Mike's Excellent Glucose Monitor Adventure


(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #15

Right now my sensor is being annoying. It’s having trouble getting reading. Says to check back in 7hrs :frowning:. I’ve been told that it’s from White cells sticking to the filament


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #16

2020/03/02 9:45 pm Attached the sensor. I have to admit when I saw that pin my first thought was “this is going to hurt”. It’s looks about 1/4 inch long. But it went in with no pain, although I did feel it.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #17

I activated the sensor a little after 7am. I’m posting this here as a reference. Almost everyone is talking in terms of mg/dL while my FreeStyle uses mmol/L. I need to have a reference to understand what others are talking about to compare my results. I’ll post my first morning’s results later. I first have to figure out just how to upload the raw data to LibreView to get the graph, then how to get the graph into here.

diabetes-chart-1-600x412


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #18

Gluconeogenesis at work. I’ve eaten 5 grams of carbs in the last 18 hours and 1.35 grams in the last 12 hours, which was my keto coffee this morning between 11a-12p. That appears to have raised my glucose from 5.5 to 6.3.


(Rebecca 🌸 Frankenfluffy) #19

Here in UK we measure in mmol/l too - I remember when I first came across BG numbers in mainland Europe and US I was staggered, assuming they were on the same scale, and thinking ‘how on earth is 100 normal, when surely if mine were 100 I’d be dead?!’

:rofl:


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #20

2020/03/03 16:30 19:00 20:00 PST Updates


I changed the ‘target’ limits to 3.5 x 6.5 mmol/L.

Meals:
11:00 - 12:00 Keto coffee
13:00 - 14:00 Main meal

BrAce: 16.5 ppm
Lumen: 5 (my first 5!)

Interesting. I’m in ketosis, have a 5.6 mmol/L glucose, heading for 5.4. And I blow a 5 on the Lumen! I wonder if the Lumen is better correlated with glucose rather than ketones? Hmmmmmm.

19:30 - 20:00 Secondary meal


Lumen - let the conversation begin :yum:
(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #21

2020/03/03 23:00 PST Update

22:30 - 22:45 Before bed bone broth nightcap

Day’s Meal Summary

Glucose Plot for day 1:

These numbers are higher than I expected. Mostly still within the ‘normal’ range, although the 6.6 and the two 6.3s are borderline. I expected I’d be in the mid-upper 4s. Well, the ups/downs from eating are fairly gentle and that’s good. Maybe both @KetoSnaps and @KetoCancerMom are correct and the first day readings are high and will come down. So we’ll see what happens over the next few days. I’m working tomorrow from 7am to 3pm, then I’m off both Thursday and Friday. It’s been an interesting day.

Grating the cacao butter for my bone broth nightcap:

The payoff:


(Rebecca 🌸 Frankenfluffy) #22

I think any first-day anomalies are down to site issues (damage to tissue) rather than the sensor itself - so I’d assume given that it had had a few hours to settle down overnight before you started it, what you’re seeing is the way it is - although if you’ve got blood testing strips it might be worth doing a fingerprick test for comparison. Having said that, my last reader (I’m on my second) did habitually read a little high. I don’t seem to have much variation from sensor to sensor themselves, though, which initially surprised me as I gather others do notice differences.

Two things I would mention both about the graph line and the numbers:

  1. I would be head over heels with delight at numbers such as these
    (Disclaimer: I have type 1 diabetes and therefore my body has access only to exogenous insulin - so my criteria for my own blood glucose satisfaction might of course not be the same as someone with functioning beta cells!)
    (Disclaimer 2: I actually have no idea what numbers even would be desirable in a non-diabetic! So maybe take my opinion with a pinch of salt.)

  2. The consistency looks really good, with not much variation in the numbers.
    It is my understanding that a smooth line is more desirable than peaks and troughs.
    The thing that has transformed my own graph line since slashing my carb intake is that it’s much, much smoother and flatter - which of course is why I’m doing it!

:grinning::grinning::grinning:


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #23

I’m not ‘unhappy’ with yesterday’s numbers. Just curious as to how I have normal glucose while in ketosis. I thought I’d be ‘low normal’. So maybe just another incorrect assumption disproved by data. I’ve been taking readings during the night whenever I awakened from sleep. The low point was 3.7 mmol/L which was bracketed about an hour apart by preceding and succeeding 4.3s. I’m 4.6 (05:30) now.

I’ll take reading periodically at work, upload the data when I get home mid-afternoon and post the graphs later.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #24

2020/03/04 Updates. Posting the 3 meals I’ve completed so far today and the glucose chart to 18:00. Wife and I are leaving for the rec centre in an hour, so I’ll post the remaining meal and glucose chart for the full day after we get home again later.

Note: I’ve decided to upload the meal details/summaries and the glucose plots to another server. I link to them for anyone who’s interested rather than including them in my reports here. That will encourage this topic to remain mostly an exchange of comments and ideas rather than a data dump. Hopefully.

05:30 - 06:00 Keto coffee
10:30 - 11:30 Secondary meal at work (included a 473 ml Sugar Free Red Bull)
17:30 - 18:00 Main meal
23:30 - 23:45 Nightcap
Day’s Meal Summary

Glucose Plot for day 2


Day in the life of...what is a typical days eating and drinking for you folks?
(Rebecca 🌸 Frankenfluffy) #25

No, I shouldn’t think you were unhappy - as I say, I’d be delighted with them! It’s great to have the means to see how great they are. :+1:

I’m reassured by your post that it’s possible for the body to have normal glucose when in ketosis (and in your circumstances of being without any metabolic disorder), because it shows (and I’m assuming based on your data that this might be the case for others) that the body isn’t having a blood glucose-related problem from being in ketosis.

Body’s working well, right?


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #26

Yes, I also find it very interesting that gluconeogenesis keeps glucose within the normal range. What I plan to do, possibly in week #2 of this sensor’s lifespan, is to try a couple fast days and a couple of eating but zero carb days to see what happens to glucose. If gluconeogenesis is, indeed, maintaining glucose within the normal range regardless of carb intake, then fasting and zero carbs should have little if any affect. I think the following is relevant.


(Central Florida Bob ) #27

This tendency to biohack or self-measure is why I’d like to get one of those GCMs. Here in the states it’s more of a hassle because I have to get my doc to prescribe one, which might mean another office visit to add to the cost. It would be interesting to have the data to be able to see the variation, but since I’ve never been Type2 (thanks to keto) I’m the only one who would be interested in those numbers.

I’ll be interested in your data.

I’ve noticed when I was doing ADFs that my BG was always lower at hour 36 of the fast than at hour 12. I don’t know how common that is, but my fasting BG runs around 100 now, while not doing those ~42 hour fasts.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #28

2020/03/05 Updates. Posting data for meals and glucose as I accumulate it during the day. I will simply overwrite the linked glucose plot as I update it during the day rather than post additional plots.

09:30 - 10:30 Keto coffee
13:30 - 14:00 Main meal
19:45 - 20:30 Secondary meal
22:15 - 22:30 Nightcap (Vanilla smoothy)
Day’s Meal Summary

Glucose Plot for day 3

Today’s glucose plot is more what I expected initially. So maybe the sensor was reading high the first couple of days while ‘breaking in’.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #29

Just in the couple of days I’ve been using this device, I find the data very interesting and I see ways to utilize it that never occurred before. I am even more convinced that monitoring glucose is probably more significant than monitoring ketones. Although I think it’s still a good idea to use some measure of ketones to confirm ketosis daily.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #30

2020/03/05 11:45 Well, this is very interesting, indeed! I just had a dizzy spell that lasted maybe a couple of minutes. It was enough to prompt me to hold onto my desk to make sure I didn’t fall over. I’m still not feeling quite back to normal and I’m going to lie down for a few minutes. Just checked the following:

BrAce: 14.1 ppm
Lumen: 3
Glucose: 5.2 mmol/L

So I’m in ketosis, burning fat and within the normal range of glucose. Not what I would expect to result in a dizzy spell. For those not following my Lumen discussion, you can see what I think the Lumen reading actually means here. I don’t get dizzy much. I can’t remember the last time it happened.

PS: Actually, I have a suspect. Low blood pressure. I’ve enjoyed blood pressure all my life on the low side of the normal range. I think sodium controls blood pressure and yesterday, while I drank my electrolytes (sodium) during my work shift, I did not consume any more at home. So I suspect my sodium is a bit low today so far. I’ll bump it up today to see if that fixes it.


(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #31

Here are my recent numbers. Gaps from a sensor error show up, and bad sleep on the 3rd skewed things.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #32

2020/03/06 Updates.

10:30 - 11:30 Keto coffee
14:15 - 14:45 Main meal
19:00 - 19:15 Secondary meal
20:30 - 20:45 Nightcap (creamy bone broth)
Day’s Meal Summary

Glucose Plot for day 4

I’ll be doing a 12 hour IF between now and my keto coffee at about 9-9:30 tomorrow morning.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #33

2020/03/07 Updates.

08:15 BrAce 16.5 ppm
09:00 - 10:00 Keto coffee
12:15 - 12:45 Secondary meal
19:15 - 20:15 Main meal
Day’s Meal Summary

Glucose Plot for day 5

The night’s IF got my glucose down to 2.9 mmol/L or 52.25 mg/dL. [REF]


How much to eat - newbie
#34

Any way to get this in the US without a prescription? So annoyed because I just came back from Italy twice in the last month and forgot all about getting one while I was there, ugh. I think that is one of the few countries that uses the same 80-100 count the US does instead of MMOL which would be too much for me to deal with