Hi Everyone

[Nathan3434]

Hi everyone my names Nathan and have been a type one from one year old so over 27 years. Never really joined a group for diabetics but interested to hear other peoples experience with it.

 

[mashedupmatt]

Hi @Nathan3434 and welcome to the forum - there are decades of experience of living with Diabetes (all types) here so anything you are interested to hear about, ask away - we're a friendly bunch - glad you have found us 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

Hello Nathan and welcome. It can be really helpful comparing notes with others who face the same challenges with Managing BG levels so I hope you find it supportive and enlightening being part of the forum.

Would you like to give us a bit of info about how you manage your diabetes. ie. Which insulin(s)? MDI or pump
and if so a pump, which one and are you looping and again if so, which sensors do you use?

 

[goodybags]

Welcome to the forum @Nathan3434, we’re a friendly lot on here, and you will find loads of advice help and support from people’s shared experiences I’m sure

One thing I’ve previously told other new members is, one of the golden rules is
remember there’s such thing as a silly question, so anything you wanna know offload et cetera pop along and post

 

[Nathan3434]

Hello Nathan and welcome. It can be really helpful comparing notes with others who face the same challenges with Managing BG levels so I hope you find it supportive and enlightening being part of the forum.

Would you like to give us a bit of info about how you manage your diabetes. ie. Which insulin(s)? MDI or pump
and if so a pump, which one and are you looping and again if so, which sensors do you use?

Great thanks. Use novorapid and Tresiba Degludec and no sensor or pump. Since have been type one for so long have a good understanding of how much insulin to take for each meal etc. Realise thats not the norm but it works for me 🙂 At 50 mmol /mol for hbA1c.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Nathan3434

Great to hear you have a system that works for you.

It can be really helpful to have others facing the same frustrations and diabetes annoyances around you when you need to offload, or have a question - or would simply just like to compare notes.

Glad to have you here 🙂

 

[PhoebeC]

Welcome @Nathan3434, great community here where we can support each other.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi. Interesting that you don't use a sensor. Did you try it and decide it wasn't for you or just not fancied even trying it?
Most of us here found Constant Glucose Monitors (CGMs) were a game changer. For me certainly it lifted a lot of the mental load and changed my mental approach to my diabetes management. Thanks to Libre, I now view my diabetes management as a long running computer game rather than managing a health condition. It has taken a lot of the strain out of it, especially when my diabetes isn't playing by the rules as happens from time to time. Libre gives me very clear visibility of how it is misbehaving and what I can do to counter it. I have pretty good hypo awareness so I don't need the alarms but I think one of the big benefits was reducing meal time spikes and enabling me to reduce my BG variability. I also love the Time in Range (TIR) function rather than the old premeal targets which I regularly failed to achieve whereas 70% TIR seems to be very easy for me to over achieve. Plus it makes adjusting your basal so much easier. I like to have a break from it every now and then but after a few days I am always very appreciative going back to using it. Plus of course it is so much more convenient to scan than finger prick.

 

[Nathan3434]

Hi. Interesting that you don't use a sensor. Did you try it and decide it wasn't for you or just not fancied even trying it?
Most of us here found Constant Glucose Monitors (CGMs) were a game changer. For me certainly it lifted a lot of the mental load and changed my mental approach to my diabetes management. Thanks to Libre, I now view my diabetes management as a long running computer game rather than managing a health condition. It has taken a lot of the strain out of it, especially when my diabetes isn't playing by the rules as happens from time to time. Libre gives me very clear visibility of how it is misbehaving and what I can do to counter it. I have pretty good hypo awareness so I don't need the alarms but I think one of the big benefits was reducing meal time spikes and enabling me to reduce my BG variability. I also love the Time in Range (TIR) function rather than the old premeal targets which I regularly failed to achieve whereas 70% TIR seems to be very easy for me to over achieve. Plus it makes adjusting your basal so much easier. I like to have a break from it every now and then but after a few days I am always very appreciative going back to using it. Plus of course it is so much more convenient to scan than finger prick.

Tried the Libre for 2-3 months a while ago and found it good without the finger pricks. Sometimes found the readings slightly delayed which didn't get used to. Starting to think its time to go back to the Libre though so appreciate the feedback 🙂 Think maybe it was more that got so used to pricks over the years that didn't want to change even though Libre is so much better.

 

[Nathan3434]

Hi. Interesting that you don't use a sensor. Did you try it and decide it wasn't for you or just not fancied even trying it?
Most of us here found Constant Glucose Monitors (CGMs) were a game changer. For me certainly it lifted a lot of the mental load and changed my mental approach to my diabetes management. Thanks to Libre, I now view my diabetes management as a long running computer game rather than managing a health condition. It has taken a lot of the strain out of it, especially when my diabetes isn't playing by the rules as happens from time to time. Libre gives me very clear visibility of how it is misbehaving and what I can do to counter it. I have pretty good hypo awareness so I don't need the alarms but I think one of the big benefits was reducing meal time spikes and enabling me to reduce my BG variability. I also love the Time in Range (TIR) function rather than the old premeal targets which I regularly failed to achieve whereas 70% TIR seems to be very easy for me to over achieve. Plus it makes adjusting your basal so much easier. I like to have a break from it every now and then but after a few days I am always very appreciative going back to using it. Plus of course it is so much more convenient to scan than finger prick.

Have you found that your hypo awareness has changed over the years? Have noticed a difference from being younger to now as only really get the signs as 2.5-3 or below whereas used to be higher.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

Hello @Nathan3434, welcome to the Forum. I also have NovoRapid and Tresiba, from MDI. I'm at the other end of the age scale and only been doing this for 5+ yrs, so still learning.

I found CGM pretty life changing. Originally, after 12 months of just fps, I got Libre2, and even though my body and Libre were incompatible, it was invaluable for BG trend awareness. I now have Dexcom G7 which has proved to be very accurate and reliable. Also recent updates of the CGMs have resulted in some reduction of that lag, between actual BG from fps and interstitial readings from CGM. This makes things much simpler: accurate and reliable BG with reduced lag. I think Dexcom also create a better mindset, providing much better Alerts, rather than Abbott's somewhat limiting Alarms. If the background alerts aren't intrusive and stressful to you, this takes away some of the more overt "mindfulness" about what your BG might be doing, putting BG more into steady background awareness.

In my maternal family there seems to be a lot of T1. I have a close cousin, T1 for over 50 yrs, who felt CGM was unnecessary for him after yrs of fps only. Once he was cajoled to seriously try and work with Libre a couple of years ago, after initial trials and a sense of "why bother", he is now a convert and openly admits CGM has been something of a revelation to him.

As my BG management has improved with time and CGM help, my hypo awareness is a little lower. That said, I rarely go truly hypo. Less than 5 times per annum. My G7 gently reminds me as my BG falls and I'm comfortable with a modest snack, eg a small biscuit (rather than a JB or mini-pack of haribos), is enough to nudge me back up a bit. I use 4.5 as my "notional" bottom threshold on my lowest alert setting and get plenty of reminders as I transition from mid range downwards. My lack of any panc'y makes my D quite brittle at times, so I can crash very rapidly if I don't take note of those various alerts.

 

[rebrascora]

Have you found that your hypo awareness has changed over the years? Have noticed a difference from being younger to now as only really get the signs as 2.5-3 or below whereas used to be higher.

CGM can help you to improve your hypo awareness if it is getting a little dull, by running your levels a bit higher for a while and setting your low alarm at say 5, so you don't drop below 5 for a month or two and that can help to reset your hypo awareness.

I have only been diagnosed 6.5 years so it is isn't really a fair comparison but I can often feel the very earliest hypo signs in the low 4s. It depending what I am doing and how fast or slow my levels are dropping, but it can be mid 3s before I twig sometimes and nocturnal hypos, I am often low 3s before I wake up. Of course Libre tends to exaggerate the lows a bit for me and if I know I am hypo, I don't double check with a finger prick anymore, so it might give me a reading of 3.2 when I may actually be nearer 3.7.

I think being a member of this forum and discussing our findings with others really helps you to get the most out of using CGM as well as being aware of it's limitations and knowing when to double check it. As a result of these discussions, a member complied a list of the limitations and quirks of CGM in the thread which I will link below. It might not mean much to you until you start using a CGM again but it can be helpful to refer back to so that you can understand the occasional anomalies you are likely to experience....

H

Thread 'CGM limitations and precautions'

Sep 8, 2023

Moderator Note: This helpful reply was copied from another thread as it details some of the commonly experienced limitations of continuous glucose sensors.

My blood sugar has been in perfect range for days now, but although I haven't changed anything, I'm starting to get very short periods of hypos while I sleep and this morning I had a hypo alarm.

If these are very short periods of lows and occur overnight, they are more likely to be compression lows - when pressure is applied to a sensor, it will report a false low. The reason I say this is more likely to happen at...

• helli
• Replies: 23
• Forum: Pumping and Technology

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Your GP should be able to prescribe you one of the basic CGMs ie Libre 2 Plus or Dexcom One + if you don't currently have a CGM on your repeat prescription list. Dexcom has a smaller list of compatible phones that it works with but I think third party apps can be used to make it compatible. Personally I prefer using a reader rather than my phone with my Libre and I find that a much more reliable system than using my phone with an app as it isn't affected by the regular OS updates that phones are prone to. I initially self funded Libre and bought a starter pack which included a reader and whilst I have tried the phone app a couple of times, I much prefer the reader, so I have continued with that now I am prescribed Libre.

One of the main benefits of CGM is that you can see what your levels are doing overnight whilst you sleep and with you being on Tresiba where your overnight levels are probably key to adjusting your Tresiba dose to whatever is optimal for you, then being able to see that overnight data is a huge help in knowing when your Tresiba needs a tweak. If your hypo awareness is being eroded, it may be that you are regularly dropping into "the red" overnight and your body is getting used to those lower levels and therefore doesn't warn you as early as it used to.

 

[PhoebeC]

Have you found that your hypo awareness has changed over the years? Have noticed a difference from being younger to now as only really get the signs as 2.5-3 or below whereas used to be higher.

For me this would be enough to get a CGM. If you can alert in advance you can avoid hypos, in my experience.

I didn’t know until I started on the libre that most nights I dropped into hypo and didn’t wake up, as my blood levels would be high in the morning. Only the libre shown me this issue. Could have been happening for years.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

For me this would be enough to get a CGM. If you can alert in advance you can avoid hypos, in my experience.

I didn’t know until I started on the libre that most nights I dropped into hypo and didn’t wake up, as my blood levels would be high in the morning. Only the libre shown me this issue. Could have been happening for years.

I think you make an extremely important point, @PhoebeC. Before CGM was as widely available as today, people for the most part did the best they could and lived with an expectation that hypos were fairly inevitable, fairly often. While CGM can create greater anxiety for some people - too much information, etc - it is a terrific tech opportunity that the NHS provides at some expense. I've always felt that I am being irresponsible if I don't make best use of this tech, with just one caveat about some of the unnecessary shortcomings.

Originally, 4 + yrs ago, we had to scan because continuous data transmission wasn't provided by the CGM manufacturers; even though there were extra apps that could provide that functionality. Thankfully now sorted. There is still no provider that allows a "sleeping" phone to display a BG reading, but for at least 2 decades all phones displayed the time. Again there are apps that can do this, but CGM providers aren't willing to make this normal and basic improvement; I have to conclude they don't care. And the extra Alerts that G7 provides, makes a big improvement in the poor offering by Libre despite it now having been improved from basic Libre to Libre 2, 2+ and even 3.

But your essential point is spot on: now we can know when we are hypo or too close to hypo - and inevitably setting ourselves up for longer term problems - we should take advantage of that knowledge and help ourselves stay well.

 

[Teapot99]

Hi everyone my names Nathan and have been a type one from one year old so over 27 years. Never really joined a group for diabetics but interested to hear other peoples experience with it.

Hi @Nathan3434,

Nice to hear from you! I'm a T1D that's on Novorapid and Tresiba too. I have been diabetic since I was 5, so for 21 years now. I used a Libre 2+ patch, I am currently on the journey to get an insulin pump so I have officially started carb counting (something that used to scare me but I have come to get used to and see how it helps). My blood sugars run on the high side but are a lot more stable than they used to be, I am just getting used to lowering them slowly now to a normal level.
I joined this forum to speak to more diabetics as I had never really spoken to another person with the condition. I have been on here for. around a month now, everybody is so helpful and supportive. Any questions you have or advice you need, we are all here!