My Counterintuitive Advice From 6 Months Of CGM Life

(Photo Credit: Red Dirt Ruminations)

First, I must say that I love the thing. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I really enjoy my CGM 90% of the time. That 90% reflects, from my own experience, the everyday accuracy of the numbers. During that 90%, it’s incredible.

For those who have the CGM, be patient with me. For those who do not, I’d like to paint the picture of what it’s like.

You know exactly where your blood sugar is at, all the time.

That’s my painting for the day. With that constant knowledge, comes a rather interesting temptation in diabetes management. Over those first 6 months, I noticed myself not taking as much insulin for my meals. Unconsciously, I think I was trying to avoid the lows. My thinking was that if I didn’t take enough insulin at the meal, I could just catch it on the CGM and take more insulin to correct. What I soon found out was that by the time I saw the trend starting to go up, I could not take enough insulin to correct. Given the 10 minute lag time between what your CGM says and where your blood sugar really sits, that’s a scenario for many a high blood sugar. I found that I like to take insulin all the way until I saw my blood sugar start to turn down. Another not so grand idea. This brought quite a few low blood sugars.

So here’s the advice:

When you eat, pretend that you’re not wearing your CGM.

This helped me enormously. Instead of constantly tracking the flow of the numbers, I let go and checked back in 45 minutes post-meal, having just taken my normal amount of insulin. It reduced the highs.

Trust in your ratios. Trust in your past experience. Be patient, and let things play out. Don’t be a CGM micromanager.

==The Book That Sparked Amber and Ryan To Start The DDG==