Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A Christmas in Ireland by the mg/dl

So, I survived my Christmas in Northern Ireland!  I'll blog about the TSA experience later.  I visited my huge family, ran on the wrong side of the road, ate strange new foods like shortbread and christmas cake and had a fabulous time.  No dancing but that will start up next week again!  It was incredible getting in touch with my roots and experiencing a different way of life.  Well actually it was more similar to Canada than you would think.  I spent too much time running around the big supermarket Tesco recognizing all my favorite foods that I couldn’t get in The States.  Oh the lovely UK junk food!



This was also my first Christmas with full blown diabetes and it wasn’t pretty.  I really hope it get’s easier as it put a little rain cloud over my holiday (I tried to suppress it though)  This Christmas was one of numbers, carb counts and math problems.  I suppose you could say I had a Christmas by the mg/dl.  In normal life I really do maintain steady sugars so don’t judge me, Christmas was crazy!  I tried to stay at 100mg/dl but as you can see from my list there were a lot of pluses and minuses from that 100mg/dl.  So, here it is...  And if you stick through my list you get a prize!  A brand spanking new video!
  • 2.5hr plane ride to Newark- Steady at 100mg/dl fabulous!
  • 5.5hr plane ride to Belfast- No clue what my BG’s were.  I was a zombie.
  • First day in Ireland- Plus 100mg/dl (I made friends with shortbread)
  • First evening in Ireland- Minus 50mg/dl (realized I overbolused for shortbread, too much fat in shortbread)  
  • First run out by the countryside- Minus 20mg/dl (ahhh, that feels better)
  • Discovered a big bag of Monster Munch- Plus 50mg/dl (still fine)
  • Discovered Schoeler soda- Plus 50mg/dl (still ok)
  • Discovered Walkers roast chicken chips- Plus 40mg/dl (hmmm)
  • Discovered custard- Plus 60mg/dl (Uh oh, getting high)
  • Subsequent rage bolusing- Minus 54mg/dl (pass the glucose tablets)
  • Waking up early- Plus 40mg/dl- (whatever, I’ll take it)
  • Staying up late- -Minus 25mg/dl (not sure why I dropped there)
  • Christmas Day- Steady at 100mg/dl.  I don’t know how I did it!  I barely ate any carbs!!!
  • Christmas Evening- Plus 123mg/dl (Scratch that!  I drank a full bottle of Baileys)
  • Boxing Day- Fasting 160mg/dl (Feeling horrible, hungover with the dreaded tooth sweaters)
  • More running- Plus 30mg/dl (my infusion set fell out, so no drop from that)
  • Wandering around the Giant’s Causeway- Minus 30mg/dl (Yes!)  
  • Bringing all my own dinners- Plus 5mg/dl (Yay! I’m in control again!)
  • Guessing on bolusing for greek yogurt- Minus 59mg/dl (epic fail.  I was a mess at the airport)
  • 7.5 hr plane ride to Newark- Plus 115mg/dl (Ugh, feeling like I was going to die.  Incredibly dehydrated to the point my lip split.  Gross.)
  • 2.5 hr plane ride to New Orleans- Plus 25mg/dl (not bad at all.  Still feel crappy)
  • Arrive home- steady at 100mg/dl Sigh, what a roller coaster 
Now that I have bored you with my numbers here is Ireland in pictures and videos!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are ready to get back to our steady blood sugars!  I know I am!  


Click the link to get to the video.  For some silly reason I can't get it to post.  I'll fix it after dinner!

-Exit Stage Left

2 comments:

  1. That's so cool that you kept such great records while on vacation! It sounds like you had an amazing time! I hope to see some pictures!

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  2. Thanks DL! It was a pain but it really helped. I have photos in a link at the end my blog. It's my new Vlog. Check it out :)

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