When It Works
When it works, the Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitoring System is great. Lows are being caught before they get serious and (most of the time) I correct appropriately. Highs are being treated immediately, reducing time spent above the 200 mark. Despite the moments where I wish it were wrong when I see arrows pointing north or south at the wrong time, when it works, this system really works. But no system is perfect. No system is fail proof. I was reminded of one of these “imperfections” over the weekend.
Sadly this story begins like most, with an unwanted low. I still have issues reacting to low alarms and blood glucose readings. The mental aspect of this disease is extremely trying and frustrating. I knew I ate too much food in reaction to the latest “below 55″ that appeared to be frozen in time but the question of how much still loomed. I was afraid to take insulin to recorrect my correction on the off-chance I could return to the land of the lows so I trusted my Dexcom to alert me to any approaching highs.
Lows happen. Highs happen. Since I’ve started the Dexcom I’ve been able to minimize those instances but if the system isn’t fully functional, I’m as good as blind. For whatever reason, my receiver lost its connection with my transmitter for a little less than two hours. During those two hours I proceeded to climb. And climb. And climb. And climb. By the time I woke up to an unacknowledged high alarm, my blood glucose reached 413. Gross.
A gap in the timeline. Of Epic proportions
After an epic correction dosage I returned back down to acceptable ranges in a few hours, but I remained frustrated with myself for part of the morning. I can’t blame myself for the technology snafu, but my mentality facing lows still has a lot of work ahead of itself. Is it possible I am relying on this new technology a bit too much? If this is supposed to be the future, how can I improve the reliability of this stuff without knowing what specifically caused this latest gap in communication?
Oh “gross” is such a good way to put it! But look how it came right down! Like you said, you didn’t stay up there too long and man you nailed that correction dose!
Chris: That’s exactly why I’ve been so hesitant to get a CGM, because it’s so early generation and is far from accurate or completely reliable to make it worth the cost or insurance hassles. But, perspective helps realize: it’s not about chasing the numbers (though that’s SO EASY to do), but to recognize the trends. In my trial-tests, I found this so tough to do… but necessary to at least try to keep my sanity when the particular CGM lost connection or failed for some reason. Hopefully, before long, newer generations will eliminate some of these gaps we all see now. But yes, the mental frustrations go on…
My problem isn’t so much losing connection (although that did happen one night), but hearing the alarms. Some nights they do wake me up but other nights, I apparently sleep right thru them. I did learn the hard way, never eat something you shouldn’t be eating when you are tired because you won’t hear the alarms!
I am glad that you were able to get back down. I feel “safer” being more aggressive with those highs when I have the Dexcom than I did without it.