I know I’ve often given my Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) a bad rap in my blog. It has taken me years to get used to it (I first got one in 2008) and even longer to get to a point where I could sort of stand its alarms.
I’m not completely there yet with the alarms, and the inaccurate sensors that I get sometimes DO irritate me. So I’m not saying everything is rainbows and butterflies; far from it.
BUT, and this is one I’ve been thinking about for a couple weeks now, it gives my blood glucose levels a VISUAL presence and it gives them a VOICE.
And those two things turn into a great big GIANT deal.
I think one of the most dangerous parts of living with whatever form of diabetes you live with is the ability to have no idea for years what your blood glucose levels are. (Hey, it’s how I existed through high school, so I know.)
They are quiet. They don’t disrupt often if you’re high. If you’re low, they will tell you and if you’re lucky or new to diabetes or have been high for a prolonged amount of time, those lows will creep up and whisper “eat!”
They are quiet, and they are invisible. No one else knows what your blood glucose levels are at any given time. It makes you feel a little isolated a lot of the time.
Blood glucose levels are so crazy easy to ignore, it’s amazing that we monitor them as well as we do.
Yet, having lived denying the need to know what my blood sugars are, and having lived needing to know what they are all the time (checking so many times in a given day it’s a bit overwhelming), I really have come to appreciate my CGM.
First of all, I can look at my pump screen and see what direction I’m heading. Totally useful when it comes to planning my next move, be it insulin, food, exercise, sleeping, anything. If I see an UP arrow, I know it is time to check what I’ve got on board and think about taking more insulin to get my blood glucose back in range.
Secondly, the alarms are really useful. I like that my CGM alarms will interrupt me and tell me to pay attention when I need to pay attention. Conversely, I also like that I can be in the middle of something and know that I’m in a good range because my CGM hasn’t said anything for a few hours. Beyond even that, if my CGM has been alarming all day long, my husband knows I’m having a tough day without me having to say a thing.
It’s kind of, for me, the difference between plants and pets. I can’t tell you how many times I have actually watered any plants I’ve had. I just am not very good at that kind of maintenance. Sure, I know they need watering, and of course, sometimes I’ll see them and recognize they are looking pretty bad.
But pets will come up, stick their noses in my face, and bark or meow or actually get my attention. They’ll say HEY FEED ME! I’M HUNGRY!
It makes things a lot easier when you have some help to pay attention to what you need to pay attention to.
Score one for my CGM.
