I have used both pumps and cgm’s and am currently using the dexcom g6 and the tslim. All I’ve ever gotten from my endocrinologists is bad advice, or mostly bad advice, and since I am a scientist and an engineer, I just take care of myself. I can go days without eating if I am not working and so I did, several times, to get my background insulin dialed in. With the cgm, you can see what your bs is doing all the time, so you can see patterns where you need more or less insulin because your bs is going up or down, assuming you hadn’t eaten anything to cause it, and its at those times that you need to program your pump to give you more or less insulin. Don’t be afraid to take care of yourself, just do it with small adjustments and watch and see if it works or not, then make more small adjustments. You will have to do this for the rest of your life so its better that you can do it without relying on your doctor to tell you its ok. Just make small adjustments, and be especially careful of taking too much at night when your sleeping, thats the dangerous time! Good luck, you can do this!
That’s what i’m finding. I never realized I was using that much insulin until the endo put me on his recommendations and I was riding way higher than I was before I switched. But, I’ve also had a problem with the lows throughout the entire time I’ve had diabetes. So, there’s just some more tinkering to be done. I’ve never trusted anyone else, really, to control how much insulin and how much food I take in and all that. So, it’s a bit of a balancing act and giving up some control so I don’t have any dangerous lows. So far I haven’t really in quite some time. I get my CGM soon. That’s going to be a nice addition. Thank you for the tips. It’s great information to have and I very much appreciate it!
I fully agree with the need to read the pumping insulin book. Me personally, I would use pump in manual mode for about 6 months before using automated control tied to CGM. Also, you really need to learn to adjust pump settings on your own. The doctors do their best, but they don’t really know all that is going on in your life that cause fluctuations in your BG levels.
When my 670 pump failed it took a week to get a replacement. That week was hell so I bought a Libre Freestyle 14-day with my own money to serve as a backup CGM. The cost is minimal and they are available at your local pharmacy.
@Jakewriter1, I’d get a new doctor in a heartbeat if mine treated me the way yours is treating you. The t:slim X2 has the ability to store multiple profiles so the first thing I would do is duplicate the profile you have (call the new one Mine) and start making small adjustments. You can change profiles in just a few seconds so your doctor has his recommendations and you will have yours to compare.
Yes, when your CGM works for you it provides what can be the most helpful insight into living with your diabetes. It can allow you to literally connect the dots.
However, there is one bit of caution I’d urge. Build up your trust gradually over time in every CGM sensor you use. With earlier versions of CGM you were required to do this because back then CGM required calibration. But just because Dexcom no longer requires calibration you should still not trust it blindly.
Even Dexcom CGM is not capable of universal perfection. If/when it works well for you, that’s fantastic! But the only way you can know whether or not your CGM is fantastic is by sanity checking its results. Always verify your CGM results against your glucometer over time.
Jake, call your endo every day and leave this message, or re-worded, from your own post above:
“I know how to change settings, but I’m not supposed to change them before consulting you. Since I can’t reach you, I’m quite ill most of the time because you did not get the dosage correct and you won’t return my calls for help.”