BGs on the abandoned Fukuchiyama train line
Wild ruins of an abandoned mountain railway • Fukuchiyama Line
Watch on YouTube (25:41)
A day of walking a lot always makes blood glucose management tricky: you trend towards lows, but highs are always waiting in the wings. Today I hiked along a section of the JR Fukuchiyama Train Line in Japan that was abandoned in 1986.
On the train to Namaze Station to begin my hike, I feared that I’d overdone my post-breakfast corrective shot of Humalog, so I had a small snack. When I began the hike at 10:00 am, I was a bit high, 222. I thought, however, that the low 200s might be a good place to start.
It was. It rose no higher than that as I walked through noisy construction zones to the start of the old rail line itself.
Juggling my cola, Calorie Mate bar, phone, backpack, and vlogging camera (and low BG)
The trail winds along the Mukogawa River, gorgeous views aplenty. I also loved seeing the abandoned rail stuff – lots of rusted and bent old signs, walls and iron things covered in ivy and vines, and the old wooden cross-ties the whole way.
Most of all, of course, the dramatic bridges and eerie, unlit tunnels.
After an hour of walking I was down to a mere 80, so I had some Calorie Mate (a dry cookie snack bar). Over the next hour I rose a bit, to 112, but when I got to the “cherry blossom forest” a while later and had a picnic lunch, I took no insulin: after my rice ball and Ritz sandwiches, I was low, 69.
Calorie Mate saved me, temporarily
Normally, if indoors, I’d take about six units for that lunch. With the walking today, and already being low, I waited about half an hour to take any insulin at all for it.
Finally, sitting on a rock in a small clearing overlooking the river, I remembered I hadn’t taken anything. Since I was now 93 (and presumably rising) I took two units to blunt the edge of the carbs.
No insulin for me just yet, thanks
It may have been slightly too little too late, but my spike after that was only to 193 before it started coming back down. I’ll take that.
Dinner in my hotel room was a fast food hamburger – a rarity for me, but it was what I was in the mood for. I took ten units for it (and the churro and beer) and had a mighty battle with low BGs later in the evening.
All even back in the hotel room in the afternoon
The usual thing that can happen after walking 18,589 steps in a single day: get low, eat carbs, still be low, eat more, still be low, etc. After bottoming out at 54 it finally started to rise.
When it was over 100 I called victory and went to sleep. The next morning I found to my surprise that I’d been quite high all night, and had had no idea. But that’s a problem for tomorrow…
