Two nights ago I was sleeping and woke up in a pool of sweat. I thought I was having a hot flash. I was laying in bed waiting for it to stop, decided to get up and use the bathroom. I stood up and almost fell down. Something was VERY wrong. I grabbed my meter on the way to the bathroom. My sugar was 38. I have never had a sugar that low. This is the third low I have had in the middle of the night over the past 8 weeks. The others were 48 and 65. What scares me is the fact that I have NO IDEA why it happened. The scarier part for me is the fact that I am away from home on a job assignment and am alone in a hotel room. I didn’t really have simple sugars in the room except for a pint of sherbet, ate the whole thing…felt nauseous.It took 30 minutes for my sugar to reach 70. Three hours later, when I got up for work, my sugar was only 106. I know the right answer is a CGM. I have the Dexcom G6 sensor and transmitter BUT, I can’t use it. I need the receiver (my cell isn’t compatible) and have not been able to get one since April. I have been in contact with the pharmacy as well as their corporate office, my insurance carrier, and Dexcom (they suggested I buy a new cell phone). I guess I just needed to vent. I’m a little scared to sleep and I have another 6 weeks before I get to go home.
UPDATE: Thank you all for the responses, support, information and offers to help. I really appreciate it all. I HAVE A RECEIVER!!! Yay. In addition, I changed around my schedule and am driving home Thursday night after work. It’s a 5+ hour drive and I expect to get home around 2am. I made an appointment to see my endo Friday morning 9am now that office is open again. I will drive back to Virginia on Monday to complete my job assignment, hopefully with more tools in my arsenal to keep me safer. They are going to do blood work and check my A1C as well as do some other testing that insurance requires to try to start the approval process for an insulin pump. I’m not sure I’m ready for a pump but I am willing to start the process and see.
That is scary…remember at least you did wake up. But always, always have a quick fix, never go anywhere without one. I have gummies and a caramel and nut candy bar in my purse. The gummies are quicker, but the candy bar is longer lasting if I have time. Juice, gummies by the bed. Some people find it easy to have skittles or smarties with them.
What is the hold up on a receiver? Some people have just gotten a cheaper compatible phone so they can use it, you might check into it if there is going to be a long term issue with getting a receiver.
Before I had alarms, my BG level would love to drop about 3 in the morning and I would wake up a mess. I was on too high of a dose of Lantus and didn’t know any better because it was the perfect dose for the daytime. But I would go to bed with a higher BG level to compensate in case I dropped a significant amount.
So before you get your receiver and are still on the road, maybe an adjustment to your basal dose or/and go to bed at a higher level?
Yes, very scary indeed!!! I’m
a G6 user that uses a t:Slim as my receiver.
I have a G6 receiver that I don’t use. If you can PM your hotel address, I will FedEx it to you tomorrow. Do you have a USB charger that will work with it? If not, I’ll send that too.
Note: I haven’t used mine so I will try to charge it overnight so that it is ready to go … aside from setting the correct time, pairing it, and starting a session.
Another quick fix is the 9inch rolls of SweetTarts. There are 27 pieces in the roll. Count them with your finger nail. 9 pieces equals 15 grams of CHO. Find some little craft bags and they can be in your purse and other places for quick access.
Get your CGM working!
Let us know how everything works out - up or down.
Def get a new phone Asap and get your dexcom working. You need glucose tabs and juice and or glucose shots wherever you are / travel etc. I have them everywhere all over the house, at work, in my car. You also need baqusimi in case the sugar doesn’t work. I keep one by my bed and one in my purse usually.
Most of the time you will be ok when this happens, it is worse if you are on long acting insulin and can’t shut off insulin as you can on a pump. I would try having a snack of slow acting carbs and some protein/ fat maybe before you go to sleep as well. And dial back the basal a bit for a while.
@SusanS what you experienced is emotionally trying, physically taxing, and just plain scary. Low BGs are many people’s worst nightmare, mine included.
In lieu of a receiver, if you have an Android phone you can most likely use XDrip+ or Spike for IOS phones. Both programs are not officially sanctioned by Dexcom but work well with a wide variety of phones. Alternatively, on Reddit there are a few “hacked” versions of the official Dexcom app that remove the Play store restrictions so the app works with a wider variety of Android phones. Dexcom is forced to limited the number of phone Mfrs/models because they have not been tested against a FDA protocol - which doesn’t mean they wont work, just that they are not officially sanctioned by Dexcom and the FDA.
I am a terrible sleeper and am awake a good part of the night anyway. I don’t keep a lot of simple sugars around because I am not a responsible adult…I will eat them, especially chocolate. Maybe smarties because that is not something I would eat. I don’t like them. My tongue will swell with many hard candies but it is better than a coma. I am allergic to all fruit and fruit juices so I don’t ever have juice around.
Pharmacy keeps telling me its on the way but it has been 2 months. I was advised by my insurance carrier to go to the pharmacy and ask them to locate one at another store that I could drive to and pick one up. That is my Thursday project for my day off. I also have a call out to the district manager.
My husband is beside himself over this and I am worried too. I almost died in a hotel room 4.5 years ago…not from DM. I was lucky enough to have a “roommate” that found me and called 911. I was on life support for days and almost didn’t make it. The MD said another hour and I would have been gone.
Out of fear, I stopped one of my medications all together. My AM sugars have been 150-170 the past 2 mornings.
John, That is very nice of you. I am going to go to the pharmacy Thursday morning and see if I can get this resolved once and for all. If not, I will gladly pay you for the receiver. Thank you.
Thank you for the info. I have an LG stylo 4 which Dexcom says is not compatible. I will look into these options. My husband just got a new phone that is compatible, I could sync my device to his phone to alert if low and he could call me as a stop gap measure. …I think that’s possible…Or does the transmitter have to be next to the phone?
OK, if you can’t get it resolved at the pharmacy, let me know and I will send mine to you. I’d rather not accept payment, but would rather consider it a free loan for however long you need it until your receiver FINALLY arrives. I’ll pay to FedEx it to you … and then at your convenience when your own receiver finally arrives … you can ship it back to me in a cheaper/slower fashion.
It’s as simple as this: you have sensors and a transmitter … and I have a spare receiver. If my receiver can help you, I will sleep better! Plus, as a Medicare person with good supplemental insurance, I didn’t pay anything for my receiver and don’t want to be guilty of “re-selling”.
Good luck with the pharmacy, but my offer is genuine …
Alternatively, XDrip+ can be found here. Both will allow you to have followers (such as a spouse) who can monitor your sugars from afar as long as they have cell or wifi reception. My spouse has saved my butt more than once, and successfully kept me out of the ER for the last few years - a major achievement!!
Baqsimi is a glucagon which is administered through the nose as a nasal spray. It works well…really really well, and with the copay cards from the manufacturer you should be able to get 2 for about $25 with an Rx regardless of your insurance coverage. Refills for up to one year are also about $25. Baqsimi is less scary to administer for the needle phobic crown in an emergency (plus you don’t need to worry about when were to administer the shot, did i mix it up well enough, will it hurt, etc…) My spouse strongly prefers Baqsimi from a administration POV.
There are unlocked versions of the Dexcom app. I have one, but this website won’t let me upload it directly, so I put it on FileDropper to share here. In order to manually install an app though, you have to enable it in your system settings. Not knowing what version you’re running, the easiest way to find that setting is too enter the word “install” into the search bar in the settings menu, and look for something that says “install from unknown sources”. You’ll have to follow the link below, download the file, then find on your phone inside the “files” or “file explorer” app. Click on the file and tell the pop-up message to install the app file. Then you should be able to run the dexcom app without it telling you your phone is incompatible.
Thanks for the very important details @Robyn_H. I always forget to remind people about the unknown sources part. Your post is the key to making everything work!
Two ideas. First, find out from Dexcom if since you do have insurance coverage for the Dexcom6, can you pay out of pocllet for the receiver but pay the price that your insurance plan does. I had to do that when I moved and had to use Kaiser as my health plan. Kaiser in the Pacific NW didn’t cover CGM. So I paid out of pocket (I’d been a Decom CGM’er for many years when we moved - didn’t want to give it up). I still had to pay out of pocket but I paid Kaiser’s cost - about 50%. From what I learned, Kaiser in California had to cover CGM due to a lawsuit.
Second, re: hot flashes and lows. For me it was basically if I was all sweaty and generating heat from the inside out, it wa a hot flash. If not - I’d check for low bg.
Baqsimi is a new Glucagon rescue inhaler. You can inhale it into your nose to raise blood sugar in an emergency if sugar isn’t working. There are numerous things that can affect your bg and insulin needs, digestion, activity, illness, medications, alcohol etc., stress, hormones etc.- all it takes is one or two things, you need less insulin at that time for whatever reason and then Bg can drop a lot. For now I would take less basal and eat a snack before bed.
I didn’t finish reading all of these Before I post a comment but either way liquids.( not juice if u can’t)
Get your vitamins,minerals checked by a doctor tell them your tongue is swelling.And any other symptoms…
The more stories from people on here the more I have in common with others I didn’t know. Some people on this site sound like they are describing things that have happened very similar to me.
Although the biggest similarity between most of us will be blood sugar issues.?..
