a lifetime of diabetes (pt. 3)
For 10 years, from 1998–2008 nothing out of the ordinary happened in the world of diabetes. Insulin changed very little (Lantus / long acting insulin got slightly better, Humalog / fast acting insulin started working a little faster). I had the same ups and downs. I still had to test my blood sugar levels 5 times a day (minimum) so I knew how to live — and I still had extreme highs and lows. Nothing was making it any easier.
Insulin pumps were on the market. They were a source of constant insulin, where instead of injecting insulin at mealtimes / during high blood sugar times — they pumped for you. I never had a problem injecting insulin wherever/whenever I needed it, so I was never interested in a pump. My A1C tests were generally between 7 and 8.5. That’s a little high, but I know people who had regular A1C results at 14. FOURTEEN? Are you kidding me? That is so high! I would have been an irritable piece of shit person had my blood sugar been that high for that long (that’s a 350 average. YIKES!)
Fast-forward to 2009.
I was living in Portland. I was riding a bicycle all over and had a great doctor at OHSU (the hospital with a tram). Doctor informed me about a clinical trial for a Continuous Glucose Monitor.
A Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) is a small device with a sensor wire inserted under the skin. It measures interstitial glucose level, which is the glucose found in the fluid between the cells (not blood).
The tricky part at first is the short delay of your readings. Blood sugar tests are RIGHT NOW. It measures what your blood sugar level is at the time of testing. CGM’s are measuring fluid and translating that — so it’s about a 10 minute difference. A HUGE benefit of a CGM is the trending graph:
You can set your own levels (the grey area) and your goal is to keep your BS in the grey. The graph shows how your blood sugar is trending (up or down) so you can anticipate and correct when needed.
You can see in my personal graph above where I ate dinner (the spike under 3HR). That’s the stuff you don’t get to see without a CGM. You can test your blood sugar, but it just gives you a number right now. If you want to poke your fingers every five minutes, you can built up a graph for yourself (and lose feeling in your fingertips).
Continuous Glucose Monitors are a lifesaving breakthrough.
My first clinical trial in 2009 had me wear 2 CGM’s for 5 days. It was kind of a blind study, so I didn’t know the company was Dexcom. CGM’s were still in development. They were thicker / stuck out a little more, so I had to wear one on either side of my belly button and carry around a receiver display for each of them (nowadays info is sent to the dexcom app on your phone so you don’t have to carry around a separate device).
The receivers had the number and the graph. I was amazed to see exactly how riding a bike 4 miles to/from work every day effected my blood sugar. The graphs would go straight down. I knew the exercise lowered my BS, I just wasn’t aware of how quickly it went down EVERY TIME.
It was another 5 years until I was able to get a Dexcom system of my own. In fact, I love them so much I continue to do clinical studies for all sorts of CGM’s (and other diabetes related products) through a wonderful Diabetes Research Center in Santa Barbera . (the picture of me wearing 4 dexcoms above is from a study this year, hence the mask)
