A Dead Goldfish on a High Dive

As I mentioned in my post last week, Trey's company held their annual picnic at a water park.  I haven't been to a water park since pre-D.  I was little overwhelmed just thinking about attempting this outing.  But I was determined not to let D get in the way of my life, especially the fun parts. 

It all started with a site change before we left before the park.  I decided to put my new site on my right thigh so I could easily disconnect Arnold even while wearing my bathing suit.  I wore a blue one piece with athletic shorts (with it being a "work" thing for my hubby, I wanted to be as conservative as possible). 

Before we entered the water park, the company served us a dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs over a pavilion outside the park.  My pre-cookout test was 64 mg/dL.  Awesome.  I wanted to avoid each end of the diabetes spectrum for this trip, but I definitely didn't want to start out low.  For my dinner, I had 2 hot dogs and a bag of BBQ chips which would have been 6 units of insulin for me.  Since I was low and about to engage in some swimming exertion, I decided to completely forget my bolus and reserved to being a little high for this trip (Note:  Kids, don't try this at home!). 

After we ate, we entered the park and reserved a locker.  This was the part I was dreading the most because it meant I was about to disconnect from Arnold for multiple hours.  I disconnected, put on my site cap, put Arnold and the rest of our things in the locker, and said goodbye.  I took a deep breath and tried to forget about it.  I also tried to forget that I was prancing around in my bathing suit in front of my husband's coworkers.  Nothing says awkward like meeting your husband's boss when you're half naked.  Totally.  Awkward. 

The park itself was awesome!  We went on every tube ride that was there, explored the wave pool for about 30 minutes where I began to analyze the wave heights like I do for my work--decided that I seriously need a vacation from work.  We even went down a ride that was called the Splash Bowl, but for all sakes and purposes it was a human-size toilet bowl.  You go down a tube for about 30 feet before entering this huge bowl that slowly inclined downward towards an 8-foot pool.  Now I know what a dead goldfish feels like. 

Between the wave pool and the toilet bowl, I tested in the locker room--139 mg/dL.  I was ecstatic with that number.  Low enough after my carb-heavy dinner, but high enough that we could enjoy the rest of the evening.

After the toilet bowl, we went back to a ride next to the high dives.  The diving boards had 3 levels:  regular dive, kinda-higher dive, and "Holy Crap, is this a cliff?" dive.  I decided I needed to do the cliff dive, just once.  Of course, I was the only human over 20 attempting this jump, which didn't make me feel self-conscious /sarcasm.  After I made the climb on the rickety ladder, I inched my way forward and looked down.  Bad idea.  Back up, took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and jumped off with my toes pointed down towards the water like a pencil.  The fall probably lasted 2 seconds, but it felt like 2 minutes.  Just when I thought I was going in the water, I kept falling.  The adrenaline hit me before the water did, but I finally made it in.  When I fell in the water, I didn't anticipate how far I would fall.  The pool was at least 20 feet deep, and I didn't touch the bottom.  I had to swim my way back up to the surface.  It was scary and exciting all at the same time.  I came up and breathed oxygen for the first time since I set foot on that platform.  I climbed out of the pool greeted by my husband and said, "That was awesome." 

After the high dive, we decided it was time to go home.  I got dressed and reconnected with Arnold.  "Hello, friend."  He greeted me back with 152 mg/dL.  Not bad.  I corrected as we walked to the car and made the 45 minute trip home. 

I forgot how much of an adrenaline junky I was pre-D.  I was always the one who would go on the craziest roller coaster, go bungee jumping, sky coasting, and (apparently) high diving.  Diabetes has made me a little more cautious, which I hate.  I thought I would never go to a water park with D, but I did.  And there are so many other things that I want to do.  I want to go sky diving.  I want to take a trip overseas.  And, of course, I want to become a mother, the ultimate daring experience.