I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in May and just received a Dexcom and have been using it since Tuesday. I find myself CONSTANTLY checking my numbers since it’s on my phone and I can’t tell if it’s healthy for me to be obsessing over it, especially today since my number seem to be running lower. When you first received the Dexcom, did anyone else obsessively check too?
Trust me, you’re not alone. I thought there was a topic on the subject but can’t put my finger on it - if I find it I’ll add a link. But yes, it’s oh so tempting to look all the time, and you’ll need to train yourself not to.
User it as a guide, but remember not to take action every single time.
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Yes! I posted about this early this year and if it makes you feel any better I’ve had diabetes for almost 17 years and still was checking every 5-10 minutes. Cgms are great but oh goodness data (anxiety) overload in the beginning. The longer you wear it, the more you will start to trust it, and the less you will obsess. What helped me get over my obsession with checking is a couple of “rules” I made for myself. One was no need to check unless I feel off- I relied on finger sticks only for 15 years and did not check my blood sugar constantly. My body is a good tool at telling me when my sugars out of whack and I needed to remember I can also trust that I’m going to feel gross when high too long or if my sugars are low.
The other thing I actually did for awhile was I upped my low alerts and put my high alerts higher. If I wasn’t pinged until I was 220 great. I typically only go that high if my carb counting was out of whack and even then I have to wait to take insulin so I don’t stack it so my alert at 180 versus 220 was really no different and I found if I was patient and let my insulin do it’s thing I was well within range typically again by the time I would take insulin so checking wouldn’t matter. 90 I did for the low because it was well before I would feel low, but then I could justify checking it more often on my phone if I still had insulin on board or just to make sure I wasn’t going to continue dropping. If after 30 minutes I was still around 90 great- if not I could eat a small snack and actually prevent a hypo. I actually still keep my low alert 80-85 depending how accurate the sensor is because I can usually completely cut out the hypo as if my sensor is 80 I’ll likely be low 70s on my finger stick and would treat it which has resulted in less sugar for my low corrections. I also read an article from a med student who keeps his at 100 because he can catch lows quicker too which has resulted in better control since you’re not on the low roller coaster so that’s completely up to you!
It gets a lot easier to use but I totally had anxiety with it for a few months. Now I use it more for checking for patterns and to see if I need to adjust anything with my management! Good luck and just remember it will get easier and less anxiety producing!
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Okay, good. That makes me feel much better about it! I was finding myself getting anxious of the arrows and numbers and was trying to eat to keep myself from going low and I think I was throwing myself all out of wack from it. I found it much more peaceful from finger pricks and checking only 4x a day instead of 10000x from the constant data that’s being thrown at me.
Yes! I’m going through a weight loss journey right now and so for a really long time my insulin was super out of whack so I was going low a lot. I always confirm with finger sticks too when I’m low so I did need to prick more because of that, but yeah I also was testing anytime I would get a diagonal arrow up or down and would just be panicked. I tested so much that I burned through my prescription sooooo quickly (I seriously went through a vial a day like multiple times which is definitely not good for your mental health or your bank account). give yourself the grace to get used to it but you’ll learn to love it. I honestly don’t think I could do diabetes anymore without a cgm. They’re so helpful! Plus definitely gives me peace to know I have something that will wake me up if needed in the middle of the night and alert someone else to wake up and check on me if I don’t respond to it!
My family definitely obsessed a lot over my sisters blood sugar when she first got Dexcom. I think that it’s normal to be checking your numbers constantly. It’s common to feel anxious and at times overwhelmed by the numbers. It gets better though. With time you’ll find yourself not checking Dexcom so constantly unless you are running high or low or you need to know what your numbers are. My only advice is to try to get yourself focused on other things and only pay attention to Dexcom when you absolutely need to. For example when you are gonna eat, when your alarms are going off or you are gonna do some physical activity. It’ll get better with time!
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I am CONSTANTLY checking my blood sugar on my phone/meter! Kind of obsessively but my blood sugars are pretty good! So do what you feel you need to do in order to stay in your target range, don’t worry about what other say! We’re talking about your health/livelihood here!
It’s funny to hear how we become obsessed with technology. I have been on G6 for a short time now and have kinda gotten away from looking constantly at my monitor, but it’s a different story for my wife. She watches it while I sleep in the mornings and she gets a kick out of it. This morning my alarm started going off and I was 55. She started to wake me up and BOOM, the sensor signal failed. The monitor said it might take up to 3 hours to reconnect, but after 15 minutes it started functioning again and my BGL’s had started rising in the mean time and climbed to 65, then 85, and stabilized at 100 when I woke up. I was briefed on the situation by my frustrated wife, I laughed and asked her why she just didn’t change the channel,…not a good idea, I didn’t duck fast enough, those little bedroom slippers hurt at warp speed.
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Hi Kara, I was diagnosed in 1986 when blood tests took 5 minutes and you had to blot the blood off on a little cotton square before inserting it into the machine. Things have gotten so much better.
Eventually you’ll get to understand how you feel when your blood sugar is low, or high, or dropping quickly even without looking at your dexcom screen. In the meantime, give yourself permission to obsess. It’s all very new for you, and things will stabilize for you over time as you get used to living with diabetes.
Add my voice to the others! I’ve always relied on data for decisions so it was both marvelous and a curse! I’ve had my G6 for 7 months ha and finally feeling comfortable at not looking/checking it every few minutes, but still would like to be trusting of the alarms!
Am going they a bit of an issue now as I had Sugarmate on my Apple Watch, making it that more easy to monitor. I changed a setting on my calendars and haven’t gotten it back to working yet.
Take it easy and get used to it being there and build your trust level.