CGM one week update

[AJLang]

My blood testing machine weekly average results tend to be around 9.7 - sometimes they average as high as 12 and sometimes, but not very often, as low as 7.8. BGs can range up to 24.

One week after starting the CGM the average on my night time machine is 7.7 and on the daytime machine 6.4 an average reading I have never seen before
I had one BG of 15 (after eating a Chinese takeaway to test the CGM😱) but apart from that they have been 11 or below with a lot of them in the 5-7 range. I'm a very happy bunny Now trying to see if the sensor will last more than a week🙄

 

[Northerner]

Amanda, that is FANTASTIC! - I'm so pleased to see how well it is working out! 🙂 Hope the sensors last a bit (or a lot!) longer - how do you know when they need replacing?

 

[AJLang]

Thanks Alan. After one week the CGM informs me that the one week change has to be done and when the week is over it stops taking readings until a new sensor is inserted. BUT what I've tried today is pressing stop sensor followed by insert sensor to persuade it that I've put in a new sensor even though I haven't changed it. There is now a two hour wait until I find out if it has accepted this. If it has I will keep the old sensor in until I find that the readings vary too much from my testing machine. I'm happy with a difference of up to three ie if CGm reads 11 and testing machine reads 8 - as long as the majority of readings are very close. Sometimes the sensor displays ??? If it can't read the results. I've only had this happen once so far but if it happens too many times that will also be a sign to change the sensor. So now keeping fingers crossed that it works for longer to save the pennies

 

[AlisonM]

AJ, that's fantastic. It really seems to be working for you congratulations.

 

[Mark T]

That's really fantastic AJ and hopefully you can fool the machine into accepting the sensors.

It would be nice if every diabetic had the option to borrow a CGM for just a little while. I would image it would be really useful for identifying dietary changes.

 

[shiv]

Amazing AJ. Why can't the penny counters see things like this? Having a lowered average so quickly is amazing and think of the long term benefits of it.

Sigh - I can but hope I win the lottery!

 

[Caroline]

That's brilliant, I am glad it is working for you.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

That's brilliant news.

Come on NICE... pull yer fingers out!

 

[Robster65]

Wow. A real time example of how responding to results can have a dramatic effect. Well done 🙂

How much do you want to rent it out for per week ?

I did ask the DSN when I saw her last year and apparently they have a CGM but don't bother using it because it's not very reliable/accurate.

Money well spent there then. 🙄

Have you managed to find where you were going wrong or have the readings just come right by themselves so to speak (which does sometimes seem to happen) ?

Rob

 

[KateR]

Wow, that's amazing. I'm so pleased for you Amanda.

 

[AJLang]

Have you managed to find where you were going wrong or have the readings just come right by themselves so to speak (which does sometimes seem to happen) ?

Hi Rob Due to the gastroparesis my blood sugars are natually erratic e.g. food that I eat at 7pm may not cause an increase in my blood sugars until 3pm This is because of the delayed stomach emptying and can happen at any time of the day or night. The stomach empyting can vary hour by hour - there can both good and bad days The CGM alterts me when my BGs start going up so I know that it's time to have the extra insulin The rest of the time it has given me the confidence to keep my BGs at a lower level - and if they start to go down I quickly have a limited amount of Lucozade and if they start to go up it's 1-3 unit of extra humalog. So it does take quite a lot of self discipline to take appropriate action dependent upon what the BGs are doing, but the CGM gives me the info that I need to take that action. So, for example I had my lunch and then had 3 units of insulin and the BGs started going down, to 4.2 but then I could see that they had started to rise an hour later. My CGM will now beep if they go above 8.9 so I know that I will need extra insulin for the lunch that I ate two hours ago................sorry does this seem rather complicated?? It's not in practice

 

[AJLang]

I did ask the DSN when I saw her last year and apparently they have a CGM but don't bother using it because it's not very reliable/accurate.
Rob

My CGM read 7.0 and my blood test at the same time was 6.9 - can't get much more accurate than that

 

[Robster65]

I hope you can find some things that are more predictable than others, so that you can enjoy the warm thrill of injecting a known amount and not having to correct one way or the other. 🙂

And I suspect the misbehaving CGM was a lot down to lack of understanding and not giving it enough of a chance. I doubt they will have leant it out to patients who are committed to regular testing and follow a predictable diet. What they see as unreliable CGM results may have been erratic lifestyle from their patients. A bit like I was a few years ago 😱

Rob

 

[Steff]

Well chuffed for you Amanda great news hun

 

[Northerner]

I hope you can find some things that are more predictable than others, so that you can enjoy the warm thrill of injecting a known amount and not having to correct one way or the other. 🙂

And I suspect the misbehaving CGM was a lot down to lack of understanding and not giving it enough of a chance. I doubt they will have leant it out to patients who are committed to regular testing and follow a predictable diet. What they see as unreliable CGM results may have been erratic lifestyle from their patients. A bit like I was a few years ago 😱

Rob

I suspect the CGM your nurse was talking about was probably a much older one than AJ's snazzy Dexcom Rob - I still read a lot of stuff about people having hospital ones that don't have a display but have to be returned to the hospital to be downloaded.

 

[shiv]

I did ask the DSN when I saw her last year and apparently they have a CGM but don't bother using it because it's not very reliable/accurate.

I'm curious to know what they have got - they say that CGMs become more 'in tune' with you the longer you use them, so perhaps it's just that they are not lending them out for long enough!

 

[AJLang]

Sensor lasted seven days and then needed changing

I've had to change the sensor because it had an error! so it's lasted 6days 22 hours which I guess is near enough to 7 days. The sticking plaster on the new sensor wasn't as good as it should be so my tip would be to make sure that you've got medical adhesive tape. Fortunately we had so it is now snugly in place, Not sure if it's because I'm not very practical but it's taking a while to learn to remember how to insert everything.....I don't think I would very successful if I didn't have Mark reading the manual and helping....but I think it will be easy after I've inserted several sensors

 

[shiv]

As well as medical tape there are products like Tegaderm and IV3000 which are basically like sticky clingfilm - the kind of thing they use on drips in hospital! I know lots of people who use these to help keep sensors in place.

 

[AJLang]

Thanks Shiv they sound like they more look a little bit more pretty than a tummy covered with White tape!!

 

[Robster65]

Sorry for the hijack AJ ! 😱

I'm curious to know what they have got - they say that CGMs become more 'in tune' with you the longer you use them, so perhaps it's just that they are not lending them out for long enough!

I would imagine it's an older one but apparently they only leant it out for 3 days, so clearly they were commited to getting results at any expense !

If they query test strip use again, I might mention it as an example of a sound investment from the PCT and maybe if they were as well educated as us patients, they wouldn't be wasting our national insurance.

I'll stop now. 🙄

Rob