Ups and Downs

Dawn cracks early and I was up to see it. Hubby was almost up to see it too as he was up checking Annika's blood glucose during the night. She had had a day of super high glucose readings (which is bad) and didn't start leveling out until I got her infusion site changed before bedtime.
(The infusion site is the location where her insulin pump connects to her body. The picture to the left is not her, as she chooses to use her butt as the infusion site location, but you get the general idea.)  This connection site has to be changed every three days and is about an hour long process as Annika prefers to have numbing cream on the new site area first. She doesn't like to feel the poke of the needle that goes into her skin and quickly retracts, but it sets a cannula (like a tiny straw) under her tissue for the insulin to travel through. The cannula is attached to tubing that runs back to her insulin pump. The pump has a cartridge that we fill with enough insulin to get her through three days. When Hubby checked her at 3:00 a.m. she was experiencing a low blood glucose of 58 (optimal range for her is 80-110) so he had to wake her up to drink some juice. (A really low blood glucose can lead to a diabetic coma...don't ever want to go there!) After giving her the juice he waited for anther 20 minutes and checked her blood glucose again and she was slowly climbing up at 93. He left me a note to check her in the a.m., which I did at 5:30 and she was at 139. Since she was a little out of range I gave her a small insulin bolus to bring her glucose down a bit. When she woke up at 8:30 she was feeling shaky, a sure sign of low blood glucose for her, and she was back down to 63. She had some more juice. Such is the wacky world of type one diabetes.

When I hit the trail today it was on a borrowed set of wheels. Amy, my cousin's wife, let me try out her bike for my 20 mile ride this morning. I have been riding my hubby's bike which is a hybrid (something in between a mountain and a road bike). Amy's bike is also a hybrid but is a women's frame so it doesn't have that potentially hazardous bar that runs between the seat and handlebars. The last bike I rode that was made for females was my lavender Mod Girl bike made by Iverson in the 60s or 70s.

It looks quite similar to this one, but has a rainbow banana seat and chrome fenders instead. Just this week it was unhooked from the ceiling of my dad's garage where it has been stored for the last 30 years. It is in the process of being polished and prepped by Hubby for our girls to ride. They have not mastered bike riding yet but I'm hoping they'll be enamored by chopper-style handlebars and think it is about time to learn.

Some of the likable features of Amy's bike include: the lightweight aluminum frame, the fairly smooth grip shifting, the shock absorber on the front wheel and compression seat post (makes hitting the bumps much less jarring), and a seat that makes it easy to sit on your sit bones and thus not make one's feet go numb. I am not sure yet if I enjoyed sitting more upright, as this bike requires, and was in need of more than one cage to hold beverage containers. One of the perks of getting to try out this bike is that it gives me the opportunity to test drive a bike and see what features would be preferable or necessary on any future bike purchase.

Today's ride went fairly well and I'm starting to get a little jazzed about the upcoming La Crosse event. There are almost 400 riders registered so I won't be riding alone on August 13th. Some of the riders have type one diabetes and some are like me and are riding because they know someone with type one. Before the Ride I think I am going to put a photo of Annika and Johanna on the handlebars to help keep me focused when the pedaling gets tough. Only 37 days away!
 http://www2.jdrf.org/goto/gjengdahl

Gettin' By with a Little Help from my Friends (and Brother)

When it rains it pours and so it happened that three people, Chris, Ann & Mark, offered to accompany me on my Saturday ride. My friend Chris (who did some training rides with me in April & May, and used to ride to the Dairy Queen with me back in the day) thought it was going to be a short ride, and it wasn't. Ann, my friend from Madison (who is much more athletic than I) was in town with her bike and thought the ride would start "later" at 7 a.m., but instead the start time was bumped to 6 a.m. And Mark (my non-licensed practicing Chiropractor brother) had his knees adjusted at chiropractic school the day before and just wanted to see if he could ride any distance (his knees were wrecked by endless riding a decade ago). What a joyous surprise to have a posse to go on the journey!

Everyone was dressed in some form of wicking material, myself included, as Mark had bought a pumpkin orange riding shirt for me at REI the day before. Thus my risk of being shot by hunters decreased immensely, and ability to be seen from great distances increased immensely.

The route we took was almost the same one I rode last week that goes by all of the major bodies of water in the Minneapolis city limits. There was an additional four miles added as we started from my house this time around, making our journey 39.9 miles (but we're calling it 40)...and we all lived to tell. When we could, we rode two-by-two as conversing was easier that way, and conversation on a long bike ride makes it seem much shorter. That is why the originally planned short ride of 20 miles just kept going to 40 as everyone seemed so invigorated and hadn't run out of things to talk about. As I was leading the gang along the route Chris said the song "Leader of the Pack" kept coming to her mind. I am thankful it was not "Baby Got Back."  Three out of four of us were wearing bandannas so it was decided that we should form our own gang, tough asses that we were. No official name was decided upon but I am partial to the Lactic Acid Gang. Feel the burn. Put that on some wicking biking shirts!

We did ride by a Dairy Queen by Minnehaha Falls but it was only 8:30 a.m. at that point and it wouldn't be opened for another couple hours. Ann was disappointed as it is never too early for a little ice cream treat. (I'm with you, Ann!)

How wonderful to have such supportive friends and family to go along on this JDRF journey! The La Crosse Ride is 41 days away and many people have donated money and time to help me meet this challenge and raise money to help find the cure for type one diabetes. I am at 71% of my fund raising goal and would appreciate more help spreading the word about the opportunity to contribute. Please direct folks to http://www2.jdrf.org/goto/gjengdahl to make an online contribution. Repost the link to your Facebook page or Twitter feed please. 


Ann headed back to Madison and we probably won't be able to ride together again before the August 13th La Crosse Ride. The Saturday ride was the longest one she has ever been on, and she did great! Mark and Chris live much closer and may be willing to try another ride at some point (cross fingers here). After so much solitary training it was really fabulous to have people so willing to ride. They all still scratch their heads at me for doing this but are very encouraging.


See the sweaty Lactic Acid Gang below: