-----Flatliners Club-----

Jen, I was not going to post for a while because we don’t have anything good to post:( But I have to respond to your request!

We have been running after crazy changes in basal going up and down by a factor of 2.5x in the past three weeks, due to sickness and changes in athletics (when you are sick you can’t run, ski or swim). With a LOT of work (essentially the boy gets up 10-12 times per night to dose or take glucose), we have been able to remain around 115 average, but it is exhausting. He got up to near 300 once, and has been close to 200 several times:( Nothing to boast of.


The only good things:

  • he only needs to get up about 4-5 times per night right now (much better)
  • he is able to go to school in the afternoons, because he is not as tired
  • despite worse BGs, they still are decent, but at great cost.

Yes, a marathon last weekend. This was the best BG I ever had for a race. I learned a few things prior, and it helped me out. Do you have a race planned soon? If so, let’s talk!

Had pretty good two weeks, plus I am now into starting my 2nd year of running DIY closed-loop systems (OpenAPS first, then Loop), so it’s time to post something! First, the obligatory Dex 14-day report

Over the past year, my 2-week SD has typically been in the 20-25 range, so 17 is exceptionally good for me. The (60-140) time in range is also above my typical of around 95%. Here is how a Nightscout distribution report looks for the same 2 weeks:

I like how it gives the number of readings and some interesting in-range and out-of-range statistics. Finally, for those of you who may be interested in details of how a closed-loop system (Loop) actually works in practice, here are my 3 typical days with Nightscout day-to-day reports showing bg curve, basals (light blue), boluses (dark blue bars), “carbs” (red bars), and some more daily statistics. Information overload, perhaps, but I like to occasionally take a look at these daily data-dense reports (a side note: auto-tuning can be done based on the data, thanks to the latest work by Scott and Dana (OpenAPS)). Note that the “carbs” shown include everything I need to bolus for, which includes actual carbs (around 60-70% of the number shown), as well as protein and fat.

Day A: Loop did essentially nothing overnight, which was then followed by relatively light meals during the day (for some small snacks I do not bolus at all). For a larger dinner, I did pre-bolus for fast carbs, and let the Loop high-temp for the rest of that meal automatically.

Day B: much more Loop action overnight. First it saved me from a low by low-temping from midnight to around 1:30am, and then bounced temp basals mostly up. A much larger lunch: pre-bolused too early, Loop helped correct this a bit by low-temping first, followed by high-temping for lots of relatively slow stuff I had for lunch. Dinner went pretty well.

Day C:

Lots of Loop overnight activity again - it was not quite able to low-temp enough to negate the tail end of a dinner bolus; but I stayed up working anyway, took minor (3g) carb correction after midnight, and let the Loop surf through the rest of the night. A much better large lunch than Day B, followed by several snacks and dinner through the end of the day: semi-automated surfing in action. Very happy to hit 100% TIR on days with lots of food!

Have fun with data! :wink:

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@Dragan1, this fortnight is simply amazing!

Awesome estimated a1c of 5.3%!

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Just to prove to myself that it can be done on MDI. I don’t get a lot of these, but I manage to stay between 60 and 180 most of the time.

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Dragan – I’m running out of superlative adjectives to characterize your recent 14-day numbers! I’m sure, if we knew the facts, a significant percentage of the non-diabetic population probably has poorer control than your charts show.

The first thing that jumps out at me is number of carbs you’re consuming in the days posted. For me, 100-200 grams per day is a big number. Yet it doesn’t seem to faze your charts at all. You hit 99% time in range, even with really tight upper limits of 120 mg/dL at night and 130 mg/dL during the day. At around 10 minutes per day average of hypoglycemia, I don’t think you can improve on that.

I’d like to know more about your reference to “auto-tuning” as used by Scott and Dana at OpenAPS. It sounds like the system is learning based on experience, in other words, artificial intelligence. I need to go look at the DIY APS site to see what I can discover.

Dragan, if this is what can be done with open APS, then it looks like diabetes is cured! The control you are exhibiting is unbelievable for a diabetic, or even a non diabetic. I am in awe.
You are to be congratulated!

I now realize that what I posted was somewhat misleading; the grams of carbs shown include everything I enter into the Loop, which means everything - carbs, protein, fat. I have to admit I do not count or track ingredients carefully and in most cases I do not actually know the meal composition. I’ve just learned how much to bolus, and how much to let Loop high-temp for various types of meals I like to eat. I’d say about 60-70% of those grams shown are actual carbs, so between around 70g to around 120g of actual carbs on those 3 days shown.

The algorithm they’ve come up with takes past data from Nightscout database (such as the data shown in my day-to-day charts), and computes optimum pump settings (basal rates and various ratios). We’ll give it a try and report.

No it’s not! (not even close). Last Saturday I had a Murphy’s-law combination of a tricky (although delicious) dinner, a busy and stressful evening because of some overdue work, wonky Dex sensor readings, inconsistent meter readings, and a failed insertion set on top of that :rage:

Not a flatline compared to most of you here, but the best day I’ve had in a while. I’d been trying my legs, and I really don’t think they are a good site location for me. I need to find a strategy to determine whether highs are due to sites that aren’t great or hormones or illness, because after days of non-stop highs, when I finally went to my arms, I was then low-low-low for hours until I lowered my basal rates.

I should note here that I am not eating low-carb. And I’m also taking an SGLT2 inhibitor, although strangely this morning I forgot to take it and my blood sugar was still great all day (in fact I had to reduce two of my boluses because I was nervous about going low).

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Looks like you’re keeping most of that line between 4.0 and 8.0 (72-144), a respectable trace.

Yes, I think the high peak there is 9. I spent a lot of time skirting the top of the 7 range, but did stay mostly under 8. I find right now setting the high alert to 10 mmol/L is much less stressful (I will still correct if I check the CGM and find myself at 8.1, which actually happened around 5 am this morning).

Wow, that can’t be from a T1D! Simply impressive, not even considering the bowl of ice cream!

Quick jot here for an update - and to bring the thread back too.

The past 6 weeks have been very rough, with the onset of puberty, it looks like, combined with prolonged sickness. We spend most nights up trying to help the boy and stave off huge peaks that come with neither rhyme nor reason. His TDD varies within a range of 100% to 300%, as does his basal. We are always a bit behind as his needs go up or down - it happens really fast and we don’t adapt fast enough. We are hanging by the skin of our teeth. During a CGM transmitter failure (it took 4 days to get another one), we saw a surprise peak to 450 (and several lower ones of course) that sprang up between lunch and dinner with no reason nor warning (not food related) - it is that bad. Two nights ago he needed eight Novolog injections over twelve hours of night - last night only two, tomorrow who knows.

We have not seen a 100% in-range day since Feb 9. His last numbers are the best we can do right now, and reality is probably quite a bit worse because sometimes his CGM shows too low by 8-15 points. Every point of the average is a lot of hard work right now. With all the lack of sleep I pretty much don’t have time to post on the forum.

The only good news is - during that period he had his Bar Mitzvah and did really well - with poise, maturity, and an intellectual and philosophical Dvar Torah that was deeply researched, well reasoned out, and funny. A very good job for a 12-year-old. I am proud of him for being able to make this happen in the middle of such utter chaos, and really wish that I could do more for the boy.

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With all that going on, that looks like a VERY good couple weeks! That SD of 26 is great under the circumstances, as is the 85+% in range! It helps that is a long period from early morning to noon into the that appear a lot less variable.

Mazal Tov on the Bar Mitzvah and a big yasher koach to your son on the job well done with the Dvar Torah (and the rest of the day). May you continue to shep nachas from him!

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You’re doing a great job with challenging circumstances. Diabetes is hard – there’s no way around it. You’re not afraid of the hard work and that will count for something over time. If it’s any consolation to you, your son’s 14-day report is comparable, in fact a shade better, to mine, someone not struggling with recent illness or growth hormones. I also enjoy the benefit of variable basal rates set by my hybrid AP, Loop. Don’t be too hard on yourself – this is a long game. :wink:

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I suppose I’m looking for too much - especially when you see the last 2 week comparison (with the previous two weeks). Over the last couple weeks, my average has been noticeably (to me, Dexcom confirmed) higher - from an average of 99 to an avreage of 106 – however, my time-in-range has increased to 91.7% (from 88%) - with 0.0% low - and my SD has decreased from 23 to 20. I think I should b happy, but I’m worried about the extended period on the higher end of my goal range (or higher). Maybe I’m just crazy…

Here are the charts::

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I’d go with that if I were you!

At almost 92% time-in-range, there’s not much else you need to know. Even though your average is up, your BG variability is down. I think the variability number outranks an average, especially an average that is only 7 mg/dL inflated. Take a victory lap!

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Yes, the early part of the day is what saves us:-)

These few days without his Dexcom have made us realize how much of his control is due to his CGM.

Thanks so much! I had many mixed emotions that day.