To sleep, perhaps to dream

“…an awful lot can happen in four minutes and 59 seconds when the shit hits the fan.”

--Beyond Fingersticks


When someone tells me a new CGM is better in a low, the first thing I think of is improved accuracy in reporting a low blood sugar as it happens. But I haven’t had my normal number of lows recently (what’s up with that?), so I found myself not really being sure if G4 was better in a low or not. Which, perversely, is rather frustrating, as that’s what everyone is dying to know about.

But then I got to thinking about the other half of the low blood sugar coin. Accuracy in a low also means not reporting lows that aren’t there.

You might need to read that two times to wrap your brain around what I’m saying. Here let me help you out: Accuracy in a low also means not reporting lows that aren’t there. Accuracy in a low also means not reporting lows that aren’t there.

In short, being accurate in a low entails screaming at you when you are low, but not crying wolf the rest of the time (unless, of course, you know… there really is a wolf).

Nothing vexes me more… well… actually quite a few things have been vexing me recently…

Let me try again: One of the things that vexes me most is when a CGM “coasts” a hair low all night long. Let’s say for instance that my BGL is cruising at 88—flat, stable, steady all night. But let’s say the CGM is a bit off. It thinks I’m at 78 instead. Not a big difference of opinion, really. Unless your low threshold alarm is set at 80. Then you get alarms. Every 15 minutes. All night long. Sometimes, no matter how many calibration fingersticks you feed the little bastard (and you really shouldn’t overload cal sticks), you just can’t get its head above water.

I can’t begin to calculate how many nights’ sleep I’ve lost to this kind of thing over the last few years.

But I just realized this morning that I haven’t had this happen on the G4. So improved low performance includes not crying wolf. And that gives me more sleep.

Literally.