

After dinner and drinks 22.6 mmol had 5 units to correct.

4hours later 10.2 mmol

Went back to sleep then woke with a reading of 21.0 mmol and felt awful????

Maybe I needed more insulin for dinner and drinks and I may have been running high just before dinner?

Apologies for the essay. Be interested to hear your thoughts. Suppose I should get back to my holiday ;-)

Cheers

Anthony
 
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Juicyj

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my control has been up and down

Lol couldn't help but laugh - this is so typical of being type 1 !!

Nightmare - you would of at least thought you could get a holiday from this, sadly change of routine, heat, different food etc still means being vigilant..

- Firstly how are your basal levels to start with ? Do you have good control at home ?

Without seeing portion sizes it's difficult to gauge if you're taking the right amount of quick acting, looking at your high of 22.6 in the evening it looks like sadly it wasn't enough, obviously dependent on if your basal dose was correct to start with. Also protein and fat from the beef and the cheese mousse can slow absorption of carbs, so could take longer to digest hence the prolonged high. Did you drink diet coke from a bottle or was it on tap ? So could you of had full fat by accident ? If you are running high when you wake try and gulp down some water too, to help flush the sugars through your body.

Also what did you wake at after this ?

Just write it off as a one off as your on holiday, go an enjoy yourself and hope you're feeling better now ;)
 

Daibell

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Hi. Yes, I wonder whether your Basal needs to be increased slightly. I try to keep my pre-meal readings below 10 and yours are a bit on the high side. I always find on holiday when my food intake goes up I have to increase my daily Levemir from around 11 to 13 units as well as carb-counting the Bolus.
 

Mrsass

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Hi Anthony, id increase your basal, a little at a time is best to do it and test to see how it's affecting you. But your bolus' aren't covering what you are eating, do you normally carb count quite well? Obviously it can be hard when eating out and guessing what's on the plate, especially if you've already had a drink and are just winging it haha

Are these the kinds of readings you get at home or are these just a bit higher with you being on hols? As they are quite high.

If I done the walk you did, in that heat I would have had a serious low, did you not test during the walk or straight after it to see how that affected you?

Hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday and don't have too many more highs (or lows)

Abbie
 
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Berty16

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Cheers all! even hotter today and we've done lots of walking again, blood sugars have been good to be fair. Didn't have as much for breakfast and my blood was 7.8 a couple of hours afterwards. Before lunch, which was during our walk, my blood was 5.8. I had big bowl of pasta for lunch with garlic, chilli and toms (no kisses of the Mrs then lol!!!) and green salad,water and coke Zero (bottle). Walked another 2 miles and had a low of 3.5 had 3 jelly babies and feel good now. At home it's normally good apart from the odd time when you know why it's high or its gone low. Thanks for all your comments, it's been nice to talk to people in the same boat!!!
 
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dancer

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I love Italy and have been going there every summer for over 10 years. One thing I try to watch is the bread. Rolls I can estimate well but the carbs in Italian crusty bread can go either way.

Once in Sorrento I had some bread which was very light and full of holes. Had it been our normal French stick type of bread, I would have said 20g for my wee slices but because it was so light I reckoned it was less, so didn't bolus enough and went high later.

Another day I had some quite heavy bread but because of the heat I just called it 20g, as I didn't want to go hypo. I was surprised to find that my blood sugar was fine later.

Pasta sauces can be quite fatty and this can play havoc with blood sugars but usually that's a case of going low then high.

A good point was made about your coke. I never accept drinks that have been mixed at the bar - I must know that it's sugar free.
 

Berty16

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Yeah we love Italy too, this time we've ventured to Malcesine, Lake Garda. Most of the drinks out here are bottled which is handy. Sorrento is beautiful we we'll probably go back!!! didn't have an issues there though luckily!
 

dancer

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Yeah we love Italy too, this time we've ventured to Malcesine, Lake Garda. Most of the drinks out here are bottled which is handy. Sorrento is beautiful we we'll probably go back!!! didn't have an issues there though luckily!
We're off to Bardolino on Lake Garda later this month. We love it there!
 
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