Bandera Al Cielo - New Diabetic Expedition to Aconcagua Summit 2011
Dear friend´s. I live in Brazil and I was far from the Mad List for 8 years (I was on the www.idea2000.org). Now I´m finally back to the internet world and can tell you what´s up in the diabetic sport life in South America. We have a discussion list called Diabetes&Desportes (www.diabetesedesportes.com.br) and have more than 50 sporters in different places on Brazil (some from other country too), including a Death Valley ultramarathon finisher for 3 times, Monica Otero.
Some of us had, at the same time, a program called Bandera Al Cielo (www.diabesport.com), that has been doing mountaineering in 5.000m places and some marathon competition (like the Tetrathlon, in Argentina and the terrific Cruce de Los Andes 12x42km) crossing the Andes since Chile until Argentina (506 km). One Marathon for each member. The best (or worst) part goes by the 4.900m (!) and is hard and very beautiful to run there. We did it in 2008 february with 10 type 1, one type 2 and 1 invited with no diabetes (nobody is perfect...).
Now, in the last part of this program, we´ll go to the summit of Aconcagua (6.950m) with 6 diabetic, from Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil (we are three). I´ll tell you more in next post.
See you,
Flávio.
Flávio "Doce" Aguiar flaviodoce@gmail.com Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Well, 2 week to go to BR135 and 3 weeks till the Aconcagua. Everything is fine and we are in the last part of the gear (taking some with friends, too). Last updates shows snow before the base camp (Plaza de Mulas) and I think that we´ll have worse weather than we have expected. That´s ok. I really would like to see information about the carring insulin ways near to the body and the glucose monitoring system (and it´s batery), cause the scientific articles don't show many things about that. We have another trouble that what we have in Brazil is not the newest version of it. If you are reading this post and know anything, please tell us. Unfortunately, at this time we have no sponsor or help from the laboratories. Here we have Performa Nano and Active (by Accuchec Roche), Breeze (by Bayer), One Touch Ultra 2 and Mini (by Johnsons) and Optium Exceed and Mini (by Abbott). Nothing else. One article says that problems can occur for hyperglycemic values over the 4.000m. We have already used these (except Breeze) till 5.000m. 12 years ago I used the color table of the Haemoglukotest in the Huayna Potosy (til 5.600m) with no problems (now it doesn´t exist and was substituted by the Glucochek, with color table). In that time I was part of the MAD IDEA e-mail list, but I can´t find anymore David Panofsky, Doug Burnsal and Nikky and the list records. Thank you all!
Hi Flavio,
Thanks for your email which I started to reply to but didn't finish last night. Jeff Mazer forwarded for post here to my attention. Awesome you guys are going to Acocnagua exactly 10 years and one week after the IDEA 2000 group had 7 type 1 diabetics on the summit of Aconcagua. Our expedition blogs are all still here and yuo may find some value to reading them: www.idea2000.org We used Bayer (Ascenia) Glucometer or Glucometer Elite meters. Some of us used pumps, many insulin pens. Here is a picture of the bag I gave to expedition members to use:
http://diabetic.friendsinhighplaces.org/cold-weather-bags
Many people designed there own pouches which held their meters and insulin supplies and didn't use the idea bag. A friend of mine in Montreal, Canada has designed a bag for the Abbott Flash/Mini which she was at one point selling.
I would strongly suggest the use of control solutions for any of the meters you use. Only use solutions designed for specific meters and keep them at body temperature. Give us some idea whether the meters you used gave you good results. I am quite confident that the cold temperatures will have more effect on blood glucose results than the lower partial pressure of O2 (altitude).
Take you time to properly acclimatize. Do not take diamox (acetazolomide), keep insulin and carbohydrates readily available, monitor blood sugar, and have a great time!
I know it's close to departure, but is there anything we can do to help you guys?? Let us know how it goes and all the very best.
SUERTE!! dp
Hey, guys, we are come back. Unfornately we did not summited, because a lot of snow and wind plus a strong headache (during at night, for me) and after some days with more than 30kg inside the backpack. Well, we reached the nido de condores camp (5.400m) with -23 C inside the tent. It was hard and we thought that our strategy made by our leading guides was not correct. But it was a very rich experience. It was a dificult thing monitoring in a very cold weather. 5 glucose measuring devices with diferent results (from 148mg/dl to 280mg/dl) and 1 device has stopped reading the strips. I tryed to find the control solutions, but there wasn´t in all places and doctors I´ve contacted. It´s a reaaly important thing and now I understand how it is.
A lot of bubbles inside the pen has difficulted the right dose of insuln too. I´ll tell you more and post some photos as soon as possible (I´m selecting it). See you and thank you David and Jeff (for contact DP) for helping us with information and experience.
Flávio "Doce" Aguiar flaviodoce@gmail.com Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Thanks Flavio for the update. I had been reading that conditions were very extreme and few people were having any success. It is great to know that it was a valuable experience and you did reach a high altitude. Which diabetics made it up to Nido?
Welcome home and good job returning home safely!!
dp