The Cure Incarnate

Every once in awhile, a Person With Diabetes feels as though he or she is The Cure Incarnate.

We see spectacular blood sugar readings that at first signal good tight control, but eventually the continuing trend defies logic and becomes something more. It's as though you can "do no wrong." We feel as though our insulin-producing beta cells are actually functioning again, and no matter the carbs we eat everything comes out "normal."

This was my experience during the past week. For five days, I had outstanding BG tests. Granted, there were some Lows and unexpected Lower Lows where the paramedics had to be summoned. But overall great numbers.

My definition of "overall great numbers": No Highs.

As of mid-Sunday, my seven day average: 124, two-week average was 143, and month average was 172. At least according to my One Touch UltraLink meter data. Using a combination of online data from both the Carelink program and s5health, my further analysis showed that I was "in range" (my 70-150 target) about 50% of the time. In that larger window of being below 200, I was nearly perfect. I'd gone from Monday to Saturday evening without hitting 200 - to me, this was an accomplishment. Something that made me smile and feel pretty good about my D-Management. I felt Better Than Bacon.

Of course, what shot me back up into the 200s (238 mg/dL to be exact) was the bolus-worthy beer and buffet ride at our local brewpub's Oktoberfest. This annual event is a much-anticipated event in our household, and I'm always looking forward to it. It runs throughout the afternoon, so we managed to get there for what turned out to be a later lunch mid-afternoon. Along with two 28oz "beer boot" mugs that came with the ticket, I also had access to an unlimited buffet of soft pretzels with spicy mustard, sauerkraut, potatoes, and four varieties of German sausage. Not to mention the German chocolate cake that tempted me from the end of the buffet table. Of course, Suzi went and we had some great discussion while hanging out in the beer-garden, though she's not a beer-drinker or German food enthusiast so she went with a regular-menu spread of chicken sandwich, salad, and iced tea. She did get to try some of the chocolate cake, though! Anyhow, spreading my bolus out over a few hours, I enjoyed the meal and fully expected to end my BG streak because of this feast.

Three hours post-Oktoberfest, I tested at 163. (Not bad, I thought.)

But six hours after the feast, I came in at 238 mg/dL. (A-ha! I knew it would happen!!)

Prepped a pump correction bolus and got back to the low 100s within a couple hours, and stayed that way for the rest of the weekend. Aside from a Sunday snacking SWAG bolus that led to a higher 291 mg/dL... All steady aside from that!

Of course, this is all great news leading up to my Endo visit on Tuesday with Dr. P. She'll be quite pleased, I'm sure, except for the likely question and concern about so many Lows in recent weeks. We will probably be able to chalk it up to my being back on my pump since early September after a five-month hiatus, but still we may want to adjust some basals, correction factors, or carb ratios. Hopefully, this will all yield a lower A1C result, down from the 7.7% that we achieved back in June. That, you may recall, was a whole percentage point drop from three months earlier, but still not as low as I'm shooting for. With luck, hopefully I'll be able to have gotten down to the 7% mark this time!

We shall see...