Alarm review
100 bottles of beer on the wall, take one down, pass it around...99 bottles of beer on the wall...
I’ve now been on the Guardian for 19 days; in that time I’ve had 26 low BG alarms and 17 high alarms.
Well, it doesn’t say much for my BG control; but it sure shows you why wild horses couldn’t take this little machine away from me.
What? Oops. Oh hell. OK, make that 27 low alarms. I just had another writing this (and they say writing isn’t hard work!) Excuse me while I eat some candy......
Uf kuurry chewery zices....
Ahem. Excuse me. Let’s try that again: I carry Cherry slices.
That’s my emergency sugar of choice. Got them on my night stand. Got them in my car. Got them in my go bag. Got them in my wife’s car. Got them at the shop.
They don’t melt in the summer. They taste pretty good. They are pure sugar. And at 12 grams each they are just what I need to pull back up to a good level without going too high.
About low alarms: one thing to remember is that the Guardian lags a bit when things move quickly upwards. Some of those low alarms are 20 minutes after the first. I’ve taken on sugar and a finger stick would probably show the BG in safe territory; but I get a second alarm ’cause she still thinks I’m too low. So long as the second alarm shows a BG the same or higher than the first one I’ll usually silence the alarm and let it go another 20 minutes without taking on more sugar. If the second alarm shows a lower BG than the first then I know things are still dropping and I eat more sugar. So the number of alarms isn’t as shocking as it sounds. Well, yeah, I guess it is. But we all know I’m a mess. That’s why I got a Guardian.
About high alarms: many of those are about an hour after eating. I’ve never been in the habit of checking my BG an hour after eating so it may well be normal for me to briefly spike up to around 200 in that time period. Most of my high’s aren’t serious. I’ll hit in the very low 200’s for a short time then it will drop back down. In fact, just the other night I glanced at her a bit after eating and saw that I had clocked in at 199. OK, here we come, I thought. I waited for the air-raid siren. But not this time. Next check was 190. Then 186. And so on. Ducked the bullet that time!
I also wanted to tell you that the geniuses at my Endo’s office were able to look at the tangle of BG data on the modal day print out and ID a trend at dinner time. So baby steps, but I’ve made the first therapy adjustment on my pump settings based on Guardian data. We changed my dinner time carb to insulin ratio from 20:1 to 18:1. Don’t laugh, I’m hugely insulin sensitive, so a small change has huge results for me. I had been on 15:1 and was getting a lot of post meal hypos so we had changed it to the 20:1 which sounded reasonable at the time.....
What? Oh hell, not again. Make that 28 (but who’s counting). Lower. Time for more sugar. This is ridiculous! It’s been like five hours since I’ve eaten and my afternoon basal is set to the lowest possible setting. Well...that’s why Uf kuurry chewery zices....
I’ve now been on the Guardian for 19 days; in that time I’ve had 26 low BG alarms and 17 high alarms.
Well, it doesn’t say much for my BG control; but it sure shows you why wild horses couldn’t take this little machine away from me.
What? Oops. Oh hell. OK, make that 27 low alarms. I just had another writing this (and they say writing isn’t hard work!) Excuse me while I eat some candy......
Uf kuurry chewery zices....
Ahem. Excuse me. Let’s try that again: I carry Cherry slices.
That’s my emergency sugar of choice. Got them on my night stand. Got them in my car. Got them in my go bag. Got them in my wife’s car. Got them at the shop.
They don’t melt in the summer. They taste pretty good. They are pure sugar. And at 12 grams each they are just what I need to pull back up to a good level without going too high.
About low alarms: one thing to remember is that the Guardian lags a bit when things move quickly upwards. Some of those low alarms are 20 minutes after the first. I’ve taken on sugar and a finger stick would probably show the BG in safe territory; but I get a second alarm ’cause she still thinks I’m too low. So long as the second alarm shows a BG the same or higher than the first one I’ll usually silence the alarm and let it go another 20 minutes without taking on more sugar. If the second alarm shows a lower BG than the first then I know things are still dropping and I eat more sugar. So the number of alarms isn’t as shocking as it sounds. Well, yeah, I guess it is. But we all know I’m a mess. That’s why I got a Guardian.
About high alarms: many of those are about an hour after eating. I’ve never been in the habit of checking my BG an hour after eating so it may well be normal for me to briefly spike up to around 200 in that time period. Most of my high’s aren’t serious. I’ll hit in the very low 200’s for a short time then it will drop back down. In fact, just the other night I glanced at her a bit after eating and saw that I had clocked in at 199. OK, here we come, I thought. I waited for the air-raid siren. But not this time. Next check was 190. Then 186. And so on. Ducked the bullet that time!
I also wanted to tell you that the geniuses at my Endo’s office were able to look at the tangle of BG data on the modal day print out and ID a trend at dinner time. So baby steps, but I’ve made the first therapy adjustment on my pump settings based on Guardian data. We changed my dinner time carb to insulin ratio from 20:1 to 18:1. Don’t laugh, I’m hugely insulin sensitive, so a small change has huge results for me. I had been on 15:1 and was getting a lot of post meal hypos so we had changed it to the 20:1 which sounded reasonable at the time.....
What? Oh hell, not again. Make that 28 (but who’s counting). Lower. Time for more sugar. This is ridiculous! It’s been like five hours since I’ve eaten and my afternoon basal is set to the lowest possible setting. Well...that’s why Uf kuurry chewery zices....
posted by Wil | 3:55 PM
4 Comments:
Wil, thanks for the suggestion about cherry slices. I use Starburst jelly beans, 12 equal 15 grams of carb. They're good enough that I enjoy them but not so good that I'm tempted to indulge when I shouldn't!
Cherry slices- that is a Starburst type,right?
Great post again Wil! The Guardian RT sounds awesome: I just imagine my life without the highs and the lows. Ahhhhhhhh..... yes:) Ahhhhh.....
Personally I use Haribo's to treat my lows: they come in small packets, they don't melt, and they come in a burts of different colors, most of which I still like (after 2 years of carrying and eating these every day pretty much. I guesstimate them to have about 20g of carbs each (the packet itself weighs 30g)
Cherry slices are more like gum drops...and covered with large crystals of sugar!
More common are thier orange cousins. Both a shaped like an orange when you peel it and seperate the segments.
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