The Ice-cream Experince

Its summer. Its hot. It humid. Its the perfect time for ice-cream. Oh my love for ice-cream is a never ending fairy tale...although I haven't yet perfected the happily ever after ending. I officially dedicate the past 2 months of summer to ice cream.

Mid June I met a nurse who recently started working with type 1 diabetics and together we've both been trying to figure out how to bolus for ice-cream and avoid any crazy lows and highs. Guys...I don't think I can say this enough but I really love ice-cream. Diabetes just makes ice-cream a pain because every time I go enjoy some frozen yogurt ice-cream, my day always ends up with a sleepless night and chasing blood sugars for the rest of the day. 

I was slowly giving up on ice-cream but I'M NO QUITTER so instead I decided I will go on an ice-cream binge till I figure out how to bolus for it...so welcome to my journey of bolusing for ice-cream. After this experience, I can't believe I will say this but, I think i'm done with ice-cream for a while now.

Trial 1:

Trial 1 was the least successful, but, I guess thats how all experiments go. I had a mango ice cream with 4 oreo pieces, chocolate chips, chocolate sauce and a piece of sour watermelon. 

We guessed a wild 130g, which to both of us totally made sense. I did a square bolus over 2 hours due to the fat content that later spikes me. I was in range before eating the ice-cream and gave a 15 mins pre bolus.

Following ice-cream I usually go for a 15-20 mins walk. I find that even the slightest bit of activity helps insulin work better.

As you can see things didn't go as planned. It was a pretty rough night to say the least! Dex failed on me and gave me a false high which I totally believed and didn't verify by finger prick. (Dex rarely fails on its accuracy) I was anxious about going high and was very aggressive in terms of correction insulin. I avoided treating my low, which isn't a very smart idea but I knew the fat was going to kick in any minute and I was correct. A lovely wake up BG of 19.2

Following the experiment, together we agreed that we will simplify the ice-cream and chose options which we can carb count or carb guesstimate. The challenge to figure out the correct carb count for ice-cream was on.

Trial 2:

So for our second attempt I went simple. Had the usual cup of mango ice-cream, had 3 oreos which made the carb count easier. 24g net carbs for the 3 oreos. And I sprinkled some chocolate chips on top.

We guessed 90g this time and we did square bolus over 2 hours to avoid the spike that occurred last time. Once again I was in range before eating with a starting bg of 5.8. I gave a 15 mins pre bolus to get the insulin working and went for a 30 mins walk as I was eating the ice-cream.

Here is where I struggle. I want perfection. But for perfection I need to be able to see improvement. It was another rough nights sleep, I was up all night treating lows, very very stubborn low.  I had juice, rockets, bananas, dates and toast with jam but nothing seemed to do the trick. And of course after every rough night was a day followed with work early morning. But the improvement is ... I had no stubborn highs and we managed to prevent that nasty spike up to 19.2.

Trial 3:

Pre Ice-cream 

Now  for this trial we had and a few other factors included. When bolusing for ice-cream its not just the carbs that I have to worry about. Lots of other things have to be taken into account like starting blood suagrs and exercise done prior. In this case I had just finished a very exhausting but awesome 2.5 hours of soccer. My starting blood sugar wasn't even readable by my sensor. I was at 2.4 before indulging into my ice-cream. I bought the same exact ice-cream flavour and toppings trying to keep my portion size equal.

We guessed 70g for the ice-cream however, like I mentioned above, because of the other factors acting on my blood sugar such as soccer (which always makes me go low) and the fact that i'm at 2.4 we decided to bolus for 30g of the 70g.

This time though I did not pre bolus because I was already LOW and I did not do the usual 15-20mins walk because I knew soccer is already having an impact on my blood sugars.

All I can say the next day was "I'm so glad I only bolused 30g" because oh boy was the night gonna be much rougher if I had bolused for 70. We noticed that I am no longer having that ice-cream spike that I had the first time. I'm guessing it must've been the chocolate sauce that was causing that spike because frozen yogurt has 0g of fat and both the oreo and the chocolate chip don't have a big amount to cause a spike. Soccer really did impact my blood sugars. I have to admit I was very nervous only giving 30g worth of inulin because I thought I was definitely going to be sky high. But diabetes played  a different game.

Trial 4:

This trial was by far my favourite, most shocking and by far the trial that had my anxiety levels so high because I really wasn't sure what to expect. So similar to the previous experiment I had the same ice-cream. I had just finished another 2.5h of soccer just like last time. So whats different you ask? Well we decided not to give any insulin and I was not to correct any blood sugars below 15mmol/l

I was very nervous to just eat my ice-cream without giving insulin. I thought I was being a rebel by not injecting. A few minutes after eating I started getting double arrows up and it was so hard to convince myself to relax and not correct. I ended up needing to lock my pump to avoid overriding it.

As you can see I spiked to 13.9 and than quickly came down low around 4am. Although I suspect that the crash was due to my 3am basals rather than the effect of soccer. Or possibly a combination.

Trial 5:

Trial 5 was possibly the most successful i'd say. I had no lows, however, its not perfect enough for me. This ice-cream was actually from a frozen yogurt shop in New Jersy so maybe the carb count was different from my usual one but we treated it as if they were the same. Instead of chocolate chips, because they had no vegan ones I put some sprinkles. 

We guesstimated 30g ... although that was an under bolus since just the oreos are 24g. But we both agreed with 30g and went with that. I was in a mall for 7 hours that day...I know how crazy!! So it was a pretty sedentary day. I went for a 30 mins bike ride post the ice-cream to get some exercise in. I was pretty happy with the results considering we underbolused for it. 

So if you are reading this and have a functioning pancreas...go grab some ice-cream and enjoy the blessing that your body does.  Here is to more ice-cream and more summer!