CGM

Whole Milk With The Disclaimers

This will not be my most popular blog post ever.

 

You may not agree with me.  That is okay.  In fact, it is a good thing.  If we all nodded our heads along to the beat of the same drum in this world, well, we would be a boring orchestra.  Renza wrote a great piece on this notion recently, which can be found here.

One of the largest issues we face in the United States today is the “battle of the egos.”  We see it play out on our Facebook newsfeeds each morning:

“I’m voting for so-and-so and I must be right because it’s my opinion and I said so and I can scream louder than you!!!”

Yes, we have a right to say such things.  But do we really need to completely write off the other side of the opinion in the process?  If we do, quite frankly, we are only hurting ourselves.  Very rarely in life are issues so cut and dry, 100% right or wrong.  When politics falls into the gray zone, which it so often does, our greatest hope for the best world possible is to hear and consider all opinions, to put aside our personal biases and to think about what truly matters.  We are way too quick to judge.

“He looked like a thug.  He must have done something wrong.  He would have shot first.”

We do not always pause to think of the psychosocial reasons why he is in the wrong place at the wrong time, or why we are in the right place at the right time- safe from injury or premature death, judging from afar.

Or, we roll our eyes dismissively, choosing to believe a social media rant from someone who has never seen combat, or public service in a rough neighborhood:

“The cop had more than a split-second to make a life-or-death decision; his life, or the alleged suspect’s?!  He doesn’t go home at night sick to his stomach about taking another’s life, whether or not the the law supports his defense…”

We do not always concede that maybe, just maybe, in this particular case, we are speaking of a human being who perhaps acted in fear, rather than hatred.

At one point or another, we are all guilty of not placing ourselves in the other’s shoes.  It is easier for us to say that one side is 110% wrong, and we are 110% right.  If only morals and ethics were so mathematically easy…

We do not always think about how unique individuals are, how we cannot check them off like bubbles on the SAT, fitting a prescribed correct answer to each situation.  Maybe there is none.  Let’s sit in the scariness of that idea, together.  Let’s be more loving and considerate than we have been as a society in recent weeks.

 

Admittedly, I have been disappointed in the diabetes advocacy world for similar reasons of us not seeing all sides of the equation lately.  There are days where the #doc rallies and we do something that is so obviously good: honoring Kycie Terry this month, for example.

Regularly, we laugh together, cry together, share our lives with diabetes together.  This is what makes us tick, what gives a distinct purpose to this disease in which we are, despite it all, somehow able to rise above.

My concerns, though, echo Tom Goffe’s wonderful post regarding the impending FDA decision on potentially dosing insulin based on Dexcom continuous glucose monitors (CGMs).

***(Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional; do NOT consider any of this blog post to be medical advice intended for treatment purposes.)

My personal opinion on diabetes management is more of a Libertarian view, if we want to talk politics.  I am perfectly okay with individual patient-centricity in disease management.  Diabetes falls on a spectrum of manifestations; what works for me, may not work for you, and vice versa.  If you want to dose according to Dexcom and you are comfortable doing so, by all means, that is your prerogative, and I truly wish you all the success in the world.

Although I no longer use an insulin pump due to a freaky product defect hullabaloo that I encountered, I am happy for all of those who still have access and great results from insulin pump technology.  That same mindset goes for those who experience phenomenal Dexcom CGM accuracy and ease of dosing insulin accordingly.

Every great innovation in society has come by those who are brave enough to take risks.  Think no further than the Open APS and #wearenotwaiting folks in our own community.  Their courage, creativity, and selflessness are beyond measure.

My #DoseWithCGM worry, though, begins with this being a rushed decision.  CGM technology is not quite there yet in my opinion, and to have a trusted federal agency say that it is- under pressure from one side of the equation, rather than all sides- is a slippery slope.  

Dexcom is- again, in my own opinion- the most innovative diabetes company in the market right now; I am absolutely confident that their technology will only go up from here; but we should not compromise safety and swap out access to other products in the interim.  Generally-speaking, the government can curtail efficiency in health tech, but this is one rare occasion where it serves as a proper check and balance.  As far as CGM dosing, don’t ask, don’t tell; do whatever you want (as an informed, experienced, safety-focused patient), but leave the government out of it.

There are the obvious physical dangers to insulin dosing, at any time and using any product as a baseline judge of BG; diabetes can be a conniving JerkFace.

Sure, I have 25 years of T1D under my belt and have a good sense of the disparities between my CGM’s interstitial fluid reading, and the blood sugar reading of my meter.  But what about a newly-diagnosed family?  What if Mom boluses 7-year-old Jenny based off of the CGM’s 300, when she is really 180?  What if she is advised that this is an appropriate treatment approach by a federal agency set in place to keep her safe?

Sadly, insulin can be as life-taking as it can be life-preserving, and the reality is that it can sway from either extreme quickly and easily- through no fault of the patient’s or caregiver’s.  This disease has a mind of its own, and even technology can never truly replace a fully-functioning pancreas.  Again, #weneedacure.  A real cure.

“I guess if you ate low carb and had a steady line at 100 all day, dosing off of CGM wouldn’t be that bad considering the tiny boluses,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

“Actually, I think that could be more dangerous.  There’s less of a BG cushion if something goes wrong,” a doctor replied.

Very true.  That, or what about the T1Ds (myself very much included), who are not always smooth sailing at 100 mg/dL all day.  Sometimes you wake up with a 55, rebound up to 224 when your liver releases sugar as the juice kicks in, correct and go back down to 78, eat lunch and sit at 162 for awhile, and  then somehow see a 340 by dinner because your menstrual cycle begins and unleashes hormonal hell on your body.  How in the heck can we ever expect a machine to keep up with that?!!

While I have seen the argument about meter reliability, I find it a weak one.  Let’s attack the issue at the root cause: meters need to improve.  But, they are still a better, more immediate guide than interstitial fluid ever will be.  Together, the two are a wonderful pair, showing us real-time data, trends, alarms, and so on.  I am not knocking either option, but I want to ensure that I have proper access to both in the long-term.

When I was normal person sick (NPS) last week, my CGM could not keep up.  Neither could I, but I used all of the tools in my toolbox, to include my own diabetes intuition, to get out of the murky waters.  Thankfully, I manually checked my blood sugar before dosing insulin at bedtime:

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I in no way want to stifle innovation by expressing this opinion.  I admire (and consider as friends) many of the advocates who are fully in support of this CGM dosing proposal.  I also respect the major diabetes organizations which are onboard.  Despite not agreeing wholeheartedly with their rationale in this case, I have no doubts that they want to see a better world for all diabetics.  We all do, in our own ways.

My experience in healthcare leads me to believe that this decision will ultimately restrict our access to test strips, as insurance agencies will look to cut costs.  And heck, as business leaders, they should; the ACA rewards and encourages cost reduction, and many consumers supported these measures vocally and at the polls.  Regardless, this is beyond anxiety-provoking for so many of us.  Test strips are ludicrously expensive already, and to imagine that we may be limited to a few checks a day to calibrate an imperfect CGM apparatus is maddening and disheartening, to say the least.  Pass the coffee.

Imagine the current healthcare loop-de-loop.  Imagine the Medtronic/UHC debacle.  Actually, do not imagine- because we are already living it.  And we know how unpleasant it is.  Now pretend that your insurance has restricted your test strip supply, and you do not feel comfortable dosing via CGM.  You have to get a letter from your endocrinologist, or perhaps a mental health care provider, indicating that you need more test strips to manage your chronic, lifelong condition which will never go away until there is a real cure.  Nonetheless, you have to jump through this paperwork hoop every 3 months, missing time from work to argue with suppliers about why you need life-sustaining medical supplies.  And maybe insurance will grant you 7 test strips per day instead of 2 when all is said and done…  While this example is (hopefully) extreme, it is still possible.  And it’s scary as heck for many of us.

“But Medicare won’t cover CGM.  Or how will this affect the Libre?”

Again, I think we are attacking the wrong sources- deflecting one issue onto many others.  By potentially limiting a test-strip-saavy demographic in the name of providing wider access to all is a total cop out.  Instead, hold our government more accountable.  CGM is a reliable tool, illustrated to be life-saving and absolutely quality of life-improving.  For these reasons, Medicare folks (or swap in folks who want Libre access), deserve to have better technology on hand.  But to substitute one option for another is silly, given that both CGMs and blood sugar meters have plenty of room for improvement in the current market.

Online polls and petitions do not represent the whole.  From a science and data standpoint, they illustrate a sample demographic from which we can make some educated-inferences:

1.) Most of these people have computer/smart phone/internet access.

2.) This enlightens us as to their ballpark socioeconomic status.

3.) That gives us some idea of their access to and quality of healthcare.

Convenience samples are fine as long as biases are disclosed.  We must say upfront that this is one side of the very large diabetes equation, and that this sample is not representative of The Whole.  While we cannot all leave our fulltime jobs or school courses to lobby in front of Congress or the FDA, those representing us should be enlightened as to how we all feel, and should act accordingly.

As Erin Gilmer has respectfully pointed out on numerous occasions, there are marginalized demographics who cannot obtain the most basic of diabetes care: dental visits, for example.  Yet we are up in arms over insulin pump collusion.  Or, in this case, CGM dosing.  The marginalized folks are not likely to be invested in this discussion because they do not have access to what is at stake; heck, they do not have access to the bare minimum.  While we raise our voices, we must take caution not to further drown theirs out.

In many of the presentations of the CGM dosing issue on social media, I saw big fish in the diabetes pond introducing the topic as, “Here, this is good, hop aboard and get involved!”.  This mindset is positive, for sure.  But we are not whole if one of us is not heard, if different viewpoints are not given adequate opportunity to be discussed.

What about the school nurse who wrote into the debate on a Facebook status post?  Did we listen when she said she would be uncomfortable dosing a child in her care at school based off of a CGM reading?  Do we care?

On the flip side, if someone has great CGM accuracy and wants to lessen the finger pricks his type 1 toddler endures, am I hearing him out?

 

Que será, será.  Whatever will be, will be.  Ultimately, a decision will be made regarding the FDA and dosing with CGM.  But we should all have a voice in it.

This is a long post and I surely will go to bed and realize I left out a few other big points.  But this is food for thought for now.  Although I am a little fish in the diabetes pond, it is my moral responsibility to use whatever platform I do have to improve life for diabetics.  In my personal judgment, voicing this opinion has merit towards that cause.

I also promise to be upfront about my own diabetes biases.  In the past, I have gotten on my soapbox and pledged up and down the river that we need a cure.  But perhaps I have not listened to the other advocate on the soapbox next to me, who may be more focused on an artificial pancreas and who may feel that it is too painful to believe in a cure after years of disappointment.  I have to respect that voice, too, because that person is part of The Whole.

So, here are my disclaimers:

1.) I can only represent my own opinions, but I hope that I can connect with others and help them by writing authentically and openly- whether we agree or disagree on various points.

2.) I will always hold out hope for a diabetes cure.  Even if it does not benefit me in time, I want future generations to live in a better world.  My blog focuses on this concept often, but please know that I respect everyone who strives for a better world for people with diabetes, however that world may be achieved.

3.) I will do my part to be more inclusive of The Whole.  Firstly, I will feature more about cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD) on my blog.  The CF community has so much to offer, and they have a valid seat at our diabetes table given CFRD/the risk of CFRD.  Let’s learn more together.  More to follow.

 

Too much skim or 2% milk leaves out a talented, diverse sample of people with diabetes.  For the time-being, instead of taking my coffee very light (with cream), no sugar, I pledge to focus more on The Whole.  

Thank you

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health Tech, Brains, and Bodies

Many thanks to my Stanford MedX friend, Mark Freeman, as well as Matt and Daniela, for having me on the Everybody Has A Brain podcast to chat about wearable health technology.

These awesome folks are responsible for one of my favorite healthcare takeaways: Everybody has a brain.  If you have a brain, then you have mental health.  Let’s normalize the conversation, then.

Mark and I discussed the pros and cons of my Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (CGM) experience, to include physical and mental components of using health technology.  I even sent along a not-so-perfect CGM photo to illustrate the sometimes-wonky T1D reality of Dexcom alerts.  Matt and Daniela then continued the chat on wearables.

Please take a listen (link below), and check out everybodyhasabrain.com to see other cool content.

Everybody Has A Brain podcast

Diabetes Campfire Stories

“Back in my day, we used pork-sourced insulin when I was diagnosed!” I may one day proclaim to my future grandchildren.

At this point in time, there will be a cure for diabetes and they will laugh off my fireside tales of the struggles of the past, oblivious to the hardships that generations before them have faced. Honestly, that’s how it should be if we aim to improve the world during our brief time here.

So many changes have occurred in diabetes treatments since my diagnosis just before my third birthday in the early 1990s. And I have not endured half of what rockstars like Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor have lived through regarding diabetes management processes! Change does not have to be a comparison battle, rather it should grant a clear perspective of just how blessed we are today despite a conniving autoimmune condition.

Almost one year ago I began using the Dexcom CGM (continuous glucose monitor) in the hopes of alleviating anxiety surrounding my diabetes. From the first day, I was absolutely floored by this product. Sure, it is technology and it is not the same as a properly-functioning pancreas. I have to carefully prep my insertion sites to avoid blistering rashes. And I am still waiting on my winning lottery ticket so that I can make my first purchase: a fulltime nurse who will check my blood sugar at night and will perform Dexcom insertions on me so that I do not have to do the one-handed pretzel move to get a sensor in my lower back.

Despite these minor issues, Dexcom is, in my humble opinion, the best quality product on the diabetes market. Due to many diabetes hurdles this year, I cannot boast of an A1C that drastically improved while on Dexcom, but I can say that my mental anguish regarding diabetes has lessened substantially thanks to Dexcom’s accurate readings. That, my friends, is half the battle. I still fear overnight lows, but I am much more confident that I will wake up thanks to Dexcom rattling and alarming from an empty coffee mug on my nightstand. I owe my life to Dexcom, as do many others. In the past, we all had to make do with what we had, and plenty of us survived prior to CGMs. But Dexcom is an added safeguard that makes life less complicated. It is the sort of change that is easy to embrace.

The Dexcom Facebook group was my true introduction to the diabetic online community. For the most part, this group is wonderfully supportive and non-judgmental- a place where we can all feel at home. We are able to share our scary moments and our triumphs with an audience who “gets it.” As I ventured off into the blogosphere, I fostered genuine friendships with others in the community, but I will always have Dexcom to thank for being the springboard to finding some of my largest supporters in fighting diabetes.

In grade school my mother used to drive to the auditorium to check my blood sugar every day at lunch. These were the infamous NPH and R days, and lunchtime was primetime for lows. My mother recalls seeing me file into the cafeteria with the rest of my class looking white as a ghost; she does not know how I had enough energy to even walk on some occasions when my blood sugar hovered in the 30s and 40s. There was no Dexcom back then to alert my teacher to the rapid decline.

On the playground in fourth grade, Michelle spoke the unfiltered truth. “I’m sorry that I didn’t invite you to my sleepover for my birthday. You could come if you weren’t diabetic, but my Mom doesn’t know how to take care of your diabetes so you can’t sleep over.”

In fairness to Michelle’s Mom, after twenty-four years of diabetes, I’m still trying to crack its code. I give her credit for recognizing that this disease is much more serious than an herbal cure remedy. Perhaps she could have coached her child on her delivery of the bad news a little more, but we can’t always have it all.

When I see the parents of children using Dexcom CGM post in the Facebook group about little Joey or Susie attending the first big sleepover of the school year, it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Those kids put up with enough pokes and prods, fingersticks and pump site rotations, Dexcom insertions and limited cake consumption that they warrant having some fun with their friends every once in a while. They deserve to stay up all night eating popcorn and watching movies, forgetting that diabetes exists while Mom and Dad rest comfortably at home watching the steady line of the Nightscout Project’s Pebble watch display or the Dexcom Share apps.

Enjoy that good type of change. Remember the freedom that this product affords us, even on the days where the calibrations seem a bit off. After all, we are dealing with type one diabetes; diabetes’ “calibrations” to everyday life are rarely on the mark. Innovative products like Dexcom CGM allow us to live life in the moment, to have an additional security blanket onboard, to do things that diabetics in the past may not have been able to do.

To the parents of the kids going to the sleepovers where Dexcom gets the invite, too: Your kids will thank you for allowing them to just be kids one day when they are old enough to realize the sacrifices that you made for them. One day we will all sit with our respective families around the campfire and talk about that first sleepover as a diabetic, the first time fast-acting insulin was introduced, and so on, until we can finally talk about the first big meal after the cure.

Keep up the good work.

Beginning of the End(o)

This week my endocrinologist is transitioning to a different medical office which is, realistically, too far away for me to travel to for future appointments.  This endo not only is a kind, non-judgmental doctor, but in my head she is dubbed as the “Basal Insulin Wizard.”  She has a knack for knowing which little adjustments need to be made to prevent or to fix huge problems.  She also deals with an inundation of emails in her inbox, mostly from me.  I pride myself on being an engaged patient, but I also understand that doctors do not have much time in the day to get everything done for every patient.

A few months ago I asked her, “Do your other patients email you like this?”

“Not really…” she replied.

And then we both had to take a moment to compose ourselves through a mutual fit of giggling.  Without saying much, we both totally got it.

I am intense in my emails, but I am also fighting for my health.  I appreciate a doctor who recognizes that and works with me.  Current Endo has done that, and I will miss the comfortable relationship we have built over the past few years.  Her new patients are blessed to have her on their team.

So, what am I going to do now?

I’ll tell you what I should have done: started searching for a new endo a few months ago when I was first told of Current Endo’s impending departure.  She gave me a few recommendations for a new endo at that time, and my nurse proclaimed, “If I were a type one diabetic, I would definitely get treated by _____!”  Naturally, I should have then booked an appointment with Endo _____.

But I didn’t.  Perhaps it was a bit of diabetes burn out, and I must now own that.  Perhaps it was a bit of denial that Current Endo was leaving.  Perhaps it was the fact that from a practical sense, I am tired of commuting many hours roundtrip for my diabetes care, albeit I feel strongly about the top-notch care I receive in Boston.

All I can do now is make a plan.  I will pick up the phone and schedule a new endo appointment this week.  Diabetes doesn’t take a vacation, and it certainly doesn’t care that my endo is switching offices.  I will rely heavily on my nurse during this transition period while I wait to meet my new endo.  This situation makes me so thankful for a nurse who is willing to put in the extra effort to help me to stay well.  She will rise to the occasion, and now I must do so, too.

New Endo will not replace the relationship- and possibly not the same skills- as Current Endo represents for me.  And that is okay.  People are inherently different in their attributes, and I am optimistic that whatever my relationship may become with the New Endo, it will be its own unique entity with positive results.  I must be thankful for the calm guidance of Current Endo, and I will remember her for that.

Warming up to New Endo may take some time.  I am a patient highly involved in my own care, and I’ve also made many major changes in my courses of treatment this year (Dexcom CGM, returning to multiple daily injections versus insulin pumping, and taking much larger insulin doses).  This is a lot of information for all of us to process, and sometimes the road may not be free of bumps.

For now, we’re just going to ride with it.

24. P.S. I Forgive You

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You have been a part of me for 24 years– which is 8,760 days- you selfish, conniving, jerk.

You have pierced my skin over 160,000 times.

On occasion, you have damaged my kidneys and my psyche, my relationships and my view of the world.

They were freak events- both my diagnosis and the insulin pump product defects that plagued me in my twenty-third year of dealing with your crap- but they happened to me, a living, breathing human being who did nothing to ever deserve that amount of suffering.

None of us did.

Today I am not mad at you, though.  I have spent enough time asking “Why?” to know that you don’t care why.  You just do as you do, whatever your flavor of the week is.  Sometimes the stars align and I get my insulin doses right for a day.  Other times, I go to bed frustrated with myself that I didn’t do better, although I know rationally that most of this is not that simple.

I want you to know, however, that there are things that you have not taken from me in 24 years of being an unwelcome guest dwelling in my body.  Through your efforts at taking, you have actually given me things: perspective, friends, academic opportunities, a passion for helping others, the therapies of writing and talking.  There is some reason for all of this, and many times I have known that God- and God-sent people- were the ones who got me through.

Why did I survive a disorienting and quickly-declining 46 mg/dL blood sugar value in my twenty-third year as a type one diabetic?  Frankly, without Dexcom CGM, I wouldn’t have survived, so that’s why.

Why do I read Facebook posts about children with diabetes, fighting back tears as their Moms and Dads document their struggles?  Because I know that these kids will grow up to be kinder, smarter, and more considerate for having gone through it.  And if we have to go through it, we might as well turn out as the type of people everyone would want to have as friends.  We might as well turn the bad into as much good as we can.

Why- as I sat in a waiting room in Boston, the sickest I had ever been with persistently high blood sugar that would not budge no matter what we did, scared and alone- did a doctor sit next to me quietly?  Why did she urge me to receive her treatment after I had run from it months earlier?  Why was she so confident that we could do this?

Why was she right?

We are doing this, and we’re going to continue to do this- to fight back, to live well.    

Why am I blessed when there are thousands of people all over the globe who may not have proper access to insulin and medical professionals?  I don’t know why, but I am cognizant of this idea today, especially.

Now, in my almost twenty-seventh year of existence, I have reached marker number twenty-four with type one diabetes.  It has not been easy, but it has been… something.  Some people never have this chance.  Some people are not diagnosed in time.  Some people die waiting for life-sustaining medication.

“Some people” are people who have feelings and families, and who could have bright futures, too.  Spare a Rose, Save a Child / Life for a Child get it right; those of us who are fortunate enough to have access to insulin can pay it forward with a few clicks of a mouse and a few dollars donated.

At least for today, diabetes, I want you to know that I forgive you.  I haven’t had it as hard as some.  In fact, I can count my blessings because of the perspective that you have given me.  There will be many more times that I will scream my lungs out in frustration with your stupid games.  But if I don’t forgive you right now, I will live however many more diaversaries there may be with a sense of embitterment at the life that I could have had without you in it.

Instead, today I recognize that living despite having you along for the ride is a gift in and of itself.  Please know that I am going to make the most of that life.  Thanks for reminding me to do so.

46.

46

Excuse the blurry image, but I’m sure many of you can commiserate: It is near impossible to take a good photo when your hands are wobbling like leaves in the wind, your heart is beating so far out of your chest that it has relocated itself to your brain where it continues to throb so loudly that you can hear it in your ears, and, to quote Eminem, your “palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.”  Yup, that’s a 46 mg/dL hypoglycemic event for ya…

Check out that diamond level ski slope on the CGM, too.  This was not your average low.  This one knocked me on my ass; sorry, but there isn’t a better way to put it.  It was a total beat-down delivered by the notorious bully, type 1 diabetes, and it left me pretty banged up.  I have not had a hypo like that in years.  I iced my bruises and got on with my life afterwards, but the sting was still there, and in some ways, it still is a few days later.

I remember waking up the morning of my senior year of college to a reading of 39 on my blood glucose meter, but I do not remember the same level of “you just got run over by a bus filled with screaming diabetics and then it reversed over you while shooting insulin into your wounds” sort of blood sugar hangover that I endured this weekend.

I must admit that I drank alcohol the night before.  He is a cute guy, he was driving, it was our first time getting drinks, and we frolicked all over the city.  I ate more than I normally do that day, and I monitored my blood sugar closely the entire time.  (You know you’ve found a potential winner when he makes sure to ask if your blood sugar is okay through out the night, FYI).  Anyway…  I am not sure if alcohol played a role here in terms of my liver’s functionality to release sugar.  This hypoglycemic event happened 12 hours after we had been out, and I was not severely intoxicated by any means.  I guess the diabetes guilt trip thing is taking precedence because all I seem to see is “well, this was somehow your fault” if I close my eyes and think about it.  It makes dealing with the reality of the really, reallyyy close call that I had a little bit more bearable in that I can control it in that way: “Bad Ally, be more responsible.”  It’s like the self-imposed diabetic version of the nuns in Catholic grade school, only with fewer trips to the timeout corner.

Well, I’m 26 and I think I deserved a drink with a friend after working and studying all week.  I know that is what my kind doctor would say if she even heard me mention the blame game.  This was not entirely my fault.  I will blog about this extensively later, but I am not in the mood to tell the tale right now.  The long story short is that I experience many problems with pump site insertions almost every time I change the pump.  It is a combination of bad timing and annoying factors; when my nurse finally finds a good location with “virgin skin” to try for a pump site (right now we’ve moved onto the lower back), then there will be some odd defect in the pump product randomly, and so on.  It is a series of unfortunate events that we are working to fix.  I had changed my pump after I got back from going out.  I woke up a few hours later to the Dexcom alerting to a 350 and the nausea that only ketones can cause.  Blah.  I dragged myself out of bed and changed the site, took a manual injection, and set alarms to check on my sugar for the remainder of the evening.

I slowly but surely came down from the high like a deflated balloon.  350 to 300 to 240 to 190 to 150 to 90 to 70 at wake up.  Perfect.  I made a mini bagel which was 20 carbs, ate it quickly, and planned to make eggs.  But then I felt so nauseous that I had to rest my head in bed again.  The nerves kicked in.  I’m low but I feel sick.  Should I call an ambulance?  Relax.  You just talked about this with your doctor.  She told you that you could do it, that you know exactly how to treat a low, that you are not dumb, that you are strong enough to face this.  That conversation had occurred on Monday, and in some soul-searching kind of way it rang in my ears as I consciously made a decision to fight for my life in that moment.  I did not quite realize what was happening yet because my mind was hazy from the low.  I was not simply “low”; I was in fight or flight mode, moments away from passing out.  It was like someone hit me over the head with a few unintended units of Humalog and I was staggering to keep my balance.  I wish that I was being my normal 20-something-year-old-female-dramatic-self, but I am not; this was a dire situation and it pains me to admit that.  I live by myself, so it was up to me to solve this problem in its immediacy.

The Dexcom continuous glucose monitor snapped me out of my fog momentarily to comprehend what was happening.  It was alarming repeatedly and I looked over and saw “LOW” in red writing.  Yeah, I know.  I clicked on the center button to see what my actual glucose reading was and gasped.  46 with a down arrow.  I lethargically stumbled to the fridge and chugged a bottle of juice before eating an entire cabinet full of food.  The rebound high blood sugar was very persistent, but I suspect a lot of that had to do with the fact that my liver had released sugar to keep me conscious while in the throes of the low.

All in all, 46 scared me.  It was a reminder of just how fragile life sometimes is with diabetes.  It knocked me off my pedestal and left a handprint across my face that lasted for hours.  My friends sent nervous text messages; my parents called to check in multiple times during the weekend.  I must accept that sometimes these lows may come out of the blue, as diabetes is a malicious jerk; we’ve been over this.  However, my doctor was right: I have 23 years of practice handling diabetes since my diagnosis at age 3; I know what to do.  But I sure am grateful that the Dexcom CGM was there to remind me as well.

I do not believe that the outcome would have been as favorable had Dexcom’s persistence not been there during the 46.  This is all the more evidence for Medicare and private insurance companies to cover continuous glucose monitoring for all diabetics.  And it is also all the more reason to hug your family, friends, doctors, and nurses tightly, to get down on your knees and pray for a cure, and to continue to support the diabetic online community in its advocacy efforts.  In the past, others were not as blessed to have CGM access as I was this weekend.  That concept is not lost on me.  I carry you all in my heart, and I promise to keep fighting on the bad days because of inspirational people like you.  Thank you…