So I was driving home last night and realized for like the fourth or fifth time in the past few days I was really happy to not be wearing my CGM.*
I know a lot of people aren’t big fans of the CGM for various reasons, and I’ve heard from my doctor that not many people wear it for more than 2-3 years. I still find mine useful, and I think I’m coming up on two and a half years.
This is the kind of thing I wonder about when I drive.
Why, when I think it’s useful and relatively helpful, does it make me so happy to NOT wear it?
First of all, let me assure you that this CGM has significant issues. The delay factor and margin of error is just ridiculous—not to mention the sensors being rather let’s say fickle. The CGM doesn’t work for me when I run, which is unfortunate, and that thing has caused me to lose more sleep than anything ever in my life. (I’m a rock-hard sleeper so if something wakes me up, it’s news in my world and this thing gets to vibrating my pump under the covers and I nearly jump out of my skin every time. My cats chewed my pump cord once when they were kittens so now my pump sleeps under the covers every night.)
In addition to the untrustworthy readings I get from the CGM, it also is actually painful for me. I wear it most often on my hip and butt, so any time I sit down I run the risk of knocking it or hitting it or just moving in a way the little stick of metal doesn’t enjoy and it simply hurts. I ran with it in my arm a few weeks ago and I guess my arm was sweaty so the thing fell out as I ran—that hurt.
All of this said, I still wear the thing. Why? Because it reminds me to check my blood sugar more often, and it yells at me when I’m high. I think both of these things are good ideas for me. So I put up with the CGM, and I defend it to my type one friends and doctors who look at me like I’m crazy because I still wear it.
But I do love taking a break from the CGM.
And I decided last night I know why.
It’s because I CAN take a break from wearing it. It’s the only diabetes tool I have in my arsenal that I don’t NEED. I could throw it off a bridge some day and never get sick as a result. I probably wouldn’t even know it was gone for a number of days.
I can’t really do that with my pump; if I go off my pump my life changes because I’m looking at the clock, taking shots and counting and doing math and figuring more than I do now. If I stop my CGM my life doesn’t change at all. It’s just gone.
I can’t take a break from my blood sugar meter, either. Yes, I go to the grocery store sometimes without my meter and don’t miss it. But have you ever run out of strips when you got to work and realized you can’t check again until you’re back at home? Weird feeling, to say the least.
And I can’t take a break from being high, or being low. I can’t take a break from much of my disease.
But being without my CGM? Kind of feels like a vacation in some ways. And that makes me happy.
