Farming and tractor driving

[Farmrichard]

I'm a farmer in Devon, and I work for my parents who let me drive tractors, I find if you put your blood sugar to about 10 then it prevents hypos and crazy driving, I once had a hype whilst driving and ended up messing up my job.


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[donnellysdogs]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

Trouble is, depending on jowmuch you are driving and how long your levels are staying at 10.0, you could be damaging your diabetes and body more...

 

[iHs]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

I think for short journeys a bg level of 10mmol is ideal in ensuring that a diabetic using insulin is not going to have a hypo while driving. Its either that or get a cgm or eat a sweet every 15mins if bg levels are only on 5mmol. I most likely also elevate my bg levels to being nearer 9 or 10mmol while I drive as I also nibble some sweets if my journey is going to be about 30-45mins.

A bg level of 10mmol would only start to cause some degree of blood vessel damage if that bg level remained at that level for many hours but short bursts I doubt if anything terrible is going to happen.

My message is keep well and drive safely.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

The farmer I do his garden for drives his beasts of tractors, combine harvesters etc... Sometimes all day, all night.... Literally at harvest time.some peopjehere drive a lot too on the roads for their jobs.

So do you iHs intentionally push your levels up to 10 as well before you get behind wheel now?

I still aim for 6.0 before I get behind wheel but have a few dolly mixtures and shortbread biscuits to munch onwhilst driving. My longest drive is an hour without stopping. Now my CGM has exploded, I will have to rearrangemy guestimate of times when driving back to Wales.... Add on at least an hour for stop offs..

 

[iHs]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

The farmer I do his garden for drives his beasts of tractors, combine harvesters etc... Sometimes all day, all night.... Literally at harvest time.some peopjehere drive a lot too on the roads for their jobs.

So do you iHs intentionally push your levels up to 10 as well before you get behind wheel now?

I still aim for 6.0 before I get behind wheel but have a few dolly mixtures and shortbread biscuits to munch onwhilst driving. My longest drive is an hour without stopping. Now my CGM has exploded, I will have to rearrangemy guestimate of times when driving back to Wales.... Add on at least an hour for stop offs..

I also wont drive my car unless I have already eaten some food beforehand. The lowest level acceptable to me is 7mmol but even on that level I still make sure that I have some sweets on my dashboard to use as a wise safeguard and if I am driving for longer than 45mins, I try to stop somewhere and test my bg levels again and if necessary, eat a packet of crisps of whatever.

At the moment I dont need to drive that often but if faced with needing to drive all day long, then I would feel that regardless of the cost, a cgm would be essential but with choice, the Dexcom G4 would be the one I would get.

 

[Superchip]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

I used to love tractors, now I don't.

I'm an extractor fan

 

[donnellysdogs]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

Brilliant... Love your humour!!

 

[donnellysdogs]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

Nowadays, if I drive an hour to my work places I always do an after drive test.. Pre physical work..
Then when I finished work I do another test pre drive, and another after I drive..
It helps me to see just how driving, work and driving all balance out...
If I was tractor driver I would test, test, test test whilst driving tractor amd doing work to see if I could get balanced perhaps around 7 or 8.

Like tractor driver,I realise what its like to have licence under threat or withdrawn due to a hypo but I still would not want levels at 10 either.

 

[hanadr]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

I don't use insulin, but I NEVER allow my bg above 6.5 and usually keep it below 6. I drive safely.
Hana

 

[CollieBoy]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

I would have thought that T2s (not on insulin) like Hana & I would be more likely to Hyper than Hypo as our stock of insulin is exhausted, and tend to "liver -dump " if we go low, whereas T1s such as DD or Farmrichard who are injecting run the risk of "over- insulin-ing"
So, in effect, we are two different breeeds. :thumbup:
I, at least, am working to keep my BG low, dumping naturaly if I "hypo", and the T1s are working to avoid hypos

 

[donnellysdogs]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

Totally agree Fergus... We have to keep out of 'hypoland' but of course going up to levels of 10 could mean larger drops and larger rises than is good for our health..

I believe that my retinopathy disappeared because my levels have pretty much stopped the swings. I'm afraid that Tractorman may be doing damage to self if too high

Its a balance that is pretty **** hard...especially for those that have had licences reviewed due to hypo's or as Tractorman.. Revoked previously...

 

[Farmrichard]

I think, that going above 15 is a time to start worrying, I control my diabetes well and have been recommended by my GP that I do, what I do, and long term effects I means it's 10 Mmols, if I constantly ran high then yes I would understand about damaging my body, but my controls is good so no panic.


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[hale710]

Re: Farming and tractor driving

I find this quite an interesting topic! I have never really thought of specifically increasing my BG (unless its below 5mmol/l). I drive an hour to and from work every day, but I don't eat breakfast until I get to my desk, therefore apart from my levemir there's no insulin to lower my BG. And coming home, my lunch has been 5 hours before so all my Novorapid should be gone and again there's no reason for my BG to drop. Or so I assumed!

I've only been T1 for a few months so maybe I've been getting that all wrong! When I'm 5.1 or something similar I will nibble something very small, just in case the meter was slightly wrong. But generally I figure I'm good to go!