Now this is interesting... receiver/meter interaction
So I wake up this morning after a nice solid night spent in the 130-140 range.
Walk to my office, take a calibration test. Meter says 118. Interesting, I think to myself. Maybe this is an indication of a soon to fail sensor? no longer reading well?
I calibrate anyway.
Less than 5 minutes later, the receiver vibrates and tells me in no uncertain terms that my meter is an idiot. Well, alright, it displays the blood drop.
Of course, I obey my new master, and take another meter test for a new calibration.
144!
The receiver was right all along!
And it knew it, too.
Fascinating.
This is the clearest example yet of something I've been noticing for a while, which is that from the perspective of how my body reacts, the Dex results make more sense.
Example: I've always wondered how I could get a hypo reaction from my liver when my blood sugars never drop below 90; well, the Dex is showing 60 following a rapid drop so it makes sense. My liver simply reacted fast enough the blood sugars never got to full hypo territory. This has happened to me by now, folks.
Another one is a bit more complex but has happened a couple times too. The Dex insists that I never rise over, say, 230, even though my meter claims as high as 280. Note that when I started rising, I would take insulin, and "catch" the trend before it realizes its full potential. Here is the thing. I feel quite different at 230 and 280. I used to be so well attuned to high blood sugars that I could normally guess to the nearest 10 with deadly accuracy, at least meter-wise. The thing is, it never crossed the line into feeling like 280.
Now comes the big question: from the perspective of long-term damage, what matters? blood sugars or "cell" sugars? (the Dex measures interstitial fluid) has anyone explored this topic? because if I were to take a guess, I'd say the latter more than the former. And if I'm right, then a little gizmo like the Dexcom can have an absolutely tremendous impact on long-term health of a diabetic - if properly managed by the patient. And it may also mean that the A1C is somewhat pointless when discussing finer granularity (that is, it can give you some general indication but may easily be useless at a full percentage point). Now I'm really curious.
Walk to my office, take a calibration test. Meter says 118. Interesting, I think to myself. Maybe this is an indication of a soon to fail sensor? no longer reading well?
I calibrate anyway.
Less than 5 minutes later, the receiver vibrates and tells me in no uncertain terms that my meter is an idiot. Well, alright, it displays the blood drop.
Of course, I obey my new master, and take another meter test for a new calibration.
144!
The receiver was right all along!
And it knew it, too.
Fascinating.
This is the clearest example yet of something I've been noticing for a while, which is that from the perspective of how my body reacts, the Dex results make more sense.
Example: I've always wondered how I could get a hypo reaction from my liver when my blood sugars never drop below 90; well, the Dex is showing 60 following a rapid drop so it makes sense. My liver simply reacted fast enough the blood sugars never got to full hypo territory. This has happened to me by now, folks.
Another one is a bit more complex but has happened a couple times too. The Dex insists that I never rise over, say, 230, even though my meter claims as high as 280. Note that when I started rising, I would take insulin, and "catch" the trend before it realizes its full potential. Here is the thing. I feel quite different at 230 and 280. I used to be so well attuned to high blood sugars that I could normally guess to the nearest 10 with deadly accuracy, at least meter-wise. The thing is, it never crossed the line into feeling like 280.
Now comes the big question: from the perspective of long-term damage, what matters? blood sugars or "cell" sugars? (the Dex measures interstitial fluid) has anyone explored this topic? because if I were to take a guess, I'd say the latter more than the former. And if I'm right, then a little gizmo like the Dexcom can have an absolutely tremendous impact on long-term health of a diabetic - if properly managed by the patient. And it may also mean that the A1C is somewhat pointless when discussing finer granularity (that is, it can give you some general indication but may easily be useless at a full percentage point). Now I'm really curious.
posted by Blinkered at 7:40 AM
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