Comment by busted pancreas on September 3, 2010 at 10:25am

I have been diving and I'm going on another dive trip in about 9 days. I find that I'm generally fine with diving because my body is without insulin for only 40 - 50 mins. Your tank runs out, you come up, test your blood, drink some water and go for dive 2. I test my blood about 30 mins before I go for my 1st dive just to make sure I'm not low nor really high. I do prefer to be above 115 that way I know I will be fine [even if i drop a bit]. I have a slight suspicion that my blood drops while diving, but I'm not 100% sure on that. The biggest concern you should have about diving is that you're low and either you or your dive buddy aren't able to catch any of the low signs. Sometimes I have a slight struggle with my blood after the dives are complete because of being without insulin, but i will gladly struggle with a 200 blood sugar than be low 90'+ underwater.

I have never heard of the underwater glucometer. I would be curious to see how far down it can go. I assume it's a CGM because i can't see how you can prick your skin and get blood out on a strip underwater. At least they are trying to accommodate us T1s. That's a good feeling.

Are you certified?

aimee

Comment by Lisa on September 3, 2010 at 8:17pm

Wow I just looked at your profile and we have a lot in common. I'm moving to Rome, NY sometime in the fall actually from NB, Canada. I also do art work, painting silk scarves and playing with different mediums.

No, I've never dived except in a pool because I didn't have any good info to really work with at the time. I'm interested in it and thought it might be something my husband and I could do together. I guess the underwater glucometer must just be something they're working on? It'd be great though. So I'll probably work towards getting certified in the next year since it doesn't seem too big a deal. Do you feel your lows coming on? Does it change when you dive? Have you gone low on a dive? I've been struggling with loss of awareness for the past couple of years so it's a little scary. I'm looking at getting the medtronic CGM so help me from going so low so often. Not feeling them really sucks.

Anyways, thanks so much for your info and maybe I'll ask you a question or two while I'm working on getting certified. Lisa

Comment by Lisa on September 3, 2010 at 8:18pm

Did you read the blog about the girl who is going sailing for a few days by herself. I was really impressed with her courage.

Comment by busted pancreas on September 7, 2010 at 9:43am

Sorry, long weekend!!

Yes, I've heard and read about the girl sailing around the world trying to be the youngest to do so. I'm impressed and if all parties agree [her and her parents] then I'm fine by it. 14 does seem young, but I was very mature at that age and all 14 year olds certainly don't act the same. If she's equipped with all the proper yachting things, I say good luck and sail away.

I started diving in a pool until I went out for my open water dives to get certified. You're headed in the right direction! I went into diving because my boyfriend was already certified. It is very enjoyable to do as a couple and you cannot possibly find a better dive buddy then your love. I do feel most of my lows coming on, but i do have the dreaded hypo-unawareness which is quite scary and has put me in very bad situations. Between myself and my BF we catch a large percentage of lows, but some times some lows come on quick and without notice. I have dropped while diving and it does affect your reaction time. I was ascending because I knew my blood was dropping plus my air was running low. Well, I came up too fast because I wasn't deflating my BCD fast enough and I wound up getting a nose bleed. So bad things can happen, but I learned my lesson quick and thankfully only had a minor repercussion. Now I make sure that my blood is higher before I go under.

Any questions you got, I would be happy to answer! I hope you get certified. It is the coolest and you get to witness the most beautiful things. It is truly another world down there and TV doesn't do it justice.

Comment by Lisa on September 26, 2010 at 12:15pm

I' ve been away for a couple of weeks.........From what I've hear about the area that we are moving to, there is a large diving community. Once we get ourselves settled we can investigate it further. So how long have you been diving now? I am so excieted to get this started but have to be patient. My husband thought a safety measure that might work, would be that he would ask me a times table and see how fast I could answer. My brain really bogs down when I'm low so I think that would be a way to determin where my blood sugar is at? I've heard of "goop" or something that we would both carry as well in case of a low. All these tips are a great idea. Thanks for your input. L

Comment by Lisa on September 26, 2010 at 12:19pm

Just an idea.........if you were planning a shallow dive, could you put the pump that has a CGM in a waterproof bag and it still work on giving you a bg level? The sensors are water proof aren't they to a certain depth? I wonder how far you could go down before pressure issues would be a problem?

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