Dexcom CGM and I.

Just 'secured' my Dexcom continuous glucose monitoring sensor in place with Bear Brand masking tape. My set's positioned, this time, on my left upper abdomen. I alternate between left and right. My aim to to get 14 days' use from one 'sensor set'. I've been CGM-ing now for nearly a year. (Just in case you didn't know, sensors read interstitial blood glucose and they're injected just under the skin.)

Ideally I'd change sets when a session expires at 7 days cos the sticking tape starts to lift. However, these mothers cost $80 AUD each, non-refundable on NDSS - National Diabetes Supply Scheme - or medical insurance. (Given how indispensable these sets are, that's a pisser.)

I've been securing my sets with expensive Tegaderm skin preparation 'ovals', cutting two of these these into halves to secure the edges of the lifting tape which is supposed to hold the set in place. (This is difficult to describe, btw, given it's a 'specialist' topic.) But while Tegaderm sticks valiantly to skin it doesn't get much of a grip on the tape. Consequently the tape pops out from under the Tegaderm while I'm showering meaning I need a new set. I've been managing about ten days per set using Tegaderm to secure sets, fewer if I go swimming, which I rarely do.

Now I'm giving the cheaper masking tape a go. I've had a trial piece stuck on my sensitive inner forearm for the past 24 hours to see how it stood up to the rigours of domestic life and whether it caused skin irritation. Passed both tests. Had to give it quite a rip to remove it too. That bodes well.

Continuous glucose monitoring is expensive. However, I budget for it because, for me, it's brilliant. It has greatly reduced my hypo anxiety. Prior to CGM I would do finger prick blood glucose checks about ten times a day, including during the night. Couldn't even consider sleep unless my BG was above 6mmol. (When I was on injections, prior to insulin pumping, I couldn't settle if my BG was under 8mmol, and even then I'd wake every hour to check. That was bad.)

The CGM alarms if my BG drops below 5mmol. This wakes me given I'm a light sleeper, probably due to 33 years of living the diabetic dream.

Hypo anxiety has also disappeared from my teaching life. I'm now totally focused on what I'm supposed to be doing in class, rather than teaching in a state of subliminal panic, which tended to raise my BG but didn't stop me second-guessing whether or not I was hypo.

The knowledge that the CGM will alarm if my BG drops below 5mmol, or if it's dropping too quickly or if it's too high, has allowed me to live more normally, albeit with two different sets injected and plastered on my belly. Not a good look but at my age in my circumstances I'm past caring.

Meanwhile I hope that with Bear Brand masking tape in place I can get another seven days out of this sensor.

PostScript.

I wrote the above post pre-shower. The Bear Brand masking tape came off in the first wash. Ha ha.

Living the dream. D-blog.

Think I blew my HbA1c result. 

I've written about this before, but every three months or so I have this blood test.  It measures how well I've controlled my hard-to-control diabetes for the past 12 weeks.

As I've said, I exercise, diet and adjust insulin doses accordingly to try to achieve the impossible - an HbA1c of 6, or under.  Don't think it's ever happened.  Since I've been pumping insulin it's been around the 7.5 mark.  Still, better than it was on MDI - multiple daily injections.

And there are all those variables - stress - thanks for losing the passports, Al - heat, cold, mood, and the WTF x-factor.  Beats me if I know what it is.

My last blog was about my tendency to catch whatever's thrown my way infection wise.  (If only I'd had such skill on the basketball court - with the ball, but.)

So this is me the other night, perched on the edge of my bed, first at about 1 am.  Checked blood glucose.  15.  Seemed to match the way I was feeling: sore throat, runny nose, headache.  Bolused it down.  That is, I entered 15 into my insulin pump, which calculated the dose of insulin needed to bring the blood sugar back to the normal range.  Pressed GO.  That done, had a couple of paracetamol and fell back onto my pillow.

2 am. Same deal.  Except now my BG was 15.5.  Jeeze, I'm really sick, I thought, bolusing again.

4 am.  I woke with a sore tummy and aching calves, for some unknown reason.  And thirst. And razor blades in the back of my throat.  Checked my BG:  20.5.  Fark.  Bolused again; about 4 units of insulin.

Drank some more water to quell raging thirst.  Visited the loo.  Whilst enthroned, feeling sick and knowing this high BG was going to throw out my upcoming HbA1c - yes, I actually thought about that at 4 in the morning (another stressor) - I thought to check my 'set' - the sticky patch where the cannula is inserted into me.

Well, where it should have been inserted.  The patch was secure on my hip, but the little bit of tube had somehow popped out.  I had no idea how long I'd been squirting insulin onto my nightie instead of under my skin.

So.  Changed the set.  Bolused 4.3 units, despite my pump telling me I already had this much 'insulin on board'.  Cuppa.  Read for a bit - Nick Earls, The Fix, love it - slept for a couple more hours.

BG 9 when I finally got up. 

Time to get on with the day?  Nah.  Too sick.