April 18, 2022
Yesterday was Easter Sunday. We had a nice family Sunday brunch at home, and then dinner at my in-laws’ house later in the day. Like it or not, holiday meals often include more baked goods than normal. I don’t eat a lot, but I like to have bites and small pieces.
At brunch, I ate portions of several pastries. Knowing this was part of the menu, I bolused 5 units of fast acting insulin, and dropped my BG level down to about 100 mg/ml. This was only a temporary drop. As the rest of brunch continued to digest, the level rose back up to about 140 mg/ml.
At 3:00 pm, I set out on my bicycle to ride to the family dinner. This brought my level down directly to about 70 mg/ml, and it then rebounded to about 90 mg/ml, but continued to taper off until dinner at 6 pm.
I avoided the rice at dinner, but did indulge in the bundt cake (lemon!) and whipped cream, so that kicked my levels back up to the 160’s. The bike ride home brought it back down, and then it stayed down as I went out for two short walks around the block. The level rose back up to 140 mg/dl after my last walk, so after completing the evening routine, I opted to go to bed rather than exercise, and I bolused 2 units of fast-acting and 5 units of long-acting insulin. It used to be that 2 units when I was at 140 mg/dl would drop me to around 90. Last night the impact was greater, dropping me to 70 mg/dl.
My natural equilibrium system appears to have kicked in and kept me right at 70 mg/dl over night. The fact I was able to skirt above the low-BG alarm level was great, though I’m not confident that I can always achieve that.
I have a friend who is my age but has been a pediatric Type 1 diabetic since the age of three. She hovers between 50-70 mg/dl between meals, which is an amazing degree of control, but she also has no exogenous insulin production of her own. I apparently do have some continued insulin production, and it varies day by day.
Targeting 70 mg/dl overnight would be laudable, but it feels a bit dicey and out of reach for me as a daily target. That said, I’ll take it when I can get it.