CNN does a personal perspective piece on CGMs

(icky) #41

Okay, thank you.
I wouldn’t normally be so concerned about accuracy…
But if I’m getting readings of 40 at night… Then 15 points up or down does start to seem significant…

(GINA ) #42

Something to remember about the CGMs is since they are measuring the fluid under your skin and not your actual blood, there is a lag time for change. For me, it was about 20 minutes. So if your BG is on its way up or down, the CGM will be off if you test at the same time. I used a finger stick few times after eating, then monitored the CGM to see when they matched. It was consistently 20 minutes, either going up or going down. Fasting, it was always within a couple of points. It has been 4-5 years since I last used a CGM, but it was a Libre.

(icky) #43

Just updating this to say that I just tried a Dexcom CGM too now but wasn’t very happy with it…

I found the Dexcom App way more frustrating than the Abbott FreeStyle Libre one… With the Abbott App, it basically did everything I wanted it to do… Felt like how I would’ve designed a CGM App myself, basically… With the Dexcom App I was just annoyed from start to finish and found it very cumbersome and hard to read the values in the curve, etc…

Also, the Dexcom Sensor only lasts 10 days vs Abbott’s 15, so you’d need 3 per month instead of two.

For me, another problem was that I had some mild-to-medium allergic reaction to the sticky stuff on the sensor of the Dexcom one, that it sticks to your arm with… So I actually yanked it off after 3 days and threw it in the bin because it was just too itchy. (I should say that I get allergic reactions to some plasters generally, so this certainly won’t apply to everyone…)

(Tracy) #44

That’s interesting, how did they compare price wise

(B Creighton) #45

I try to eat a few ounces of berries almost every day - even on keto. When not doing keto the rest of the year, I have switched to whole fruits for desserts, rather than the processed stuff, and successfully maintained my weight loss and low blood pressure. It works for me.