Brian - I think the reason doctors remain skeptical about cases like yours is the undue influence of their average patient. When you statistically live in the skirts of the bell-curve, doctors question you. Given 90 days of data that you presented here, I think it’s foolish for any clinician to continue this line of questioning.
I don’t understand their continuing reluctance. A few data points in any normal distribution really do live outside the norm. It leads me to believe that doctors simply don’t want to believe that you have found a legitimate method to live well with diabetes. If your doctor accepted the reality of your BG numbers, then it only makes sense he would take a strong stand with his other patients to adopt methods that you use.
Doctors are just people, too. People tend to see what they believe, not the other way around.
So, you discovered that jpeg images won’t post but bmp pictures will. Now I see that Brian’s image, which appeared yesterday, now appears as a question mark. I wonder all of this is a Discourse anomaly or just start-up problems.
Its complicated (isn’t it always?). I ran my first half marathon in February. I had great control while running but always shot up like a rocket after long runs. After the race I started low carving again and they put me on Symlin. I have since given up symlin as I had some of the scariest lows ever on it. As long as I stick to the low carb, I am getting reasonable results. But sometimes while chasing the 3 year old and the 19 month old it is hard to give D the attention that I used to give it.
I think many of us have found that keeping an even keel through life, lowering carbs, avoiding stress, keeping some regularity in life, that all helps keep our blood sugars even. But life can be a series of curve balls and having kids is a huge change and I’m sure is keeping you constantly on your toes.
Hi Danny, nice to see this discussion coming up again.
I just wonder about your range in the pic. Is 80 to 175 mg/dl really the original definition of flat? I hope I won’t get crucified here. In my FreeStyle Libre this is my flattest day so far. Sadly the low at night ruins the day. The green range is 70 to 140 mg/dl:
Hi Danny, I just provoked a little. I love that we can celebrate our little victories here. In the Libre I have the “luxury” to set the goal range rather tight. It will and can not use the range for alarms - a big difference to the Dex but I love this peace of mind. In my sensor data of 24 days I just found this one day with a more flat appearance. On the positive side the duration of my deviations is rather short. I am still working on my seasonal adjustment, which is more complicated this year - it seems. Having complete 24 hour data will surely help me to iron that out more quickly. Will work on the next flatline…
My target range, the green stripe, ranges from 65-120 mg/dl (3.6-6.7 mmol/L). This line from last night ranges from 89-117 mg/dl (4.9-6.5 mmol/L), gave me a good night’s rest and hopefully forecasts a return to my pre-vacation control.
I’ve just returned this week from an extended tropical holiday. Since I live alone, traveling and living with others altered my usual blood glucose control behavior. I tested less and dosed using scientific wild-a$$ed-guesses. Not generally a good idea but I chose to relax my standard in the spirit of the holiday.
Although the vacation time was wonderful, I’m happy to be home and back to my routine. During my relaxed diabetes regimen, my averages slipped to the high 120’s and my BG variability increased from a sub-30 standard deviation (SD) to the high 30s. My target average is < 100 mg/dl and my target SD is < 30 mg/dl (1.7 mmol/L). I had a few 250+ excursions (13.9 mmol/L) but my overall control was acceptable for this limited time period. I did enjoy a few delicious desserts that I would have not ordinarily consumed. Has anyone ever poured heavy cream over orange sherbet?!! A layer of heavy cream freezes to the sherbet. Yumm!
I’ve been using Afrezza 4-unit cartridges for BG corrections but I don’t use them for mealtime doses. I used about three Afrezza corrections per day while on vacation and I would not want to go without this tool going forward. I’ll continue this practice but hope that my Afrezza corrections will work out to less than one per day.
Just so people don’t get the wrong idea about those of us that target flatlining as an ideal, here are a few lines from my vacation that show I still have diabetes!
Thanks, AR. I intend to make more regular flatline posts here as it keeps me motivated.
Now that Discourse has moved our “quirky” group out of the dusty basement and into into the mainstream front-room, I’ll be interested to see if the larger community might appreciate the virtues of targeting less variable and more in-target blood glucose as not only desirable but also attainable.
THANK YOU for posting the examples of “still having diabetes”! I think those are the kinds of things people who are still striving towards a flatline need to see. Otherwise it seems like flatlines are something people must achieve every day and, to the person who has never achieved a flatline in thier life, it seems as if these flatline people are in a league of their own, not everyday people.
Hi, and good morning! Hope everyone can see the below image?
Range 80-180 mg/dl…
This trend was from yesterday/this morning, I blame the Sunday lazy’s (you can’t get lazy with T1 Danny, duh!). If I would have added my normal weekday exercise, my sugars would have been spot on.
Anyways, thought I’d post a I’m not always perfect blood sugar cgm photo. Today’s a brand new day of diabetes so, I plan on getting my trend a little flatter.
Jen - Thanks for this comment. It’s exactly why I posted those mountainous BG lines. I don’t want people to see my experience as exceptional. I want readers to see a nice flatline and wonder if maybe they can do this too! I believe that many, if not most, people can achieve better control.
Now I know that my experience is not indicative of the entire diabetes community. I do know that many PWD face challenges that I don’t, such as required steroid meds or female hormonal fluctuations, to list a few challenges that complicate an already complicated process. I’m hoping to inspire people to reach for better, not perfect!
Thanks for posting this line, Danny. In light of Jen’s comments above, we do need to remain aware of the readers that drop by and see nothing but the best we can do. We are real people living in the real world, just like everyone else! It’s extremely hard to draw consistent flatlines, day in and day out. Diabetes intervenes! Perhaps this was one of the reasons that the Flatliner’s Club had such a limited readership.
Turning a fresh page and starting a new day is an important concept. We need to let go of yesterday and not let it impede a better day today! I look forward to seeing some better lines from you soon.
Thanks Terry. When I originally created the Flatliners group, one of the discussion areas was named “Rollercoasters” … this was changed when it was decided a few years back to just post everything in the main forum area (I went MIA at this time). I believe that changed the thought process of what people want to post on the main page of the group. Just my opinion…
Quick question, maybe you or @Brian_BSC can answer this. On the main page here at the Flatliners Club, I have to scroll all the way down the page to see the last response? Seems a little backwards, or am I missing something? I’d think the newest response would be at the top, not a post from May of 2014.
The old format on ning was just a bit strange. In discussions you always saw things in chronological order so you have to go to the end to see the latest. But comments for whatever reason worked the opposite, most recent were at the top. Here it is all the same chronological order. You can quickly navigate using the “topic progress” button shown below. Just click on it then click on the “bottom.”
First time posting on the new site - here’s hoping I do it correctly!
