Diabetes is damned hard work and a persistent pain. It can be hard enough moving to a new country, new language, new ways of understanding the world, and new food options, without the blood sugar levels (BSLs) going completely and utterly crazy!
I managed to travel with no problems carrying a whole case of medications as hand luggage (+helmet, +laptop, +essentials). The case was only checked once in Bangkok, by a very efficient airport official who checked through and opened some packets with her rubber gloved hands. I had my explanatory letter ready and it really was no problem.
When I got to the hotel I filled the bar fridge with my insulin and other items needing refrigeration, and let the staff know not to turn the fridge power off. Still living in (another) hotel I haven’t yet been able to properly unpack and consolidate my supplies so I still don’t really know what I’ll run out of – but as per my earlier post #T1D diabetic supplies for a year I know I will.
So my blood sugar levels and insulin requirements have plummeted since arrival. I try to surmise why this might be, and whether it is transient, or more longer term. Some possible reasons:
- Constant state of excitement and joy!
- Low level but constant underlying stress
- The heat and humidity
- Food – eating less, and changes in diet
- Beer Lao – insulin replacement therapy?
- (Slightly) more exercise, exertion
Really though, it could be anything! Hormones? Body trying to cure itself? …
So being on an insulin pump, where I have a constant set basal level of short acting insulin, onto which I would bolus a dose if I eat carbohydrates, or to correct a higher bsl, I have already lowered my basal (24hr dose) from 20 to 17 units of humalog, and hardly bolused at all, even when I do eat, because my bsl is already too low.
To cut a long story short, I need to constantly monitor my bsl using my meter and my precious supply of blood testing strips – of which I was only permitted to order 11 boxes from NDSS when I left Australia. So the saga continues and I’m still pissed off about it – that my short and long term control over my health is hampered by my own country’s medical system that would not allow or assist me to get the supplies I needed before I left. Again, still a work in progress … T1D and its persistent struggles …
abelspace 