Sensor Update

I am enjoying my sensor, and learning a lot about how my blood glucose responds to food and insulin. I've already started to pick out a few patterns even without downloading my information. The other thing I have discovered is that if you don't attend to a blood glucose alarm it will get more obnoxious so you will (hopefully)notice it. It's been really nice to see where I need to adjust my overnight basals, since before I was always wary of adjusting them too much and having a low. Now I know that whatever my bloodsugar is at 9pm it pretty much stays there until 3am, at which point it starts it's gradual rise. I had suspected that, but now I have the proof, without having to set my obnoxious alarm clock to wake me up in the middle of the night. Well, that's about all I can think of at the moment, but I'll keep updating periodically. I hope everyone is enjoying the last days of summer, because I know here in the Northeast it's getting pretty cool at night so fall is on it's way.

Sensor Day 1

Well, the sensor has been in since 945 this am and I'm loving it! It seemed to be fairly accurate fairly quickly with me, even though I was warned that the first 8 hours or so can be a little off. Having my low alarm at 90 was a wise choice- I dipped down to 67 just before dinner and my sensor thought my blood sugar was 82 (well within the 20% difference that is possible). But this time the low was mild, and it didn't catch me off guard because I already knew I was coming down quickly from my correction. I don't think though that I'll wake up if it's alarming- it's no louder than the other audible beeps for low battery or low resevoir. And as my family can tell you, I've slept through thunderstorms that would wake the dead! I had pizza for dinner, and surprisingly my bloodsugars stayed very level- either it was because I was coming into the dinner low or I counted my carbs well. Either way, it is so neat to be able to press a button and see what my blood sugars are doing. If anyone has any questions in the next few days, just leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer them. For now, it's time for one last calibration for the day.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. So busy I didn't realize how long it'd been since I last posted. So, I thought I'd provide a brief update for the moment and I'll add more soon.

I thought I was going to have my REAL Time sensor training starting Wed, but that was changed to this Monday. As soon as I have some feed back to give, I'll be posting on that. One thing I have done recently in preparation for our trip to Italy is wear my Minimed 507C to see if it is in good working order. I didn't use it when my pump malfunctioned partly because it was tucked away and I wasn't thinking of it at 12am. But, now I know that it works just fine in the event that I need to use it in Italy. It did amaze me at how much improved the menus and buttons are with the more recent pumps. It took me a minute to remember how to program my basals in fast enough since the 507C goes back to the main screen after an 8 second pause. I have my basals at 3 hr intervals so it took some time to program it.

Recently I've exprienced a couple downright tiring lows. The kind where I go into my autopilot "eat the fridge" (That 'I need food now and will eat until upper brain function starts reminding me to slow down' feeling I get with a moderate low). The kind where I know I'm coming back up when my thoughts start making sense again, and, while I feel a little better, have the tendancy to send me into a rebound that keeps me feeling more lethargic than the low. I lowered a couple basals by a bit, which seemed to help. I will definitely be adjusting my basals to where I think I'll want them in Italy while I have the sensor- so I can see what basals might keep me in a nice, safe blood sugar range. And, of course, it's a good excuse to go to the Chinese buffet to tweak my almost perfected dual bolus technique for Chinese food. Currently, I do my best guestimating my carb intake, use my bolus wizard to correct if needed and give myself 70% of the bolus now and 30% over an hour. That usually has me down to 180 or so 2 hrs later, which is a big improvement from the days of injections.
I've also been trying to learn a little Italian, though I've heard that most Italians know enough English for me to get by with "Grazie" (thanks). One factor that is helpful is that some words like "insulin" (l'insulina) and "syringe" (la siringa) are very similar to the English. Then there are the word like "gatta" for cat that are very different. Only 20 days to take off and I can't wait!