Green Curry

I adore Thai food. Years ago my family and I went on a two-week adventure in Thailand and, ever since then, I am a huge fan of Thai food of any kind. The flavours. The freshness. The fact that the minute I smell good Thai food I am brought back to Bangkok, Ko Samui, Chaing Mai and all the other places we explored. It's like a portal to another country.

One of my favourite Thai dishes is green curry. The veggies combined with the grapes and pineapple pieces mixed in that delicious green curry sauce and then poured over jasmine rice is one of my preferred ways to spend a meal.

I don't have it often. In fact, there is just enough time between green curries for me to forget what happens before I have it again.

This, my friends is what happens when I eat green curry. 

I met a friend for lunch at our favourite Thai restaurant. I ordered my green curry and bolused 3.5 units 15 minutes before I ate it. I started eating and a small voice in my head told me that I had not taken enough insulin. So I took two more units. Before I was even finished eating, Rose was alarming that I was climbing too quickly. 

Within an hour I was 20. Between 2pm, when I got home, and 3:30pm, I bolused six more units of insulin in increments of 2. I'd wait 30 minutes, see that I was not moving, and bolus two more. At 3:30pm I was 22 and holding and had been there for almost two hours. I had guzzled about 2 litres of water in an attempt to dilute things. Nothing seemed to work and I was feeling about as bad as it is possible to feel when it comes to diabetes. 

Did I mention that we were meeting friends at 4pm for 9 holes of golf followed by dinner?

I put on my best 'suck it up princess' look, changed, and we headed over. My body felt stiff. Almost like my blood was so thick that my joints were not moving properly. I was dehydrated despite all the water, my mouth was desperately dry and I had a pounding headache. At 4:15pm, we teed off. The walking seemed to help a bit and I was feeling marginally better even though my numbers still weren't budging. 

By the third hole I had dropped from 22 to 18 and was much happier than I should ever be to see that number. I then climbed back to 20 by the fourth hole. Bloody hell! Despite the fact that I was in the middle of a 2-hour walk, I bolused another two units. That last bolus, plus the low level of activity finally seemed to do it. 

As we played, I filled my water bottle every second hole and drained it again. I slowly dropped to 18, 17, 16, 15. By the time we started the last hole I was down to 9. Single digits!! By the time we finished it, I was down to 6. By the time I got to the locker room, I was 4.6. I double checked on my glucometer and it confirmed 4.6. I had a pack of fruit chews and headed in to dinner. 

I went below 4 for a few minutes but nothing scary and it righted itself as soon as I started each my dinner. 

I felt 100% better than I had two hours earlier. 

I went from 7.5 to 22 and back down to 4 within 6 hours. Four of those hours were spent between 20-22. I took 13 units of insulin which is more than half the amount of insulin I usually take for breakfast, lunch AND dinner combined. All because I had a lunch-sized portion of green curry and a cup worth of jasmine rice. 

Some people have a hard time eating pizza. Others it's sushi. My diabetes nemesis seems to be green curry. 

I would like to say that I will never have green curry again. I really would. But I love it so much that I can't make any promises. 

Funnily enough, despite the physical challenges my body was going though, I got a personal best on my golf game that night. 

Go figure.