DancingStar
Active Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 3c
If you dont have a Continuous Glucose Monitor and you rely on finger pricking to check your blood glucose, how many times per day do you routinely test?
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If you don't have a CGM
- Thread starter DancingStar
- Start date
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
When I have a break from Libre for a few days as I do occasionally, just to prove to myself I can manage without it, probably about 8-10 times a day but I have by chance been scanning Libre an average of 35 times a day for the past 5 years so I do find I have to restrain myself quite a bit on the first day I am without Libre. Before I got Libre there were times when I was testing 16 times a day when I was trying to sort out prebolus times, particularly for breakfast, but routinely I would say about 8 times a day is what I would settle for.
I am going to be controversial and say the number of times is irrelevant.
It is what you do with the data that is important. You could prick and scan 35 or more times a day but if you do nothing with the results, it is irrelevant.
When I was finger pricking, I would test
- before every meal to use as a baseline for my meal time bolus
- before driving because it is a legal requirement
- before exercise so I could check my BG did not need a "glucose nudge" as most exercise causes my BG to fall
- whenever I felt "off" to confirm a hypo or a hyper and then afterwards to check recovery
- before going to bed to make sure I was within my required "night time range) and adjust accordingly.
- and when making adjustments to my insulin regime (e.g. prere-bolus time or basal testing), I would test more often.
Some days, I would finger prick 12+ times. Some days it was only 3.
It is what you do with the data that is important. You could prick and scan 35 or more times a day but if you do nothing with the results, it is irrelevant.
When I was finger pricking, I would test
- before every meal to use as a baseline for my meal time bolus
- before driving because it is a legal requirement
- before exercise so I could check my BG did not need a "glucose nudge" as most exercise causes my BG to fall
- whenever I felt "off" to confirm a hypo or a hyper and then afterwards to check recovery
- before going to bed to make sure I was within my required "night time range) and adjust accordingly.
- and when making adjustments to my insulin regime (e.g. prere-bolus time or basal testing), I would test more often.
Some days, I would finger prick 12+ times. Some days it was only 3.
Last edited:
Proud to be erratic
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 3c
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hello @DancingStar, I'm surprised (amazed really) that you don't have CGM. Has it been offered and you've declined this?
Since you are in a basal / bolus regime you should be treated as if T1 and your care team (Hospital or GP) should be encouraged, cajoled, or shamed into providing you with CGM. Are you in an obscure part of UK? You ought routinely to be under a Hospital care arrangement - particularly since your diagnosis came from a Whipples Procedure and total pancreatectomy (if I'm remembering correctly). Have your treatment arrangements changed since late 2019? Do you get the mandatory 8 annual diabetes checks? These checks ought to include a review and someone saying why don't you have CGM!
At first sight it looks as though the system has badly let you down - bu perhaps there is more to this than I'm seeing?
Since you are in a basal / bolus regime you should be treated as if T1 and your care team (Hospital or GP) should be encouraged, cajoled, or shamed into providing you with CGM. Are you in an obscure part of UK? You ought routinely to be under a Hospital care arrangement - particularly since your diagnosis came from a Whipples Procedure and total pancreatectomy (if I'm remembering correctly). Have your treatment arrangements changed since late 2019? Do you get the mandatory 8 annual diabetes checks? These checks ought to include a review and someone saying why don't you have CGM!
At first sight it looks as though the system has badly let you down - bu perhaps there is more to this than I'm seeing?