To sensor or not to sensor?

I am lucy enough to have a CGM (continuous glucose monitor). I have the Dexcom 7 and I am very happy to have it as a tool for my Diabetes management. It can be pretty handy, but, I believe that it is not worth fighting the insurance company for in all cases. At least not yet.

While I do find my sensor helpful, it can be more of a hindrance than it is worth.

Helpful times:

• When your blood sugar is pretty stable, if it is moving up or down slowly it can be pretty accurate
• if all you want is to see the arrow of the direction your blood sugar is going (up, down, stable) and not exactly the actual number
• When you have had a sensor site in a for few days and you are very busy. It has acclimated by this point and its nice to just have to look down an check
• When driving a long distance, again maybe the number isn't dead on, but at least you can see if you should have a snack soon
• When you are sleeping (it has caught many low blood sugars in my sleep before I would have caught them naturally and the alarm wakes me up.)

Not so helpful times:

• When you're having one of those days where your blood sugars are crazy erratic, it can be as much as 100+ points off
• When your out of range of the reicever
• When you are anywhere near being dehydrated
• It has times where the reading is "???" and there is nothing you can do about it but hope it snaps out of it on its own
• you should never, treat a blood sugar based off the sensor reading. (In other words, it does not really help with cutting down on finger pricking)

A couple things I have learned:

• It does hurt a little more than putting in a pump site, but it becomes unnoticeable
• set the "high" and "low" alerts different than what you would really be concerned with. for example I have mine alarm when I am 100 for lows, in reality I'm normally about 80-90. 

Hopefully, soon, the kinks will be a little more worked out the readings will be more accurate. It is a nice tool to have sometimes but it isn't always a tool worth using. If anything sometimes I feel that it causes me to check my blood sugars more often because I see a number on it that I don't believe enough to treat without my regular glucometer  backing it up.

Portable pick me ups

So I'm going to start with what is probably one of the most random subjects.

What to carry on you for lows. I have learned the key to this over the years, there's a few options but I have personal favorites.

First of all, in my personal opinion, pretty much all Diabetic centered food is gross... Especially if the goal of this food is to get your blood sugar up. I find glucose tabs disgusting (and they really aren't all that helpful) and there was some other thing I tired once that was so horrible I blocked its name from my memory. It was a weird squishy bag of grossness.

Fruit is always great, but its not all that easy to carry around in anything that gets beat up on a regular basis.

You always have the option to carry icing, which is pretty awesome. I did that for a while but

• It can be squished and icing will go all over your stuff.
• Its too sweet for me and hurts my stomach when I eat it in a hurry.

From many episodes of trial and error I have learned that juice boxes and little bags of fruit snack gummy things are the best for carrying in a purse. NOT juice pouches like Capri Sun because they tend to explode when squished and are easily punctured... this has caused the demise of many, many purses. I also used to carry Gushers but they tend to explode in their packets and then are just a giant messy mush ball when you try to eat them. 

So the winners are: Juice boxes and fruit snacks!

Also, while more sturdy than pouches the juice boxes corners wear out when carried around for a long time, I keep them in zip-lock bags inside my purse, its also helpful for after you've had to drink one and there isn't a trash can, then you can put it back in the bag and in your purse or backpack without getting remaining juice on anything. 

My...Goal?

So I think now would be the time to introduce my goal. To share the crazy stories, situations, and experiences I have accumulated over the years thanks to dear old, Type 1 Diabetes. Not only do I want to do this but also share some things I have figured out. Now, somethings are not true for everyone but hey, when stuck in this mess can a little extra info really hurt?

So why should anything I say have any meaning? Well, I'm no official expert. I have been a Type 1 Diabetic since I was 8, it will be 12 years in March. I know my story but not yours, or anyone else's, all I have to say is not to be taken as medical advice or anything, it's just kind of for fun. I feel the need to share my experiences, maybe just share a new point of view.

I don't know how long this will last. We shall see!