Last night DEX woke me at 2:25am DEX said 65 & when I tested meter said 64. So I took enough glucose to go up to 91, waited a little to see DEX was rising then back to sleep. At 4:45am DEX woke me again it said 65 but meter said 84, so I corrected to take me up to 104. When I woke up at 8:45am, meter was 154 DEX said 117, so I calibrated & took a correction but BG stayed high until 1pm.
What would you have done? Calibrated at 4:45am, or not corrected with glucose. I guess the later high BG was a rebound. DEX showed steady climb to 117 not sure why the meter was so much higher.
How does one avoid the annoying scenario where DEX alarms at the low BG threshold then goes slightly above then down under again so it alarms again! Sometimes in less than 5 minutes!
I started the 2nd 7 days for this sensor on Friday, so I hope it will stay accurate for a few days longer.
This is the start of my 3rd week so I am still new at this.
Thanks for any tips & lessons learned from experience.
There are always days that just don't work right. No matter how hard you try. Keep in mind that meters are at time inaccurate too. There are just too many factors to take into account to make quick decisions all the time. For example, if you had been sleeping on the Dex sensor before the 154/117 readings, the compression of your skin at the sensor location can make the Dex read low. Not that you should not do that, but keep it in mind for future reference.
Just keep trying and don't fret the days that don't seem quite right. It's the long term that matters most in Diabetes care.
Hi, Annabella. Here is one possibility for your issues. One thing that the sensors can be a bit sensitive to is pressure. Nobody likes to hear it, but there are two ways it can get you and the worst scenario is at night. If you are laying on your sensor, putting pressure on it, especially if it is uneven pressure, that CAN result in inaccurate readings. The WORST thing that you can do is recalibrate when that happens, because then you throw the whole thing off when you are NOT laying directly on it. At one point, I bought a little golf game at the dollar store so I could get a plastic piece from it to surround the sensor. More recently, I started taping my sensors down with pressure - both vertically and horizontally and that seems to have helped. That may not do the trick for everyone. The best advice is to not place the sensor where you will have pressure when you are sitting or laying down, but good luck with that one. It's not always possible.
I probably would have turned off the LOW alarm after the first one and having taken glucose tablets to raise my blood sugar. This is because the interstitial fluid takes far more time to recover from a low and the likelihood of getting a false alarm soon after the first one is increased. Also, the alarm will go off @ 55 if I am "truly" drifting low again regardless if the standard LOW alarm is off.
If I had been running on the low side and/or exercised more than normal that day, I would have also considered a lower temporary basal rate until morning.
I would not have taken glucose tablets to raise myself from 83 to 104. I would have been satisfied that the previous glucose had raised me from 64 to 83 after two hours.
I think you guys are right. I probably was sleeping on the sensor. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible for me to pick sites where this wont happen, stomach is used for infusion sets & I'm small so there isn't much room.
Last night I woke at 4am, no alarms just woke up. Meter said 115, but when I looked at Dex it said Low 55, & the trend graph showed it had stopped receiving readings at about 2am & the dreaded ??? were present. I didn't know what to do & as it was the middle of the night I just left things. When I woke this morning DEX was receiving readings beautifully since a little after 4am! and DEX & meter readings were spot on. I'm going to ring DEXCOM soon & discuss this.
I have found a lot of variability in sensor location and false low warnings from pressure during sleep. This last sensor I put a little lower on my rear (accidentally)--I tend to prefer lower back or upper buttock. I've been getting tons of false low readings, especially at night but occasionally while seated. It is definitely frustrating!
I've only been using a Dexcom since November and I still haven't found the perfect location. I don't want to use my abdomen since I often sleep on my stomach. Scared to try upper arms as my arms are pretty scrawny and I also sleep with one arm or the other under my pillow. Lower back/upper butt is best so far but when it's a bit too low or too much toward the back then it fusses. Blah!
