Glucose as varied as the scenery

The main thing about today’s train adventure was the scenery was so great, but so wildly varied. BGs, unfortunately, followed suit.

The train adventure began in Okaya in central Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The first of today’s five trains left at 8:11 am, so I’d had an early breakfast at my hotel buffet. When I began breakfast around 6:30 am, I had already risen from the steady ~105 readings of several hours to 138.

Less than an hour later, after eating, I was 249. I took a couple corrective units of Humalog and hit the rails.

Over the next few hours, the trains pushed deeper into the Japan Alps. Despite it being summer, I finally managed to see a few patches of snow on some of the mountains.

And the entire time, my BG was trending downward thanks to the Humalog. Just before noon, I was 113. Excellent, but I felt that it was continuing down and I wanted to stop it a bit. I had some glucose.

Glucose: 4g in a little tablet that melts in your mouth. Individually wrapped.

I ate my convenience store lunch on a train as we left the mountains and approached the coastal city of Itoigawa. At 1:30 pm I had a snack, and shot up for it. Things had seemed to basically be calm by now.

Later in my hotel room, tired but thrilled from the train rides, I was 148 and dropping. And it was time for another snack, plus some instant coffee. Just how I like to unwind.

Dinner was especially interesting. I borrowed a bicycle from my hotel and rode to a local pizza place in town, ordering a pizza to go. Back in my room I had a beer from the vending machine, one of the few beers on this whole trip across Honshū. I didn’t eat the entire pizza, but a lot of it.

Sitting on trains all day. Pizza. Beer. Tiredness. Adventure. All of these things complicate blood sugar. Or, at least, they CAN. A couple hours after my pizza, I checked.

It was 127 and steady. And that’s where it stayed, all night until the next morning. Amazing.

And leftover pizza for lunch the next day!

Jeremy photo

About Me

My name is Jeremy. I travel to lesser-known places around the world out of pure curiosity. I've had Type 1 diabetes since 1982. You can watch all my travels on my YouTube channel, T1D Wanderer. Extended versions and exclusive videos, all without ads, are on Patreon. I publish a newsletter each week on my Patreon page for free. I'm from the United States and currently live in Ōsaka, Japan.