I asked for a DIET coke

after one of the best weeks in a very long time controlling my sugars. We took the kids to the movies last night. I ended up taking the boy to see Invictus (which was a decent movie by the way). We stopped at the concession stand and spent $17 for a bottle of water, a gatorade, a pack of gummi bears for my wife and daughter going to another movie and a large diet coke for myself. we settled into our seats and watched the coming atttractions and as the movie started I took a long pull of my soda. Now one of many bad habits is that I gobble up food and rarely take the time to actually taste it. at the end of the sip I thought something was off It was coke flavor but tasted off not super sugary but offf. I didn't think about and kept watching the movie (and a couple more sips) then decided to take my oral meds just in case. of course at the finale of the movie the boy had to go to the bathroom so I escorted him out and took the time to check my sugars. 241. F@#$! I took more meds but 1.5 hrs later my sugar was 281. By this time it was dinner and I was starving so I took more meds and ate chicken for dinner w/ a glass of red wine (my secret blood sugar lowering weapon) . we get home and I take my regular nightime meds and another glass of red wine and two hours later my sugar falls to 54 so I eat a hershey's kiss and blueberries 30 min later I feel the shakes I check again and I'm at 36. double F#$%! so I made a berry smoothie and had some ice cream. I could feel the low pass and feel asleep before I could retest but woke w/ a 178 this morning - a very disappointing number but I can work with it and get it back in line, hopefully, by lunch time

Lessons learned:
1) if possible watch them pour your drink better yet get it in a bottle
2) if it tastes off don't drink it
3) Don't chase your highs too hard or you'll be chasing your low
4) never brag to your wife how good your sugars are - you'll end up jinxing yourself

Tags: blood, chasing, highs, low, sugar

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Comment by Pauly on January 11, 2010 at 7:55am: I taste my pop at the counter before accepting it. Often the kids working at the movie theatre are not real careful how they hook up the hoses on the pop machines. I have done the very same thing.

Comment by bsc on January 11, 2010 at 8:11am: There is of course a trick you can use when you are unsure. You can use a urine sugar test strip. In the end, without a comparison, I could never definitively tell that a soda was not a diet just from taste and I could not stand carrying around another vial of diabetic supplies. So, I just gave up all soda. I'll still drink soda if I can prove it's provenance, but even watching them fill it from the diet coke dispenser has not proven foolproof. Yes, they can hook it up wrong and call you a liar in your face (don't ask). I drink large quantities of fluids and a mistake on an 8oz coke is manageable, but if I drink 32 oz or more ,that is just bad news.

Comment by Robyn on January 11, 2010 at 9:42am: I will test the beverage with one of my test strips, if I dont have someone to verify that it is diet. You dont need the uring test strips....the regular test strips will work. I have been doing it for years. It will usually read "Lo" or "Hi" or a very low number if it is diet.
And yes, everytime I brag about my great bloodsugars, I jinx myself.

Comment by Marie B on January 11, 2010 at 10:10am: Here's a video of Bill doing a blind tasting of diet and regular sodas you might enjoy

http://www.tudiabetes.org/video/ultimate-diabetes-taste

Comment by Tom Goffe on January 11, 2010 at 10:35am: You just hit my pet peeve button! Your four rules must have come from my playbook!!! That is why I go for the canned diet drinks if possible, otherwise I watch them like a hawk. I additionally hate the burger joints where you can't see what drink they are giving you. If you want to toss a stinky variable into the equation, tase a Coke Zero. Same taste as regular (sugar filled) Coke, but no carbs. Another variant is something I encountered frequently in NYC and CT - coffee with milk added, regardless of what you asked for.

Comment by Marie B on January 11, 2010 at 12:08pm: yes, Tom, I learned that one about the coffee when I lived in RI - "regular coffee" there means with milk or cream!

Comment by Melissa Warren on January 11, 2010 at 9:58pm: It's so frustrating when this happens! I'm sometimes the taste tester for my husband when the soda tastes a little off to him. We were once at a restaurant where Scott watched the waiter poor him a regular coke. When the waiter brought it to the table, Scott asked him if it was diet and he replied confidently that it was. Scott asked him if he was absolutely sure and mentioned that he had diabetes. The waiter quickly replaced the soda with a new one (which we watched him pour from a different spout). He was very apologetic. I know he didn't make the mistake intentionally, but I was shocked with how confidently he replied it was diet when, in fact, it was regular.

Robyn - Scott just tried your test and it worked! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! What a great tip. He has vowed to start using this new technique to make sure the soda is actually diet. I am so happy to learn about this.

Comment by Debi McCallum on January 11, 2010 at 11:59pm: Oh my goodness, thats happened to me before. oh and the jinxing is my number 1! Stay well

Comment by Linda Gauvin-Miller on January 12, 2010 at 2:18pm: I was just going to mention what Robyn already said....use your test strips to test the beverage!

Comment by Judith Wy on March 2, 2010 at 8:11pm: What a hard way to learn a lesson. Thanks, Robyn for the great tip. I had no idea that you could do that. J