I woke up this morning to the beep of my CGM. I was perfectly cozy. I just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep but that darn thing…
So I finally grab my phone to see the situation. A very high reading of 283 and I realized that I had slept through the alarms going off for nearly 10 minutes before I woke up. Not good. Not good at all. Then I noticed the time. 3:15. No more sleep for me I knew. So a dose of insulin and a couple of boiled eggs and I started my day off very early. About an hour later, I added some carbs when I saw that I was back in the normal range. Life was good. That is until another hour later, my blood sugar dropped so fast that I was down at 43, sweating, and shaking as I gobbled up everything in sight, trying to save my life. Up and down, down is up, the roller coaster of diabetes. I hate days like this. Anybody else?
So sorry about that. Yes, I can surely relate. Since my diagnosis thirty years ago, I’ve had many days like that. As hard as I try, I get the roller coaster ride more often than I’d like. Within the last two weeks I’ve gotten a new pump, a Tandem T-Slim X2, along with a new to me CGM. I have noticed an improvement but I still get the wild swings which I hope will lessen as I get used to this new apparatus and system. Technology comes hard for me so it will be a slow journey. All we can do is do our best with it and try not to be hard on ourselves when things go awry. I hope tomorrow is a much better day for you.
First thanks for that. I hope tomorrow is better too.
But don’t worry much yourself. I have been using a CGM for about a year now and I love it. I don’t use a pump currently. I plan on having that conversation with my endo at my next appointment. Not sure if I really want to change over to that. Have always used pens. Am quite comfortable with giving myself shots. Not really sure what I want to do but I have heard good things about pumps and know a few people that use them. They can’t say enough about them.
Like anything with diabetes, it takes time. Take it slow and easy and just relax. Breathe. Remember, after all your years of dealing with diabetes, the goal is not perfection. Just consistent effort in one direction.
Thank you for your words of encouragement, Jup30. I wish you the best in your decision to pump or continue using pens. I avoided a pump for many years but after getting one, I would never looked back. Each person is different though. My neighbor is perfectly happy with his glucose monitor and injections.
I know this is a little off-topic from this thread. But since we are already talking about pumps versus pens here, I would like to get some people’s opinions on that subject. My endo often refers to my blood sugar as brittle diabetes because of the constant highs and lows that I have. She has mentioned several times that that would change if I was using a pump instead of pens. I love the idea of that. In the sense of blood sugar, I would love to flatline for a while. Instead of looking like a ‘W’ all the time and the constant exhaustion that those kind of swings causes my body to have. Obviously, changing to a pump will have its own learning curve. But can I really expect better results from using a pump in time? What kind of experiences have the rest of you guys had?
Pumping allowed me the ability to microdose several times a day, but when I added cgm to it, it totally changed. Because the algorithm will adjust insulin accordingly, I can be less on top of it.
I’m still much faster than my pump, but I draw flat lines most of the time and that’s hard to do without a pump constantly making corrections. Some people can, but I never could on injections.
Still it takes many months to get used to pumping.
Just switched to mobi pump which I stick to my body like a cgm and I really like it but it’s more getting used to.
On injections my best a1c was 6.7 and usually around 7.0.
But W pumping my a1c is typically 5.8 and that is without much effort.
I mean I’ve been type 1 so long I don’t really know how much effort I put in because I can’t really remember life before t1.
It’s just normal routine now. Like brushing my teeth.
I’m constantly looking for the next best thing tho
