I’ve just started with a Dexcom G5 CGM on Saturday. I mostly got it to monitor my glucose during exercise (I do a fair bit of it.) I love it! Well, I did until last night. I went out for dinner, was in the high 200s at bedtime, covered with Humalog. Around midnight, I get woken by my receiver, my iPhone, and my smart watch all buzzing and beeping every five minutes. Ate a fruit snack. About three cycles later, with the cgm insisting I was in the low 40s, I checked my meter. Mid 50s. Close enough, though less scary, and figured I was on the way up. Few more cycles of buzzing and beeping. To appease my wife, I took another fruit snack. Couple cycles later, I’m rising fast. Hour later, I start getting high alerts. Around 2 or 3 in the morning, I shut the receivers down. Morning came awfully quick, but at least I got a few hours of rest.
I’m still getting used to it, and I realize that some of this is individual, but any advice (besides never eating more than I should) on living with a cgm so that you get the benefit of managing highs and lows better… But without the torture?
Good thing it alerted you at 50. If you don’t want to be alerted to highs, you can raise the level of the high alert or you can shut that alert off. I don’t do tha because I want to be in range as much as possible, but that is an option.
I second @Jim26 comment. Increase your high alarm to mitigate alarm fatigue. You have to deal with the lows, however. The longer answer is to reduce your variability.
I change my alert levels during the day to suit what I’m doing.
At night, I turn my low alert up a bit higher, so I’m warned sooner. Being warned sooner means that I need to do less to correct it, have less of a chance of over-correcting, and can get back to sleep sooner.
I turn the high alert all the way up to 200 at night.
You can also go under “Advanced” and tell it how long you would like it to “Snooze” between alerts once you’ve answered the acknowledged the alert once. I set it for only 15 minutes for lows, but up to an hour for highs as it can take quite awhile for insulin to start working.
A couple of points. I have a G4 with 505 SW - same as the G5, but no link to an iPhone. Since I don’t have an iPhone …
Once low, the interstitial fluid will lag behind your BG, sometimes significantly. If I have treated for the low, I will always finger-stick test before taking additional fast-acting carbs. It is not uncommon for me to see the CGM alarming for “LOW 55” some 40 minutes after taking the fast-acting carbs.
I have my low setting @ 60 mg/dl. If I run below that and treat “adequately”, I will turn off the alarm and rely on the default alarm @ 55, because the readings are almost always lower than the finger-stick meter.
If I am running consistently and repeatedly low, I will reduce my basal rate, especially if I have been doing “a fair bit of it”. Sometimes, I will turn the pump off for 15 minutes - 1 hour to allow my BG to rise, then I will run @ a reduced rate for the rest of the evening.
I will raise the high alarm if I expect my BG to run high for deliberate reasons, knowing that I will act quickly to bring it back down.
I’m so glad to learn this happens to others! The first couple of times I panicked and over-corrected but now I just do a fingerstick and relax while the CGM catches up.
It’s a PITA when this happens. I wish I could turn off the default alarm. Since I can’t, I go back to a light sleep holding the CGM in my hand, so I can quickly silence the alarm.
@BeastOfGevaudan, I have my High Snooze set to 60 minutes and my Low Snooze @ 30. Thanks for the reminder though. I think because I am half asleep, I never think about increasing the Low Snooze time when I am actually in the 80s, but the CGM thinks I am @ 50.
Now imagine 3 PWD sleeping in the same room, all with CGMs, after a fair evening of eating and drinking. every 30mins some CGM was going off.
happened to me last weekend, preparing for Dcamp. Oh the joys of technology…
Alarms I think are one of the big reasons people stop using a CGM. It is just getting the alerts set for you and time of day. Yes, there are nights I turn off the high because I know it might keep me and my husband up.
I also have my “advance” setting for highs at 90 minutes and my low at 60 minutes. My low threshold is set at 80 mainly because I’m in a clinical trial that requires you to report anything under 70 so that keeps me out of more logging for the trial. But some fine tuning and practice, I think you will find it super helpful. It has been huge with basal, carb ratio and my pre-bolus timing. Good luck and hang in there!
Thank you all for your suggestions and support.
I hadn’t understood under advanced settings the “Repeat” minutes setting. I did not get at first this actually means “DON’T repeat” for x number of minutes. I figured this was to make it beep even more often.
Anyway, I had a better night last night, though I think it was smarter eating more than my settings.
I do think my CGM is more sensitive to lows than my meter. It gave me an urgent alarm during a hard run yesterday, though I felt as fine as I was going to feel under the circumstances, and I was 75 by meter. Perhaps its my calibration. I learned from this forum that calibration is best when the reading is stable (i.e. right arrow). I started paying more attention to that. Hopefully, it will improve.
And less is better when it comes to calibrating. Unless there is a very good reason (Dexcom number seems significantly wonky) I have my daughter calibrate only twice daily and only when the arrow is horizontal. To tell you the truth, sometimes she calibrates only once a day. Our experience has been the fewer the calibrations, the better the accuracy.
Mine drives me crazy alot of the time but I really need it. Today alone it saved me a few x a long with my symptoms. I often swear at it telling it to stfu… lol. I usually sleep through pump and dex alarms for a while at least once I’m actually asleep… but it’s always there finally telling me right when I want to go to sleep that bg is yet again going high or low. My poor kitty who recently passed was very tolerant of it but I hope it wasn’t too much of a burden on him. I can’t imagine being in a relationship again and any person tolertating it…
Hi there. My son has been using Dexcom for seven years. I remember clearly wanting to throw the Seven Plus out the window for all the beeping it did at night (and it was far less accurate so much of the beeping was indeed for nothing).
Over the years, we got into a groove and I got used to the alerts at night. However, I’ve experienced a beneficial change since using the G5.
We don’t use the receiver anymore - just our phones. I turn my phone to “Do Not Disturb” when I go to bed, and Caleb’s is on vibrate only, so there are no audible alerts at night. I wake up naturally overnight - after all these years of checking on bgs, I’m in a routine. Unless there was an unusual meal or level of activity, this is always enough and I don’t get unnaturally interrupted. However, if I’m uncomfortable about where his bgs might be headed, I’ll set an alarm or put my phone to vibrate which is enough to wake me.
Just a thought. It sounds like you are getting into a groove and understanding how to use the settings to fit your needs. Good luck!
I’m really bad about my CGM alarms at night. Last night I was low from 2:00 till 4:00 and one alarm woke me up, but otherwise I just slept through it without treating. Finally dawn phenomenon made my blood sugar rise two hours after the low started, but it’s still not good!
meee, sorry about your cat. I’m sure he was glad to just go back to sleep. It amazes me how supportive family can be about the problem. My wife is so psyched about being able to check on me on her phone (on the Dexcom Share app). She says it give her so much comfort. Then again, she slept through the low alarm last night - but it really went perfectly. I really was low. I treated it, and no more alarms. Back to sleep. I wish it was always this good.
Thanks Tony, I do feel it was too much for him being ill, but he was an angel. That is great your wife is so into it. I think most people do not want to be woken up constantly by beeping or vibrations, I know I don’t- most of the time I do sleep through it until symptoms wake me though.
That is good your wife finds comfort in seeing your data. I think if my wife had access it would completely wig her out. I probably have more phone calls and texts than I could deal with. Maybe there would be an adjustment period or some rules in place as to when you check on me or just let me role with it?
My husband also loves being able to check my numbers on his phone. I work a regular 9-5 desk job, but he puts in long hours at his employment so I’m always home alone for several hours when I get off work, and that absolutely terrified him! We both have android phones, but he insisted on buying me a new ipod so we could use the app. It never fails, every time I get a low notification, it seems like a split second later I’m getting a text from him, “Are you eating? Eat! Eat!” Haha.
most of the time I do sleep through it until symptoms wake me though.