High BGs at a disappearing tram stop
This 100+ year old tram stop is being torn up • Hamadera
Watch on YouTube (19:59)
Today I investigated some huge changes coming to a classic tramway stop south of Ōsaka City, Japan. And my blood glucose level was pretty high during the entire thing.
Unfortunately.
I’d had some persistent lows around bedtime last night, where glucose didn’t seem to be doing much. Finally it got better though, and I went to sleep. But then I got the high alarm from my CGM around 2:30 am. So I had some Humalog, which began working immediately.
I slowly glided down – gracefully, even – all night and by 8:40 am I was 101.
That was the last good news of the day, really.
I rode the Hankai Tramway all the way from southern Ōsaka, into the city of Sakai, and to its final stop at Hamaderaeki-mae. When I arrived I was 194 and it was 11:00 am.
That didn’t seem too bad, actually. A bit high, but after all I often have a bit of a post-breakfast spike, and I was going to be walking around a good deal. So, really, 194 is what I would want it to be.
On the way south to Hamadera
I did walk around. I looked at the 1912-era tram stop, I followed the tram tracks back north a bit, I looked around the Nankai train line station that is causing all the commotion. And I figured out where, roughly, the new tracks are going to be laid and what is going to be sadly torn up.
It was interesting and satisfying, but my BG wasn’t interested. It didn’t go down thanks to the walking, or the breakfast spike ending. It pretty much stayed right around 200.
After a couple of hours, I was finished with the train and tram explorations. The only thing around for lunch I could find was a Lawson convenience store. I got a sandwich and chips, chicken nuggets, small Snickers bar, and a bottle of tea and sat to eat at one of their tables in the back.
BG was now 183. It hadn’t meaningfully changed all day.
But I was kind of worn out – it had been a lot of walking in the early-summer hot sun, in the middle of the day. I thought I might still start trending lower thanks to the exertions. I took five units of Humalog, a bit less than the carbs would dictate, but I hoped it would all work out.
Not really.
It dipped down to the 150s but immediately rose again, leveling out at 255 or so. At home, I had dinner, took a generous Humalog shot for it, and was still high most of the evening.
Relief only came around 10:00 pm, when I finally started going down to normal. It hit about 100 and thankfully stayed there all night, another excellent night of level BG while sleeping.
Old-timey sign at Hamaderaeki-mae that will soon be gone
If only the daytime would behave that well. I don’t know why I was so persistently high today. Just something that happens from time to time.
Thankfully, it’s rare. And I don’t think you can tell when you see me on camera. I guess the tram stuff was just too much fun to be brought down by diabetes.
