I just started with my Medtronic CGM two weeks ago and since then neither my husband or I have gotten an uninteruptted night’s sleep. My pump is constantly buzzing or beeping. I’m sleeping through it but he isn’t and wakes me up. Does anyone know why it is constantly telling me to check my BG even though I may have just checked it? It does that at night too.
Hey! Welcome to the CGM club. Is the pump asking for a calibration? It may be losing the connection with the sensor and requiring a check. Is it also sending you an alarm for high or low blodd sugar or just asking for a check?
Grasshopper, I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble with your new device. When I started the Minimed CGM I also had some long nights, but don’t fret it will get better. First off, your Minimed pump is asking you to “check BG” to calibrate the CGM to your BG. The CGM will use this value to determine what reading to display on you pump. You will want to calibrate your CGM when your bloodsugar is stable. My CGM instructor recomended to calibrate before; as in before bolusing, before eating, before exercising, and before sleeping. Good calibrations are key to success with Minimeds CGM.
When first starting off a new sensor, after you “link to a new sensor” it will be approximately 2 hours before your first calibration. When your pump prompts you to “check BG” clear the alert and test. Your pump will ask you if you want to calibrate with this reading and of course you choose yes. Your next calibration will be 6 hours later (I believe). One method is to try to time these insertion and calibrations of the CGM to not happen when you will be sleeping. The other method, that I prefer is, 15 minutes or more after your first calibration you can test and use the reading to calibrate the CGM again. This will take the place of the second calibration that is needed 6 hours later. After this second, quick calibration (and every subsequent one) you will have a 12 hour before the next calibration is required.
I usually calibrate 4 times a day before meals when my BG is stable and before bed and get reliable readings from my CGM. If I calibrate at 10 p.m. and go to bed at 11 p.m. I know I will have untill 10 a.m. before I must calibrate again.
Also, if you hit esc on your pump 3 times it will bring up the “sensor status” screen. The top line will tell you when your next calibration is needed by. This can help you plan ahead and calibrate when your BG is stable. And, under the sensor menu --> edit setting --> there is a calibration reminder (and repeat). They will set your pump off to remind you to calibrate. If you are upset with all the alarms these can be turned off as well.
Hopefully these tips will allow you and your husband a more restfull night. I have been woken up to a nudge to the ribs or a kick to the shins more than once because my CGM has woken up my wife.
Stick with the CGM as they can be quite beneficial once you figure out how they work and how your body works with them. Hope this helped. Let me know how good or bad your new CGM is working for you.
That is a better answer than mine…As you can tell I do not wear mine as often as I would like. Thanks for the information Capin101.
Thanks Jonny. You also make a good point about the CGM losing connection. If the CGM loses its wireless connection to your pump for 40 minutes you will have to re-start you CGM. This can be done by the “link to sensor” menu. This can lead to unwanted pump alerts in the middle of the night. If you are experiencing a lost senor you may be sleeping on the CGM and therefore interrupting its signal. I have luckily not experienced these. If you are getting these errors I would recomend that you plan ahead on where you will put the CGM based on how you often sleep and where would be a good place to put the pump.
one simple thing that we figured out is we had two cordless phones in the bedroom one on each night stand. They were causing inteference. the sensor works on RF
When your monitor alerts, what does it tell you? As others have mentioned, it could be calibration time, or weak or lost sensor, or BG above or below targets. For me, it’s most often above or below target, but I have my target high set at 120, because I’m low-carbing and trying for very tight control. Most people set theirs higher than that – anywhere from 140 - 200. I also have my low alarm set at 60, because through experience I found that it tends to read lower than I actually am in the low range, and I was constantly getting awakened when I had it set to 70. If the sensor reads 55, I’m probably at 75 or so on the meter.
Do you know how to set your high and low limits? Go to Sensor, activate, then go to Sensor Setup, activate and go to Review Settings to find out where your high and low limits are. If you want to change them, escape Review, and go to Edit Settings, and there will be a line that says High Glucose, and a line that says Low Glucose. And you can change them from there.
Good luck!
I think everyone has pretty much covered the potential solutions. The only thing I didn’t see that’s worth mentioning is that at night I find I have to keep my sensor and pump VERY CLOSE TOGETHER. Somehow it can work through walls, but my sheets prove challenging… Regardless, I’m a stomach sleeper so I wear my cgm in my lower back (top of tush) area and then clip my pump to the back of my pj bottoms when I go to bed. Just look for a way to have them REALLY close and that might help. Good Luck!!
Thanks so much everyone. I will take the advice and hope to have better results. Last night I just silenced the alerts, but I know that defeats the whole purpose of the CGM. I’m sure that I will get better as time passes, I was just so frustrated I had to vent. Again, thanks.
The cgm should only give you a “Meter BG” message once every 12 hours, if you are seeing this particular message more frequently than every 12 hours your transmitter is likely losing it’s signal to the pump and you are having a lost connection and possibly and random restart error. Our MM did this a lot, and it was extremely frustrating. If you don’t enter a meter glucose number, the MM cgms stops working and you will get not warning alarms for high or low blood sugars.
If you continue getting the Meter BG message more than once every 12 hours, I’d call MM and have them replace the transmitter.