CGM, curse or blessing?

[Guest guest]

Continuous Glucose Monitoring: The Joys and Pains

Garlinghouse

Jul 1, 2011

" Good news, " my diabetes <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/> nurse educator

says to me. " Your new insurance covers continuous glucose monitoring

supplies! " I give her a half-smile as my brain screams at me, " CGM

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/products/cgms/> ? Really? Something

else to deal with on top of this damn disease, an insulin

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/products/insulin-pumps/> pump,

exercise <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/fitness/exercise/> , and

nutrition? " But I comply, and a CGM is added to the rest of my

paraphernalia.

A few nights later, I hear, BEEP, BEEP, BEEEEEP! The sound of failure alarms

me at 2:00 a.m. My blood sugar

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/monitoring/blood-sugar/> is high.

Again. I get up, test, inject, guzzle a glass of water, and flop back into

bed. Thirty minutes later, my CGM alarms me again. And it continues every

half-hour until my blood sugar returns to a normal range. I wake up for the

day already exhausted.

Right after breakfast and before I head to the gym, my CGM beeps again, this

time alerting me to a low

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/low-blood-sugar

/> blood sugar. I look at my pump and it displays a threatening number, 82,

alongside two double arrows indicating that my sugar is dropping quickly. I

sigh, test, roll my eyes, and gulp down half a glass of grape juice. And

then, every ten minutes for thirty more minutes, my CGM yells at me, daring

me to attempt to work out.

CGM technology can be wonderful. I have avoided nights of extreme highs

(sleeping in a comatose state of sugar-induced bliss) and driving my car

during dangerous lows. I have been able to better control my diabetes. My

A1Cs <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/monitoring/a1c-test/> are

usually better when I've been using my CGM. But, in all honesty, sometimes I

just don't want to know. I want to live in oblivion.

The CGM also has what I consider to be a high rate of error. While my pump

may report my blood sugar is 130, it could very well be 80 and dropping.

Sometimes my blood sugar is normal when the CGM says I'm low. I might be in

the middle of an enjoyable moment, such as dinner

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/food/dinner/> with friends, when the

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP interrupts the conversation to alert me that again, I might

not have great control. Stop. Test. Sigh. Correct (or not). Try to be happy

again. Try to be normal.

Syringes <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/products/syringes/> , a pump,

a CGM---while these are all important to diabetes management, they are not a

cure. Not even close. I dare say that sometimes, life is harder rather than

easier with greater technology. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Of course,

good diabetes management is important, and technology helps one obtain

better management, but there is always a cost: a " BEEP " during a special

moment, a bad pump set that prevents you from enjoying your own birthday

cake, or the occasional sting of a syringe that reminds you that you are

not, in fact, anywhere close to normal. You have diabetes. Your life is

different---forever and always.

I will only have peace when there is a cure---a cure that works and that

doesn't compromise my ethics. I hope and pray for a cure, but meanwhile, I

try to live my best life possible by doing what I know I'm supposed to:

eating well, exercising, pumping, and listening and responding to the

insistent beeps of my CGM.

_____

Categories:A1C

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/a1c/> , Blood

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/blood-glucose/>

Glucose, <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/monitoring/blood-sugar/>