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(the article below accompanies this video)
Condensation on the room lock in the Sarajevo winter air
Today was not a very good day, as far as diabetes goes. I kept feeling low, but I was actually high. I checked my finger eight times in all — fitting for day 88, I guess.
It all began at 6 am, when I woke up feeling high. Sure enough, I was 311, so I took some Humalog and went back to sleep.
#bgnow 311 early in the morning in Sarajevo. Totally unacceptable.
Masayo and I got up for real at 9:30, and my BG was down to 191. Better. We had cinnamon rolls and yogurt in the room, and I had a banana. And of course took a proper dose of Humalog.
#bgnow 191 before breakfast in Sarajevo
I’ve taken to grabbing my camera when I feel a sneeze coming on. This one happened while I was enjoying a banana.
We walked up the hill from our apartment to a structure called the Yellow Bastion. It’s some old fortress, now just ruins, but is on a hill that offers a perfect view out over Sarajevo and the surrounding hills. There is a set of steps up to the fortress, and they were covered in ice and snow. I walked up on my hands and feet just to be careful. Masayo stepped up carefully without using her hands; we both made it.
Masayo walking up the icy Sarajevo steps
Trees on the snowy Yellow Bastion in Sarajevo
A woman was sitting on a bench on top of the bastion, looking out silently, but otherwise it was barren and quiet. We sat on a bench ourselves, watching the city and the sun and the mist. Then it was down a snowy, icy road to town.
Looking over Sarajevo from the Yellow Bastion
Pigeons kissing on an air conditioner in Old Town Sarajevo
I wanted to go to a cafe with wifi and do some work on my laptop on this extra day off in Sarajevo, and we finally found a place that seemed to fit the bill. The wifi turned out to be a public, password-less network though, so I elected not to use it for security reasons. Instead, I processed some photos on my laptop. My BG was an annoying 291, so I had a little Humalog with no food while Masayo ate a sandwich.
A little surrealism in Sarajevo, as seen from our cafe window.
Humalog shot in the cafe in Sarajevo, for no food.
An hour later I felt dangerously low so I checked: 210. What’s with the low feeling? Anyway, I was not feeling well — weak and dizzy a little — so we went back home.
#bgnow 210 in the cafe in Sarajevo. I feared I was getting low quickly, but 210 in fact made more logical sense.
I checked again there, an hour after the last check, and was 138. OK! Good. I had some crackers and cheese and cashews, because I didn’t have much appetite but I thought I should eat something. I also found it distasteful to take a shot, since I “felt” low.
#bgnow 138 back in the room. Good, but I decided to get paranoid about it, so I ate a bunch of crackers and cashews with no insulin. Smart? No.
This strategy, of course, didn’t work out well: two hours later, at 4:30 pm, I was 296. I finally took some Humalog.
#bgnow 296. That’s what I get.
At dinner time, it was raining outside and there was a fierce wind. We planned on going partway down the hill to get a pizza from a small bakery that we hoped were open on a Sunday evening, and having dinner in the room. Umbrellas aloft, we soldiered down the hill, dodging cars and ice and the horizontal cold rain in our faces.
We got our pizza, and went to a market next door for water and some cookies for dessert, and then started back up the hill. The rain had turned to stinging little pieces of ice by now. We laughed at the chaos of it all. An icy slope in the dark, with pieces of ice hitting us in the eyes and the wind blowing our umbrellas all around, with me carrying a pizza and trying not to drop it. What else could happen?
Then we heard it: the suddenly excited barking of a large pack of wild dogs in the cemetery we were walking by.
I know it’s out of focus and poorly framed, but this photo does capture what it was like, walking through the stinging ice storm carrying a pizza while a pack of wild dogs barked menacingly at us as we walked up the steep snow-covered hill dodging cars beside the cemetery.
The hard-won pizza.
My blood froze: these dogs would likely be quite interested in this pizza. And it’s better the pizza than us. But if they attacked me and I gave them the pizza to get rid of them, what would we eat? I strategized as I kept glancing at the dogs, several of whom were slowly walking closer to us.
The wind was not blowing the pizza scent to them, however, and thankfully they decided to let us go. Man, if they only knew! We got back up the hill to our apartment and laughed to ourselved. We’d made it!
The pizza was pretty good, not too special but not bad. I checked my BG and it was almost exactly the same as it had been three hours earlier: 297 now. I was getting tired of checking, and really tired of being high. I took a shot and ate some of the pizza.
#bgnow 297 after the pizza
Someone knocked on our door about 8 pm, and it was the apartment owner’s daughter with some fresh-made marble cake for us. We had some for dessert and saved the rest for breakfast. It was really good! Soft and sweet.
At 10:30 I did my last BG check of the day: 239. Of course. I grumpily took another shot and said the hell with it, and went to bed. Tomorrow is check-out day, and I will try to get a better start and handle things better.
#bgnow 239 before bed. I gave up on today.
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