Friday, January 12, 2007

After whining on Wednesday, I made some drastic basal adjustments. I surveyed my trends and ups and downs and went back to the early pump days, where instead of having a gazillion basals I had four. I decided to make huge changes in the hopes that I could get things leveled out. What a difference a little whining (sorry! I feel guilty!) and basal changes can make. My nighttime sugars have been much better and I've actually been okay--if a little low--during the day.

This is good. But there is always a but...

The but is I'm losing trust the CGMS that I was beginning to love. Why? Because today it had me between 80 and 120 throughout the morning, just kind of hovering there. I was happy. And because I was hovering, and veering low, I had a brownie. And because I had down arrows telling me I was falling, I had a brownie with a bolus. I was not ill-advised to do this, since I munched on the brownie and since I've been falling in the mid-morning. At least, I thought I was not ill-advised. After all, 146 after a brownie without insulin is respectable, right?

Yes, it is, when you are actually 146. But when I went to calibrate I discovered I was not 146. I was not 246. Nor was I 346 or 446. I was, in fact, 530. See my jaw dropping?

One of the problems with the CGMS is you cannot calibrate when you are on a rapid rise or fall--that is, when you have double arrows on the screen, when you have eaten, or when you have exercised. My blood sugars last night were wacked for a different reason, and I couldn't calibrate until this morning. Perhaps something went wrong there. Or perhaps my sensor is starting to come out of my skin--it is a little sore, but I'm not ready to give it up yet. Whatever the reason, a difference of 400 is way to much to account for, and is certainly not healthy. From now on, I will be testing my blood sugar more often.

PS Can anyone tell me how to get "titles" to show up on my blog? I know it's possible with Blogger...I just don't know how to do it. Thanks!

6 comments:

Major Bedhead said...

Go into your Dashboard and click on the settings tab. In that tab is a blue underlined option called formatting. Scroll down and there is a field called Show Title Field. The drop down menu says yes or no. Click so it says yes. Save your settings and then republish your blog.

Interesting to hear about the CGMS. I guess checking more frequently is advised. It's good to hear all this stuff - I'm trying to get O into a trial for one of the CGMS systems and it's always helpful to hear real life issues with these devices.

In Search Of Balance said...

Woah. That's a huge difference. It's good to hear about someone using the CGMS, and how it plays out in real life. Thanks for sharing.

Bernard said...

Nic

That just stinks. Thanks for letting us know, I'm sure that's not easy.

I'll be you had to drink a bathtub full of water on that one! Yuk.

This kind of issue makes me think that I won't be getting a CGM thingie anytime soon. Maybe I'll wait until the version 2 CGM devices are out.

Nic said...

Thanks, Julia. Look for titles soon! As for O on a CGMS trial, it's such a great idea. My mom and I were talking about what a difference a CGMS would have made during my teen years!

In Search of Balance and Bernard--
For all the troubles, I really like the CGMS. It makes a huge difference and is especially helpful during basal tests! And, I figured out the problem and the source of the huge difference. My sensor had started to come out and the site was developing an infection. And yes, Bernard, I did drink a bathtub full of water! It's still sloshing around in my stomach!

Scott K. Johnson said...

Oh man - that sucks!

It shows us how important it is to still frequently check our blood sugars even when using these relatively new CGMS devices.

I think they will improve quickly, and it will get better and better.

For now though, it's kind of tough when you can't completely trust what you see on the screen.

Anonymous said...

i'm going to start going back to basics and doing all my basals again, i think they just don't work for me no more.