God bless Us...Every One (especially whoever invented the extended bolus)

And that's OK, you can't be too hard on Tiny Tim. After all, insulin hadn't been discovered when Charles Dickens had written the Christmas Story, let alone invented an insulin pump. But man, good things really can come in small packages... and my pump didn't even need to have a bow on it to be a Christmas miracle.

Now I don't know about you, but a part of me has always dreaded the holiday season. Because for as much excitement, anticipation, and all round good feelings that family and friends can create, it ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, created wildly swinging BGs for me, which then led to several days of trying to get a handle on the rollercoaster. It's been a pattern for me as old as gift giving, and it's become so problematic that the holidays have been something I'd almost rather not have.


But this holiday went great! And why you might ask? (no, you have to ask in order for me to tell you - that's how this question and answer thing works).Well, it's all thanks to the extended bolus. An extended bolus takes a delivery of insulin and spreads the delivery out over a certain time period. So instead of taking 3 units all at once, I can spread it out over 3 hours. It can have several uses, but for me it's vital for meals that are higher in fat or protein that don't get a big dose of glucose initally but also take longer to digest.

The trick for me is to take an extended big enough to compensate. Fat and protein can really do a number on me, so I have to have the confidence to take a bolus big enough to do the job. So for this holiday season I tacked on a combo bolus so huge that it would make me go low just thinking about it, but thanks to my ravenous appetite and all of the yummy foods that family members had made, my BGs were pretty good. 168, 183, 161, 61, 93, 73, 108, 119, and 72. Not perfect, but who is?

So the lesson for today's holiday season? Learn that extended bolus -it's huge.