Operation Combo Bolus

Sunday was a rather bizarre day where everything ended up taking longer than it was supposed to take. We had a nice day but, by 6pm, we had only just arrived home and we were both too hot and tired to care much about cooking. 

We decided to order sushi but, after picking our favourite sushi items from our take out menu, we discovered that our favourite sushi restaurant was closed on Sundays. 

Plan B involved getting back in the car, still sweaty and sunscreen-covered, and driving to another sushi place downtown that was one of those all you can eat kinds. 

"You sure you want to do this?" Doug asked. "Sushi usually messes up your blood sugar". 

"Yes, I do want to do this" I replied "and I have a plan". 

The code name of this plan was Operation Combo Bolus and I was about to take it out for it's first dry run. 

I have been using an insulin pump for 6 years now and have known about the Combo Bolus since the beginning. Yet I have never used it. Not once. 

Why? 

Because it's always been described as a good tool for dealing with high fat high carb meals like pizza and I don't tend to eat too many of those types of meals. The concept makes sense - take insulin over an extended period of time so that it can work in harmony with the food that is digesting over a long period of time, avoiding post-meal highs hours after eating. 

I decided to try it for all you can eat sushi night. 

So we ordered our first few sushi rolls and I dialed in 6 units of insulin and a duration of one hour. 

Every five minutes I could hear the pump gears whirling as I received another small dose of the 6 units of insulin. 

I started my dinner with a blood sugar of about 7. We ended dinner and I was 8.0. We went home, did a few things, sat down to watch an episode of Bloodline and I continued to hover between 8.0-8.5. We went to bed three hours after finishing dinner and my blood sugar was holding steady. 

No extra insulin needed to combat skyrocketing blood sugars. 

No pre-bed snacks do deal with rage bolus-induced lows.

No midnight pump alarms ruining our sleep. 

Operation Combo Bolus was a resounding success.