Any rugby players out there? How do you keep your blood sugar from getting high during tournaments? I take my pump off because I really don't need it to get broken (and I don't think I'm allowed to wear it anyway since it's hard plastic) and I put it back on and bolus in between games but my blood sugar still gets high. I'm probably not playing in tournaments this year anyway since I tore my ACL and meniscus last season and my knee is still not at 100% but I was just wondering for future reference.
Hey Morgan! I played rugby throughout college (wasn't on the pump yet though.... but you're right they won't let you wear it. Which is why I waited to get mine haha.) Essentially during active play times I would check my sugar whenever the rookies would run water to us (water, juice, and testing kit in my case) and drink drink accordingly. If I started to go high I would either, unfortunately, have to sit out for a while since exercise with too high a number can sometimes just drive it higher, OR I would take a VERY small injection during a time out if possible. Mainly I had problem with lows though.... hence the juice. Now that I have a pump I think I would probably keep it on whenever possible like you already do. Unfortunately I think really intense exercise just does this to us :-/ Might be worth using a higher basal rate in between games?
Maybe I'll try increasing my basal rate between games and before the first game so hopefully that would prevent my blood sugar from getting to high and then continuing to get worse.
Its really hard I use to play rugby. I played winger or center so I had my friends and family stand on the sideline with my pump and meter and if the game was sloppy or during scums i could run over check it then next scrum i'd bolus. It helped me
Have you heard of a spi belt? That's what I use, you can barley tell your wearing your pump and its completely safe!!
I played high school football with a pump and it honestly was something I just learned to accept. I was on the field every down, so I could only ever check during half time (I was too focused on the game to worry about it at timeouts). The same went for practices. When adrenaline/strenuous activity was occurring, my blood sugar naturally rose. This was the case even before I began using the pump and had to go without insulin for several hours. I used to use a basal injection once a day before the pump and even then my sugars would skyrocket during activity. I talked to my doctor about it and he told me not to worry about it affecting A1C results or anything, just make sure I feel like I am going to perform my best and stick with that blood sugar. His take on it was that a few extra high blood sugars with activity is perfectly fine. It's the ones from being lazy or eating wrong that he was worried about
I agree with you and your doctor on highs due to exercise. As an athlete with T1D, your body reacts differently. My son has experienced highs during football and other strength training, but lows during baseball and basketball. Strange, but he is learning that the pump is his best friend. We change his basal rate with each sport.
He has learned to wear his pump at all possible times due to the highs from missing his basal doses.
We are looking at switching to the OmniPod due to sports also. He is taking golf lessons and the tubing has been a problem. It will be easier with all sports, we are hoping:).
I always took my pump off playing rugby and I’m not sure if it was just me or something but my BG never seems to rise when I play sports, except when I drink Gatorade of course. But my site would always get pulled out when I played while on my pump. So when I am in rugby season I switch to my pens. This probably isn’t helpful but I just wanted to give some feedback. I’m surprised how many diabetic ruggers there are on this site!