I am dieting for my Cardiologist. So, when I visited my Endo, she recorded my A1C as 5.9. It has never been so low. I am retired and I can hold my sugars around 122 or 112 most of the time. That’s why the A1C is low. The Endo was afraid that I was crashing at night.
She had her nurse put a Libre Sensor on the back of my right arm. I am to go back in a week and get it removed. I don’t think I am crashing at night, but I cannot prove it. This sensor will give us a statistical picture of what is happening.
One thing to beware of with the Freestyle Libre is that if you lie on the sensor, it can appear that you are having a low even if you are not. I suspect that is what happened when my endo used the Pro model (the one blinded to the patient) with me for a couple of weeks last winter. It showed that one night I was really low (like around BG 40) for a couple of hours. Thankfully, my endo didn’t get too excited about it.
But now that I have my own Freestyle Libre and can check with a blood glucose test whenever I see a “low” on the Libre, I’ve noticed that much of the time when the Libre shows a low of about 56, a blood test will often show my BG at around 70. Once it showed in the 60s and I was actually about 90. I wake up in the night often enough to catch these things and test.
If your endo gave you any literature about the Freestyle Libre Pro he is likely using, read it. The information my endo gave me stated that 40% of the time when the Libre showed a reading below 60 (I think the number was), the actual BG was over 80. The Libre makes lows look lower than they are. (That’s one reason the FDA does not approve “treating” for numbers under 70 on the Libre without confirming with a fingerstick test.) And I suspect a lot of that error rate was due to people lying on their sensors. Anyway, read the lit is you have any. I didn’t keep mine, so can’t go back and check if I’m remembering the details correctly.
My primary gave me a shot of fast acting and long acting steroid for a non diabetic purpose. Now at 11pm, I am in a struggle to control my numbers. I am 229 so I used six units of Humalog and then, my numbers went up. Nightmare. This will skew my numbers for this evening. I used more insulin. And so it goes…
I have used 20 units of humalog and I am finally down to 175. The steroid really sent me for a loop. Not down yet, but I am watching “Killing Eve” and tending my numbers.
Okay. I got through the steroid storm. I am back to normal. That was a one time thing.
I got the results from the Libre Pro sensor my Endo placed on my right shoulder. Results are from 10am Wed April 18 to 9:30am Fri April 27. Ten days.
There are three times last week, when, while I was sleeping, my BG descended below 70, without my being aware of it. 2am, 3am and 6am were when it happened. Dawn Phenomenon deceived me into thinking all is well by producing a reasonable number in the morning.
My Endo thought, because I am dieting to lose weight for my Cardiologist, that I should lower the slow acting Tresiba to 12 units instead of 14. Maybe that would stop pushing my numbers low at night.
I also have a theory about “soft” carbs and “hard” carbs. Soft carbs are deceptive because you crash quickly on them. Fruits like honey dew melon are soft carbs. Rice is a good example of a hard carb. Maybe aroung midnight I ought to nibble something hard, or a glucose tablet, say, to avoid these crashes.
Good news is my average BG is 100, which is why my A1C was 5.9 last time.
I am looking at the report if you have any questions.
