18 days to jackpot

[This Old Grouse]

It has taken me 18 days to go from BG levels of 18 mmol/L to being in range 100% of a day, just! This has come at the expense of my carb intake which bottomed out at 20g ish per day I have managed to stop my overnight highs, which I did not know about as they happened after my last post meal finger stick and ended before my first pre meal finger stick of the following day. I don't think I could have achieved this without the trial sensors from Abbott and Dexcom. If I can not persuade my DSN/med team on Thursday that a CGM will help me take full control of my diabetes, we will have to try and get 3 months worth from Dexcom and sacrifice some luxuries to afford them through self funding.

N.B. I am starting to increase my carbs again from today to a more sustainable level of around 130g

 

[helli]

Unfortunately, it is rare to get CGM on prescription unless your diabetes is treated with insulin.
Do you need a CGM full time?
Before I had a CGM on prescription I would self fund for 2 weeks out of 6.
I would spend 2 weeks learning what impacted my BG with the CGM. Then 4 weeks implementing changes (e.g. adjusting diet, exercise, etc.) without the CGM followed by 2 weeks back with a CGM checking that the changes I had made were making an impact and learning more to implement changes cor the next 4 weeks.
Unless you are susceptible to hypos (e.g. taking insulin), the best value most people can get out of a CGM is these lessons and tweaks to their lifestyle.

Edited to add congratulations on your BG drops.
However, take care as lowering BG too fast from what your body is used to can come with its own set of complications.

 

[rebrascora]

Many congratulations on taking the management of your diabetes seriously and getting your levels down so impressively. Once you establish a repertoire of meals which your diabetes can cope with, then you will likely need less data from CGM to manage your levels well as you get into a routine with your new diet.
Many of us who are insulin dependent self funded for quite some time before we got it on prescription, so we know how expensive it can be. There wasn't a free trial when I started and I had to buy a reader as well because I didn't have a smart phone, so in some respects you are very lucky that you have had 2 free trials. Once you have to pay for it, I think it helps to focus you on what benefit you are continuing to get from it, versus the outlay for it, as it can just become fascinating and a bit addictive to monitor and perhaps a bit of a habit rather than actually needing it forever more to help you manage your diabetes.
Using it intermittently as suggested should help you get to a place in a few months where you don't need it and can just revert to occasional monitoring with finger pricks to keep an eye on things and test new foods etc. which is much cheaper.

 

[Drummer]

@This Old Grouse To get even a blood test meter and strips provided is unusual for an ordinary type 2 - and you are probably doing too well to be of interest to many clinics - it is just the way it is at the moment.
It is probably leading to a lot of unnecessary suffering and expense for those involved, but it is just how it is in many places.
I suspect that your thought of eating 130gm of carb a day might be down to misinformation - my level to reverse was the same as my Atkins CCLL - 50 gm a day. I was perfectly happy with that though as I was so much better eating that way than the 'healthy' diet I had been told to eat for decades.
These days I stick to under 40gm most of the time, to continue the slow alteration in shape I have been undergoing for the last 8 years.
If you can keep your blood glucose in normal numbers then your metabolism will most likely pick up a lot - getting back to normal blood glucose and using a tester to check after meals, I saw that once I was under 8mmol/l after meals and sticking to the same foods, that number dropped down and down, sometimes even into 5's, plus I was becoming more active and regaining strength - I am told that is unusual in one's 70s.