The 12th Hole

Previously I’ve alluded to the fact that I’m on the board of the local chapter of a non-profit entity. This entity provides room and board for families with hospitalized children. If I wrote the name you’d recognize it, but I don’t want it popping up on a search engine so it’ll remain anonymous for the time being, but you get the idea and hey, the name doesn’t really matter anyway.

Yesterday we held our annual golf fundraiser. We rent what many consider to be the best golf course here in East Tennessee and then teams play for various donated prizes. We had 120 players and the entry fees go towards the operating budget of the entity. I couldn’t help with the event in the morning but I went out for the afternoon to ‘do my share’.

A car was to be given away to anyone who could make a hole-in-one at the 12th hole. So ‘my share’ was to stand at tee box of the 12th hole and make sure players teed up at the right spot so if they made a hole-in-one it would qualify and they would win the car. (Unfortunately noone won the car, but one guy did hit the flag!) I don’t play golf but it doesn’t take a pro golfer to note that this is a really beautiful place. In addition to the course quality the leaves are about peak here, adding to the awesome beauty.

I ended up being on the course about 5 hours yesterday afternoon, a good ways from the clubhouse and without test equipment or hypo treatment material. Before you panic let me say that my blood sugars aren’t as volatile as they once were and they tend to move in slower swings rather than volatile shock waves. I think this is the result of a low(er) carb diet and that I’m maturing (at least age wise). When I was younger small amounts of insulin used to have drastic effects. Now, even though I exercise daily, the net effect of insulin is less. Anyway as luck would have it I could feel myself getting low about 3 hours into my duty. Since I had no sweets on hand, I cut my basal rate in half and fortunately this seemed to do the trick. When I was able to test again I was 98 mg/dl.

On a similar (and maybe TMI) note, one of the hypo symptoms I’ve noticed lately is that my bladder fills just about the time I ‘feel’ the hypo. I’ve noticed this several times before and have been keeping a mental log to verify this symptom. I’m about 90% sure I’m right about this. I’ve never read or heard about anyone else having this symptom so I’m passing it along for anyones' edification that can use it.

The final two hours I ended up standing in a drizzle with a slight breeze from the northwest. I was pretty chilly when I finally got back to the clubhouse, but no worse for wear. Diabetically speaking though, I am going to have to start living up to the Boy Scout motto and “Be Prepared!”.