Thumbs Up from the Good Doc

I met with the Good Doc today to discuss my hair-brained idea of doing an Ironman. As expected, the Good Doc was in complete support of my giving this a GO! He asked about my nutrition plan for race day and I admitted this was something which had me concerned. Most of what you read on race day nutrition discusses the importance of large doses of glucose. Yes, your body needs lots of glucose on race day. There is no doubt about it, but what is right for a diabetic? 


I recently discovered a new podcast by Jon called Garden Variety Triathlon. Jon completed his first Ironman in Florida on November 3rd of this year and discussed his race day nutrition plan. For Jon, the key to feeling strong throughout the day was taking in a small amount of fat as well as the glucose. He ingested Justin's Almond Butter in individual packets on the bike, drank Hammer Perpetual Coffee Latte and ate cannoli cookies. I'm not sure exactly what they are, but I'm sure I will figure it out with some more research. Jon's plan was based on maltodextrin plant based nutrition. Because of my concern about ingesting pure sugar, I may look into the idea of using the almond butter on race day. I also emailed The Intimidators to see if they could share their nutrition plan from IM-Wisconsin. They are going to check their files and let me know. See what I mean? They have FILES of information on nutrition. Yah, I can learn from them. I also found a good introductory article on Beginner Triathlete on nutrition for your 1st Ironman. 


The Good Doc also discussed the idea of getting a Constant Glucose Monitor,  CGM, for me to use during training as well as race day. I used one back in 2010 after I had growing concerns about high blood sugars after races. Unfortunately, with that CGM, I didn't have a display screen to tell me what my blood sugars were doing. Instead I had to keep a food & activity log and then the doctor's office reviewed my log and CGM results. Me, being the control freak that I am, did not like that very much. I want to touch, feel and see the results myself. So today the Good Doc gave me a copy of my results to review. Yay me! He's hoping one of the companies he works with closely will be able to provide a CGM for me. He's also going to discuss my situation with his office diabetic educator to see what kind of plan would be best for me. 


After the race, I will need to monitor my blood sugar every 2 hours for up to 7 days to make sure I don't develop hypoglycemia. Hmmm, doesn't that sound like fun? 


Man, this sure would be a lot simpler if I didn't come from such a bad gene pool. On the flip side, it certainly does make me think a lot more, plan a lot better and prepare for just about anything that will come my way. 

Little Blood Sucker

The phone call came while I was sitting at work. Unfortunately, I couldn't answer the call, but when I check my messages here are the magic words I heard:

Mrs. Leber, this is Kim. We'd like to have you come to the office on Wednesday, September 8th at 9:30 am to put you on the constant glucose monitor. Please let me know if that works for you.

It's Time to Celebrate!

It's time to celebrate. Beginning next Wednesday for 3 days, I will know what my body is doing at all times - every 5 minutes - with the sugar in my system. When I eat. When I sleep. When I run, bike and swim or when I lay around like my naturally lazy self would like to do at all times. I'm so excited to see what will be happening with my body that I will be working out pretty hard over those three days. I'm planning a log run Wednesday night, a swim Thursday morning and a Body Flow class Thursday night, and a bike ride on Friday. This kind of stuff actually gets me excited. To see the inner workings of my body and understand this great creation that God has given me. The body is a complicated mass of various systems which must work together to help keep you healthy & happy. Who really understands how the body works? Not me. I thought I did until I started learning more about these disease that I have inherited from the last 4 generations of the Moore-Cronister line. Yah, thanks Great-Great-Grandpa from Ireland. Love your heritage. Not your genetics. 

Following Doctor's Orders

Since I've begun the Week of the Guinea Pig, errr, maybe that should be MONTH of the Guinea Pig, I've had a little heart to heart with myself. I says to myself, "SELF, you need a doctor you can count on. A doctor you can have a conversation with." Now it's not that I didn't like my previous doctor, or even that I thought he was incompetent. Heck no! I liked Dr. L and felt quite confident that he was going to help me figure out what the heck my body was doing and why, but I've always had a problem with authority figures.

I was a good little Midwestern girl brought up by parents who taught their children not to question authority. When an authoritative figure tells you something, you shut up, listen and do as told. Dr. L is definitely an authority figure as he is 10-15 years older than I am. I need to find someone I could talk to as a friend, someone I could trust, someone I could question without feeling as if I was disobeying. So I thought to myself, "SELF, who do you know that could meet all of your requirements?"...and I could only come up with one answer, my dear friend Dr. S. The good doc is a friend of mine. I scrapbook with his wife. We raise our kids together in our nice little town. We even vacation together.

So when I called the good doc's office last week and they told me they couldn't get me in to see  him until November I asked them to look again for a special "friends only" appointment. They found a time for me at 8:20 a.m. which is perfect for me to drop off my kids at school and head to his office.

Constant Glucose Monitor

My meeting with the good doc went well  just as I expected. We talked a lot about my blood sugars and why they go up when I run longer distances. Dr. S wanted to run some more blood test to see if I had insulin in my system causing me to be insulin resistant and to see what level of insulin my pancreas was producing. Dr. S was also hoping to get me approved for a constant glucose monitor. His office has a grant to do a study on insulin dependent using a constant glucose monitor. Dr. S calls it a "tick", but it reminds me of a leech. They attach a flat circular object to your abdomen which will take my blood sugar level every five minutes. Of course, I'm not insulin dependent. There's the rub. I guess you've got to be really sick before you can benefit from the miracle of modern medicine. However, Dr. S is hoping someone will take an interest in my case. How often do you have a Type 2 diabetic who runs miles and miles at a time? I can only hope that someone will want to study my internal organs to figure out what the heck is going on in there when I head out for a long run.

One Touch Ultra

In the meantime, I plan on having my blood drawn early next week for a c-peptide and CBC panel while I wait for that phone call to get a leech attached to my body. I am continuing to take my blood sugars first thing in the morning, before and after one meal and after exercise. After purchasing new test strips earlier this week, I'm not sure I can continue to test that often. The test strips and lancets alone will break the Leber bank! Hopefully, we will start to get some answers and I will be able to test a little less frequently once I understand my triggers.

What are you doing this week to be a proactive advocate for your own health?