Ready to start again

A week off with a stomach bug has left me feeling pretty frustrated, however, I'm feeling good and my blood glucose levels are finally returning to normal (I'm currently taking about one unit of insulin for about 15g of carbohydrate for the whole day's meals; this will drop for breakfast and lunch soon enough, so I'm ready for some hypos this week).

I came to the conclusion that TV must have been invented for the sick because there was just nothing else I could bring myself to do. I got around to reading towards the middle-end of the week but really TV was as much energy as I could muster. Why is it then that it's absolute rubbish. Repeats of Frasier and Two & A Half Men, both good programmes but when they're the best things on TV out of what must be seventy channels you really have to wonder what the license fee/subscription rate is there for.

Stomach Bug

No training this weekend, as beautiful as the weather was and as much as a couple of long bike rides had been yearned for, I caught a bug on Friday that laid me out for, well, three days so far...my metabolism's dropped massively and I'm on double my usual Novorapid levels; though I've barely eaten anything more than ice-cream. Being diabetic and ill is a real pain in the butt (and I'm only injecting in my stomach at the moment), having to eat when your stomach is really telling you that it's a remarkably bad idea is still something I haven't got used to and I definitely get bugs a bit more frequently than I did in my pre-diabetic twenties. I never get laid low for more than a day or two but remember going to a job interview and them asking how many days I'd missed through illness over the past year and I couldn't remember being ill for about the past five; having said that, my long-term memory's not great! So, anyway, I decided to go for ice-cream and have a bit of a guess at my insulin requirement, which was miles off and I hypoed badly, which forced me to put more crap into my stomach and feel worse again; diabetes is so fun...but it's a battle that I'll win and continue to do so on a daily basis. I consoled myself by watching the Paris-Roubaix cycle race, thought Tom Boonen was a little fortunate that all his rivals forgot how to cycle but as soon as he got the lead he did look awesome, I'm sure I can replicate it in August!

Diet

It occurred to me that, though the purpose of the blog is to talk about my training and effect on blood glucose (BG), it might be a good idea to list my diet and novorapid/levemir amounts. I almost always start the day with a 75g of scottish porridge oats mixed with 5tbsp of natural yoghurt, followed by a couple of pieces of seeded/granary toast with marmite and a glass of banana and strawberry smoothie. It totals about 130 carbs and I took 4 units of novo at about 07:00 this morning (some mornings I have a couple of poached eggs for the protein but not today). At 10:15 my BG was 6.3 and I took a single dextrose tablet before getting in a 2,500m swim at about 10:40. After a bit of time relaxing in the sauna I took my BG at 11:45, which was 5.6. A low-carb (2g) protein shake later and I was back to work. For lunch, at 13:15, I had a turkey, lettuce and tomato sandwich with very light mayo in two slices of seeded bread, an apple, a clementine, a bag of baked crisps (love crisps) and a piece of cheddar cheese; I have still lunch pretty much everyday too. It totals about 95 carbs and I took 4 units of novo. As it began to rain on my way home, I opted for a gym session and my BG was 4.1 at 14:40 (a little too much insulin) and so, in true healthy style, I had a bar of chocolate (35g carbs) and cycled for 1hr 20mins but I was getting bored and couldn't muster the enthusiasm to keep going; plus the weather was getting much nicer. So I had a carb/protein bar (23g) and went out running for an hour and a half, covering about 20km, which I was happy with for this stage of training. I had a dextrose tablet after about an hour and my BG was 6.2 at 17:30. Another protein shake (I normally have roast chicken and almonds; sometimes sardines from the can) and I headed home for dinner. Feeling I'd done my bit today I had a steak pie in shortcrust pastry, chips cut from a baked potato with a mound of broccoli and mange-tout; oh yeah, nearly forgot, a small choc. ice :) It was about 105 carbs and I took 8 units of novo along with 20 levemir, which I always take at dinner. Levemir is normally about 16-18 but has just knocked up a little recently for some odd reason (I've had a cold?). I'm working tomorrow but I expect to get a good swim and a weights session in; I'll post again over the weekend.

Neuropathy

I went to the hospital on Thursday for my 6-month check-up, everything's good, I've still got diabetes but then I didn't go to see the genie of the lamp. However, I did sit down next to a guy and an older woman who started to discuss neuropathy of the legs (their circulation's basically stopped and they have no feeling in the feet). Other than the utterly depressing nature of the conversation, though they were both accountable for their own condition as they spent at least several years each in some sort of denial when they didn't take their insulin. I know there are responsibilities in life, like having children for instance, that take up your time and could cause you not to focus so intently but to not take your insulin is not going to help you or anyone in the long term. Don't think I don't get it...I do, I hate being diabetic, there's not a day that goes by that I don't curse my stupid luck that gave me this potentially fatal disease but it's not going to stop me from doing anything; I'll have to prepare more perhaps but I'll do it. You can't afford to sit about and let depression or inaction stop you from facing diabetes, the consequences are too great. Having said that, the guy I was sitting next to had had such an awful control that he'd undergone a pancreatic transplant and now, though he has to take a rainbow cocktail of drugs, can eat what he wants whenever he wants without having to go through that 5-second lottery feeling when you take your blood glucose reading and wait for the meter to tell you whether the last few hours have been beneficial to your health or not.

Something that hasn't been beneficial to my health was the curry I ate last night. I went on a two hour run this afternoon and I've been to the toilet 5 times in the past three hours, sometimes rather more hurried than others, 5 times; I've got better things to do than spend all afternoon staring at the back of a bathroom door, really I have! My blood sugar was 3.9 just before I left, so I had a chocolate bar before I left and 2 dextrose tablets during, then a carb/protein shake when I got back, which seemed to keep my blood sugar stable; at least to be able to keep up 3km intervals at or just below 4min/km pace. I'm pretty happy with that at this stage. The question now is: as hungry as I'm beginning to feel, do I go eat?

Spin Class

I've never done a spin class before and I'd really like to never do one again but, apparently, one of the benefits of high-end training is an increase in aerobic capacity but it didn't feel like it after I was fit to drop after about 5mins. Maybe I haven't quite worked out the perceived exertion rating but my legs felt like sandbags and during my afternoon brick session, later on, my times were shocking and my quads were burning like chicken on a summer BBQ. It took me 12mins to get up the Old Brickworks hill towards Kettleshulme, a good couple of minutes slower than usual - there's plenty of time left yet. I hypoed quite badly (2.6, though I felt it come on a good few minutes before I took the reading) and had 500g bottle of Banana Goodness Shakes and a biscuit; figuring it would keep me going for over an hour (about 60g Carbs) and then shoveled a Mars Bars down after about 80mins, staying out for 2hr 15. I topped that off with a very slow 8k run that took about 40/45mins. I'll start using my GPS soon but the batteries were flat. My blood glucose was 4.0 after the bike and, being healthy as usual, I had a Snickers Bar to top up and keep my fat stores happy. It was a great training session, not as warm as the sun tricked me into thinking and it was cold up above Bollington, and I nearly fell off at Broken Cross roundabout because I simply cannot clip out with my right foot, fortunately as the bike wobbled as I slowed to a stop and the front wheel turned across and I felt my body weight slip sideways to take me tumbling backwards into the car waiting patiently to go to my left hand side, I managed to clip my left foot out and kick it down onto the tarmac a little bit faster than my heart was beginning to beat. It's difficult to explain just how fast your heart can beat when it's jumped all the way up your throat into your mouth - I am just such a cycling expert, my bike handling skills are practically legendary.

Man-flu!!! Sunday felt like crap after a 2.5hr bike and a slow 40min run around Mobberley. Felt pretty good but I didn't take out my bike computer and so have no idea how fast I was going or how far I went. Overtook a guy on his TT-bike so that was cool but he looked like he might stop when he tried to tackle a slight hill, which I didn't have to drop out of the big-chain ring; now I'm not bad on hills but I think I'd be exaggerating a touch if I was to suggest he was some Jan Ullrich powerhouse, he had a similar physique I guess but that's about it. My blood sugar was 6.7 before the ride and had 250ml of Goodness Shakes before I left (about 25g of carbs mixed with 10g of protein) and that kept me going throughout, which surprised me but I was a little low at the end, I didn't take it but it felt like 3.5. However, felt awful in the evening and my blood sugar's rocketed since. I normally take about 6 units of Novorapid in the morning for 75g of Scottish oats with Natural Yoghurt, a 200ml glass of smoothie and 2 slices of toast (occasionally with a poached egg; otherwise with Marmite, I love it!) but my reading went up to 11.1 yesterday and my evening Novorapid has dropped from a unit being able to deal with 15g of carbohydrate on Saturday to only being able to cope with 11-12 yesterday. All this from a cold and people wonder why diabetes is so frustrating?