51 years on insulin in Oz.
Hi
@lozibobs. Great to see you taking up the baton for exercise.
I know we all try to make our best suggestions but in the end you will choose the one or ones that work for you.
One thing from my experience is that the more vigorous the exercise the more the blood sugars might go up and perhaps crash down later, if there is no adjustment made.
Imagine you are in a rowing boat. If you were to start off trying to go flat out with the oars you can end up with a pretty tippy boat. That 'tippiness' is a bit like how the blood sugars become from the hectic pace.
The reason is that adrenaline kicks in with the hectic pace and causes the stored glucose (= glycogen) in the liver to pour out.
In a non-diabetic, insulin is automatically released to prevent that blood sugar from skyrocketing.
In us the blood sugar goes up, we feel unwell and later the muscles who have depleted their own glucose stores sought of dip a straw into the blood stream and suck up enough glucose to replenish their stores. That fall in blood sugar may cause a hypo, like you experienced.
For me it was better to choose a steadier/ less hectic, less record-attempting pace of exercise. As I became fitter I could up the pace without over-doing it and having blood sugars go up too high.
Also I had
three choices given me to deal with the effect of exercise on my blood sugar:
1) eat more food to ensure glucose was available and to preb=vent hypos later on
2) ease back insulin dose(s) which would be working for the time period 6 to 12 hours ahead (as a minimum time span), or
3) do a combo of 1 and 2.
1) Eating during exercising can be a hassle - I still take carbs with me as emergency treatment for hypos just in case, but routinely eating during exercise weighs me down, risks stomach ache and nausea.
2) Reducing my relevant insulin doses say 20% usually gets me by with little in the way of high sugars happening and much less risk of hypos 6 hours plus later.
3) doing 2 above and having something at hand to eat if return home is delayed or the exercise is longer than expected gives me more flexibility.
I second @Juicyj 's comment about hot weather making one's insulin more sensitive also.
Of course if you have prepared to exercise and the heavens open, then the
cancelled exercise means having to inject the amount of insulin your dose was reduced by. Not all is lost in the endeavour!
Buy the best running shoes you can afford and try to run on soft surfaces as much as possible to save jarring of your feet and spare injury to your skin and toenails. I am sure your DN will drum good foot care in to you ( I have not forgotten my first lesson and that was from 51 years ago and nurses were much, much fiercer back then !)
Carrying spare food on a run is another challenge. There are of course all sorts of hydration packs and vests these days with pockets etc. But a small flat knapsack can work OK, particularly if it has a moderate waist strap to stabilise things. Glucose tablets in a flat container, bely beans etc. See the Hypo section of this site.
And it is worthwhile to
obtain some form of medical info bracelet such as MedicAlert or whatever your DN recommends. This bracelet would state that you are diabetic, note any allergies, and have a contact number for your doctor etc. If you happen to be unconscious for any reason this bracelet helps people know what conditions you have and makes your safety and care and the ambulance, hospital staff's job much easier.
Enjoy your journey, ask for directions along the way, share your triumphs. learn from mistakes, listen to good advice and be kind to yourself!
