Thursday 24 December 2009

Dexcom Day 2

I took these photos this morning in the dark as I was just so gobsmacked!! My bloodsugar had been steady at around 6 to 6.5mmol/l for SIX hours!!! I usually hover around 10-12.




























Having the Dex has given me confidence to take correction boluses and get lower bgs - ALREADY!! I am so pleased. When I went to bed my bg was 11 and I didn't correct because I know it usually drops overnight but I didn't know when. Seems it happens around 12am-2am then levels out. I'm not sure if the "dawn phenomenon" I saw yesterday morning was genuine now, it could have been the Dex still settling in, but after tonight I'll have a better picture.

(I won't show you further back because I did have cake yesterday at a leaving do and the graph went way up!! But I corrected and brought it back down.)

So far, I love my new best friend!!!

Wednesday 23 December 2009

Teething troubles

Phew what a frustrating evening I had yesterday!

So I inserted the sensor for the Dex at about 4.20pm and left it for the 2 hours specified in the manual. It appeared to be doing what it was supposed to and hopefully the end of the 2 hour warm-up period would coincide with my pre-dinner bg testing so I could calibrate the Dex. Hmmm, good plan but Dexter (as I have now called him - yes he is a man!) had other ideas.

Two hours had passed and dinner was ready. It was 6.45pm and all I had on the screen was "???". I called the support guy at Advanced Therapeutics and he wasn't sure so he called the other support guy then called me back. He said it can take longer than 2 hours in some people (typical that it looks like I am one of them!). So I waited..........

We had already arranged to pop round to see a friend so off we went with me grumbling about my "dud" new machine.

Sitting chatting, at 8.50pm (four and a half hours after sensor insertion!!!) it asked me for 2 calibration bg tests, so I entered them and it registered them and put the value on the screen. "Yippee" I thought, "it works", at which point "???" appeared again. At 10pm it started working again and I got almost a full half hour of readings until - you guessed it - "???".

I went to bed at 11pm with "???" still showing. I woke about 6am and looked at Dexter. He had been working continuously since approx 2 or 3am. And is still going. I'll say that quietly, I don't want to jinx him.

I've put in another bg result to bring him up to speed and hopefully I am now on my way. At least when I change the sensor I'll know that this can happen and will be prepared, rather than having a newbie panic!!

I know it is only one night's readings but it appears that my dawn phenomenon starts at 6am and my bg goes up about 3mmol, then it falls again half an hour later. I'll see what happens tonight.

So as long as Dexter stays on best behaviour I think we will be best friends.

Tuesday 22 December 2009

First sensor is in!!

Well, I'm all plugged in. Just waiting for the 2 hour start up period. My bg is currently 14 so I took a bolus to bring it down for when I calibrate the Dex - don't want the "high bg" alarm (set at 12.2) to go off straight away!!

Its going to be an interesting evening and night, and following few days, wish me luck!!

Starting Dexcom

My Dexcom 7 plus arrived an hour ago and is charging up. I'm going to start using it later today. (I think!)
I'm excited but also nervous. I think the alarms are going to go off a lot, especially the high alert as I have been frightened of hypos for 20 years and always run high. Hope it doesn't drive me bananas.
Never used a CGMS before.
We are going out to visit a friend this evening, I hope I don;t keep beeping and vibrating all evening!! Hahahaha.

I'll keep you posted.

Thursday 17 December 2009

Very excited

I ordered my continuous glucose monitor at lunchtime. After a few false starts, and non-returned phonecalls, I have now paid for it and it is hopefully on its way.

I am getting a Dexcom 7 plus.

Things are hopefully really going to change for my diabetes control now. I'll be able to see what my blood sugars are doing without sticking my finger all the time (you still have to do 2 sticks a day to calibrate). Hopefully this will give me much more confidence when I'm out and about.

I'll keep you posted!

Monday 7 December 2009

CGMS

I am seriously considering a continuous glucose monitoring system. Apparently the Dexcom 7 is now available in the UK.

Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

I would have to fund it myself.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Housework

Last night I caught the beginning of Grumpy Old Women on TV . A load of "celeb" middle aged women moaning about how they have to do everything otherwise it won't get done. Work, running the house, ferrying kids around, cooking, cleaning etc, and that there just aren't enough hours in the day!!

I am not a typical woman. Granted I don;t have kids to run around after, but I certainly don't get myself worked up about housework. I have a wonderful husband who pulls his weight (most of the time he pulls far more than his fair share, I'll admit). My house isn't dirty, its just not as tidy and dust free as "the perfect housewife" would have it. But I'm not bothered.

However, my comments about this elicited a conversation with said husband where he expressed a wish that I would do a little bit more seeing as I am home most of the time. So...........off I went to the supermarket this morning where I purchased a bottle of Cillit Bang and proceeded to clean the bath within an inch of its life.

When I had finished I felt knackered and physically sick, and my blood sugar had plummeted. Not to hypo levels but much lower than I am generally used to. This sparked off an anxiety attack, and I am now left feeling awful.

If that's what housework does for you, you can damn well keep it!!!

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Swine flu jab

So if I'm going to be famous and have lots of new readers (!!) I'd better update more often.

I am just wasting time this morning before I go to the GP to have my ears syringed. Nice! I am completely blocked in BOTH ears! It is most annoying, I had to turn the TV up twice as loud yesterday evening just so I could hear it at normal level. I've been using drops for over a week now and it hasn't shifted it.

For those of you who haven't had your swine flu jab yet, it's fine. I had it last week and although my arm was sore for two days afterwards, I've had no ill effects. I've already had the usual flu jab too, which I do every year. So, if you are dithering, DON'T. Go and have it! Isn't it best to be safe?

Monday 23 November 2009

Fame at last???

I thought I'd better come on over and update this blog. I have let it - and my diabetes - drift for a few months (so what's new you cry!).

What's new is that I have been contacted by a diabetes magazine who may feature my blog in an article about diabetes social networks. Now I'm sure there are much better blogs than mine out there to feature but it's nice to be asked. I have answered some questions for them so we'll see what happens! 'Citin'!!

Wednesday 11 February 2009

A good day so far

This morning started off in the usual way with me waking up and immediately feeling anxious :(

But I decided today I would test my lunchtime basal rates so I started testing at 11am, hourly. I started at 10.8mmol/l and it gradually fell until it was 4.5 at 3.30pm. I needed to take the dof out so I had two biscuits (20g of carb) and now an hour later the bg is 6.6mmol/l

Cool, that's what I call good - for me anyway!

Breakfast boluses

I have checked my morning basal rates for my pump and they appear to be spot on. However, when I eat 35g of Oatibix for breakfast I only need 2.5 units of bolus to cover this.

Sometimes I will have Fruit& Fibre and again i don't need as much insulin to cover the amount of carbs.

Wondering if this is a common thing?

I have also just joined https://www.logforlife.com/ an online site where you can plot your bgs and doses.

Tuesday 10 February 2009

Charts

The only way I'm going to get on top of things is by writing down my bgs and carbs and insulin doses. To that end I have just printed off a load of copies of blank bg tables and graphs so I can get on with it. Its a good first step, now I just have to use them.

A good start this morning though with a bg of 6.1. But the fear kicked in and I underbolused for my Fruit & Fibre and now sitting at 14. Sigh!

Hands

Ok so I have had poorly controlled diabetes for 20 years. I am working on that.

It is not that often that I wake up with a "normal" blood sugar but when I do my hands are numb. This doesn't happen when my bgs are higher. I would have thought it would be the other way round. Also if I have a "normal" bg during the day and I do a bit of knitting my hands go numb - or more pins and needles really. I wonder if this will resolve itself once my bgs are always lower - if that ever happens!

On a similar note, my trigger finger and thumb appear to be resolving themselves without having the operation.

Thursday 5 February 2009

Back to blogging (again)!

I have been thinking about getting back to this blog for the last few days, but just now I saw this entry from Kerri at SixUntilMe and it touched a chord. I still have my fear of hypos and one of the parts of my fear is to do with people thinking I'm weird or a nutter if they see me having a hypo. But watching Kerri's video has made me realise that non-diabetics probably wouldn't even notice. Thanks Kerri, I don't need to be so self-conscious.

As a quick update, it turned out the raised prolactin level was caused by the domperidone. I came off it and everything returned back to normal, in fact i am more regular now than I have ever been! I now take erythromycin for the gastroparesis, and (touch wood) have not had any vomitting episodes for 18 months.

Hubby is doing well, all his check-ups are clear which is such a relief.

And we have a new family member, Susie, a 4 year old Golden Labrador that we got from Labrador Rescue 4 weeks ago tomorrow


I will go and check in with the blogs I used to follow and see what you have all been up to, and talk to you again soon.