A personal experience of CGM

Aqui fica um excerto de um texto giríssimo publicado por um funcionário da JDRF que não sofre de T1D, mas que quis experimentar um medidor contínuo de glicémia, para perceber um bocadinho melhor como é viver com esta doença. Leia tudo aqui: A personal experience of CGM

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So what is CGM? It is not a replacement for fingerpricks, that’s for starters. The benefit of CGM is a more detailed picture of the daily journey of glucose levels. Comparing CGM to fingerpricks is kind of like comparing Facebook to Twitter. Facebook has photos, games, lists, movie preferences and periodic status updates, while Twitter condenses the nuances of daily life and captures it all in 140 characters. They do different things but if you’re dedicated to social media, you appreciate them both.

CGM measures interstitial fluid; a fluid with which I was not previously familiar. Interstitial (which is pronounced inter-stish-ul) is the fluid between cells in tissue. Glucose hits blood first and interstitial fluid later. CGM takes a reading every 10 seconds, then batching that info into 5 minute averages to send to the monitor, so it gives a different level of information to a fingerstick. The trend information on the monitor and the ability to review and visualise daily movements can help to read the past and predict the future of blood glucose.

So CGM doesn’t give you an escape card from fingerpricks. Fingerpricks give a more accurate, point in time reading of blood glucose. I learned that the quality of the information you get out of CGM is dependent on the information you put in. When you give the CGM a fingerprick reading, it helps produce accurate trend charts. The accepted range is that CGM readings can vary from a fingerprick by 20%.

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It was fascinating to see the glucose trends after meals. My daily carb hit is my big morning bowl of porridge. To see the impact on my glucose in black and white on the little CGM screen was quite compelling. To be honest, I spent a fair bit of time peering at my tiny little screen. It became a bit compulsive.

I really tried to understand those little numbers, I tried to predict. Sometimes that was possible, other times not. I gained a tiny sliver of understanding of the intense frustration that people with type 1 diabetes experience when levels don’t do what they’re supposed to. I can see how your mood can become tied to that little (or not so little) number. You do everything right, you weigh, you measure, and still the result comes out all wrong. Kind of like baking a cake without a recipe. Or, with a recipe but being really bad at baking.

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By a JDRF staff member