BG recovery on the Tanagawa Train Line
Neglected train struggles to the end of Ōsaka • Tanagawa Line
Watch on YouTube (26:50)
Today my blood glucose and I had a rough start, after a rough night. A groggy beginning to a day exploring the Tanagawa Train Line in far southwestern Ōsaka Prefecture, Japan.
Yesterday I had walked a lot, and after a dinner in my hotel room, I spent a quiet evening in. But there was never much of a spike after dinner – 172 at the most, and briefly.
After 10:30 pm or so, I plummeted. In half an hour, my readings plunged to half, and then more. Soon I was down in the low 60s.
And nothing I did would make them recover. I’d eat my little packets of 100% glucose powder, wait and check, but it would be as low or lower.
So I kept eating and testing. It took a long time, and was quite unpleasant. Psychologically as well as physically.
Ruins of Misaki Park
By 12:30 am, I was 113, but then it went back down again. More of the same. At 1:00 am it was 71, and ten minutes later was 96. At that point I felt it was going to be ok. (You know that feeling when things seem to be back on track, the lowness over.)
So I went to sleep. And, of course, woke up at 3:30 am because my high alarm was going off – I was 230.
Breakfast buffet
I had some Humalog, went back to sleep, and was 164 by morning. Breakfast was in the hotel, a buffet. I knew I’d be walking a lot again today, but not quite yet. I tried to take enough insulin to thread that needle.
At 9 am I had spiked to 254 so I took a couple more units and headed to Misakikōen Station. From there I wandered the area, seeing the ruins of Misaki Park, an amusement park that closed in 2020.
The rest of the daytime was fine: the walking kept me from being high, and my frequent checking with my CGM kept me from being low. It was one of those stories of chaos being bent back into good control. The sort of thing a T1D feels proud of.
Low BG alert while filming in front of Tanagawa Station
In the evening, yet again I had lows that refused to improve, even longer and lower and worse than last night.
Again I made it through, and did some research the next day about it. (You’d think I’d know this already, but I didn’t.) I learned about glucagon and glycogen and how they work. And got an idea that maybe I was doing everything right, I just needed to take a bit less insulin for the meals, and eat more glucose than I was during the episodes.
Good learning experience. And oh yeah – the train line exploration was fantastic.
