I am in the hospital

I started having chest pains when exercising. Started feeling like I did when needing stents 11 yrs ago. I am quite simply terrified. Went to ER this morning and now checked into hospital. So far heart enzymes are normal, but I am afraid it is an artery problem.
They will do a stress test in the morning. My EKG has changed a bit.

I started using a G6 CGM yesterday for the first time and it is giving me incorrect readings. I didn’t calibrate it at the beginning but did when the readings were way off. I don’t know how to make it read more correctly. Any ideas? It is often off by 40+ points which doesn’t do me any good. My G5 worked fairly well.

I turned 70 yesterday and in 1959 when first dx, I didn’t think I would live until I was anywhere near 70, but I so don’t want to die now. I work so damn hard trying to stay alive.

It has been a bad week, because my husband’s heart started beating very slowly. The cardiologist thinks his is an electrical problem which can be fixed. We are very happy about that. I hope that I can be helped too.

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Marilyn6,
My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your husband. You are an inspiration to many here, especially us newbies! May your issue be found to be minor like your husbands and easily treatable. My sincerest blessings for many more years of not only beating the odds but living a healthy and happy life to the full!
John

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Thanks so much John, your words touch me deeply.

Marilyn

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I am very sorry to hear about that. Please let us know what you find out.

:pray:

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My thoughts and prayers are with you. I know it is scary. Heart docs are the best.

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FIngers crossed that you will be okay. I hope for a speedy and simple solution to it all!

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Marilyn, you are going to outlive us all!!! Just keep the faith. You are much better off in the hospital where they can quickly react to any changing condition. Keep us posted as we are all eager to hear about your speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with you.

The G6 CGM for us lean individuals tend to have pretty wild swings for the first 24 hours so I don’t calibrate even if it is off by 70+ points as it settles back to normal within 12-24 hours. I have always found that calibrating Dexcom messes with the algorithm and you end up spending days chasing perfection. So for the first 24hours, I just ignore the readings as they tend to be sky-high, but not always. Sometimes they are dead nuts on and sometimes low so for the first 24 hours I rely on finger sticks before MDI and after that all is good.

Don’t forget that stress and strange foods mess with our BG as well and you are dealing with both these issues in the hospital. Get some good rest and think good thoughts since the mind and the body work in tandem. Of course you know all this but under stress we sometimes forget the basics.

Get well soon and don’t you dare to ever, ever give up. We are all counting on you.

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Marilyn, I’m sorry to read this. You will get through this! If you know any mindfulness exercises like breathing techniques, now is the time to use them. Your ability to relax, to the extent you can, will help your body deal with this.

Good luck with the stress test tomorrow. I hope they can identify what’s going on with you, quickly develop a treatment plan and then get you back home soon.

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Good to know about the G6. I hope that it will become a good device for me eventually. The stress we have been under the last couple of weeks has really been messing up my glucose levels. It has just been too much.

I hate to tell you but the China device is not reading LDL correctly for us. We just got hospital readings and my LDL here was much higher than at home. I sure wish I could take a statin. My LDL was 101 this morning although I had eaten breakfast. At home it was around 53.

I am trying to stay calm, The medical folks are very nice and no one at all is bugging me about how much or how often I give insulin. Everybody is afraid of Covid.

Thanks so much for your kind words cj.

Marilyn

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Sending good thoughts, hugs and prays for your swift and complete recovery.

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Thanks Terry, I repeat over and over that I am happy, healthy, strong and calm. Sometimes I believe it and sometimes not. I am trying to ignore my doubting mind. I am worried that my arteries are clogged. Getting more stents is risky, so I am trying to stay in the present and not worry. . I will post again after the stress test.

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LDL like BG changes moment by moment. The near exact 12 hour rule between food and test makes a huge difference, even 1 hour either way. It would be great if you could do one at the hospital at the same time they do yours. I did mine a few times within 5 minutes of blood draw and they were quite close.

Focus on some mindless activity that you have really enjoyed in the past. Take a long walk in your mind, a ride or something that will help you relax and bring down your heart rate. The last thing you need now is to worry yourself sick. And of course keep in touch with us as long as the hospital allows you to have a phone.

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I am rather an intense person who analyzes everything a bit too much. I brought a fairly mindless book and will try to read if I can.

Here they are leaving me alone and bringing me good food. It is quite nice. When I am all alone in my room I can remove my mask. Living in a small college town has it’s perks. I will have to go to a much larger hospital if I need stents.

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Happy belated birthday, Marilyn! What a tribute you are to the longevity of those with type 1 diabetes!

I was so sorry to read that you are having chest pains! I echo the sentiments of others in finding something mindless to keep your mind at ease, as well as the value you bring to our community!

I enjoy word search puzzles and regular puzzles too.

Here are a few links for online puzzles you might enjoy:

My good thoughts, prayers, and lots of hugs are with and for you and your husband!

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What a thoughtful person you are Tapestry. Thank you so much.

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Marilyn6,

I am sending prayers for you. I think you are going to beat whatever this temporary obstacle is occurring. You are so knowledgeable about all things health and very kind. Will be monitoring your recovery through your posts.
Get well. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

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Prayers and Hugs @Marilyn6 I hope you are okay.

Is your HDL at least high? That is quite protective.

The first 12 maybe up to 24 hours and a new sensor for me can vary quite a lot. Once it was off 70 points about 12 hours later. I had put on a new one the evening before and didn’t calibrate it at all. I turned on my phone the next morning and it read 177 and I quickly gave myself a correction bolus and then of course it dawned on me a new sensor, uh I better do a finger check and I was 109…so I had to eat something. I was half awake and not thinking!

Two things, first I calibrate mine as much as it needs to be to get it to be within 5 points. On a new sensor I usually do a calibration pretty quickly and then I am doing another one about 2-4 hours later. But it has an algorithm it wants to follow so it pretty much will be off somewhat again 12 hours later. By at around 12 hours, I will usually do a another calibration and then a fine tuning one a few hours later. Those fine tuning calibrations I always do when I am around 85-105.

If I have to, I will do a double calibration to make it take a number. That just means put in your calibration number, then immediately put in the same number again. It will take that number as gold. It doesn’t do any good to double calibrate it early (unless you just want too lol) as it is adjusting to what it thinks is a right number. But I will do whatever it takes to pull it into line by 12-24 hours.

And then once I get past the humps and hurdles of the first 12-24 hours it toes the line within my 5 points I like. I rarely have to calibrate it again until I do a restart.

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Sorry to hear of your incident, but hoping for the best.

Like yourself, I assumed I would die young, or at least sooner than others, so much of my regimen and lifestyle has been focused on heart health. In my family, the men often die early from heart disease, adding to the concern.

Although I can cry out of empathy and concern for others, or tear from beauty, I never cry for myself, excepting once. I was watching medical programming, one station literally had a whole morning of doctor-oriented, CME video, that ran for years, and I remember a doctor saying how in prior years the average life expectancy of a Type 1 was 48. I was floored, sobbing uncontrollably. I was 30 at the time, but had by then become very fit and semi-vegetarian. Our care is so much better now.

So far, at 60, I’ve been lucky, and hoping it keeps going, but I know, no matter how much I’ve steeled myself, I will be humbled.

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Sharing my concern and I’m sending healing prayers/thoughts your way @Marilyn6—heart stuff is scary! Also sharing this handy G6 tip: a lot of us find that “pre-soaking” the sensor does wonders for starting off with accurate readings. Basically you just insert the new sensor 12-24 hrs before ending the current session, then move the transmitter over and start your new session. I usually find it comes out of the warm-up period a bit on the high side, so I do a calibration and it’s fine after that. Doesn’t seem to have been an issue with the G5, but those required that double-calibration thing out of warm-up and you had to calibrate beyond that as well. You CAN run the G6 in the mode that requires regular calibration if you want to try that. But like I say, I generally find the pre-soak thing eliminates most problems.

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I didn’t get a lot of sleep partly because of my new G6. It buzzed me awake in the early morning with a 65 glucose reading. I finger tested to make sure and it was correct. I ate a couple of glucose tabs and went back to sleep. At 4:00 am it buzzed me awake again with a 67 reading. I quickly started eating a glucose tab, but also forced myself to do a fingerstick which read 110. Now why did the G6 do that?? I quickly took a unit of insulin and tried to recalibrate my machine, but it wouldn’t take it. It told me to try to recalibrate 20 minutes later. So 20 minutes later, I finger tested again and tried to recalibrate and again was told to try to recalibrate about 20 minutes later. I had to go to sleep. This morning I started to recalibrate but was delighted to see a 68 reading. I finger tested and I was actually 78. I was relieved.

The G5, which I almost always double calibrated, never failed to accept my calibrations. The first night I used the G6 if woke me up with a false reading of 65. I was not compressing the sensor. I sure hope this starts reading correctly.

I will have a nuclear stress test at 10:00. Over a year ago when running the stress test my blood pressure dropped to 50/00, so even though I ride my exercise bike daily for 7-10 miles, I can’t run the stress test. Now that my chest hurts I am scared to run it.

I did receive my first a1c in over a year. It was 5.1 My levels have been rather crazy the last two weeks for several reasons, so I was afraid it might be higher.

Sometimes my diabetes is easy to live with and sometimes it is a bear. It has been a bear lately. It certainly can be a lot of work. I wonder if life with a pump would be any easier.

Thanks for all of the wonderful good wishes and nice words. You don’t know how much I appreciate them.

Marilyn

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