May 3: Fordyce to Crossett, Arkansas
Seventy-seven miles to Crossett, Arkansas today. We got an earlier start than usual — about 8 am — in hopes of avoiding some of the heat. It turned out to be a good and bad day. Good in the sense that most roads were either light in traffic or had a wide shoulder or both. The photo to the right is taken south of Warren, Arkansas and shows the wide shoulders and the much flatter terrain than a couple days ago.
While I was working to take that photo, I felt something inside my shirt. I always wear a medical ID tag, so that’s what I thought it was. But then it started buzzing and I’ve never known my ID tag to buzz. I looked inside my shirt and saw this insect hanging on to my heart rate monitor for dear life. I shook it out quickly before I managed to get totally freaked out by this thing inside my shirt. It fell to the ground. It looked like what we called a June Bug back when I was growing up in Minnesota, but I don’t know what it is for sure. I forgot to put something in the picture for scale, but it was about 3/4 of an inch long. Remember when I wrote about how I learned the importance of trying to keep your mouth shut while cycling? This fellow would be up near the top of the list of reasons why it’s good to keep your mouth shut!
Blood sugar-wise, it was not such a good day. I tell you, just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, it throws a new twist in there for you. I started the day with a 312 — it hasn’t been that high in a very long time and I’m not sure what happened. I bolused a correction and within an hour, it was down to 186. I had some breakfast, finished getting ready for the day’s ride and it was 70. So, I grabbed a banana and some raisins and headed down the road. An hour later (9:07 AM) it was 191. OK, I figured I must have overcompensated with the banana AND the raisins. Not a problem, I thought, because I’m working extra hard today because of a 10 mile per hour headwind. I tested again at 10 AM and the blood sugar was 196. Now I’m thinking it’s my infusion site. I’m due for a change tonight and it must not be absorbing as well as it used to. I did a small bolus (1.0 units) to bring it down a bit. By 10:30, my blood sugar was 59. Time for a mid-morning snack, I guess. I have a banana and an energy bar. At noon, I test again and it’s 231. Sigh. I was getting hungry and I hate to see it that high so I try another small bolus (1.0 units). Forty-five minutes later it’s 63. Time for lunch, I guess. So I have a bottle of apple juice and a banana. I didn’t want to have a repeat performance of the previous high, so I bolused again for lunch. At 1:30 when I stopped again, my blood sugar was 68. I corrected with a bottle of apple juice (34 grams of carbohydrate). By 2 PM, I was done with the ride and got my site changed as soon as I got showered.
I am absolutely positive that a failing infusion site caused this roller coaster. I did learn something from it though. Usually when I make a correction bolus, it’s 1 unit of insulin for each 50 mg/dl over my target of 100 mg/dl. I think I could easily double or quadruple that when I’m cycling. I guess I haven’t thought about this much because my blood sugars are so rarely high when I’m cycling.
The last thing noteworthy for today is the elevation. We started in Salt Lake City at about 4400 feet, we climbed to 9670 feet in New Mexico and we’ve been gradually descending ever since. Today, I noted the official elevation in Crossett, Arkansas is 163 feet. There’s just 163 feet between us and sea level and the coast is still about 300 miles away. An entire state lies between us and the coast! Back home in Salt Lake City, I’ll go up or down more than 163 feet just to go to the grocery store!