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Tracking Blood Sugar

eric.jain.name

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Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#51

Post by zaroth »

pimeys wrote: post #28
zaroth wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids transmitters get flaky after about 3 weeks, and I didn’t think you could reset an expired sensor on the G6 the way you could with the G5?

Should be possible with xDrip. Using the G5 still, so no real life experience. Some sensors get noisy sooner than the others. I noticed they work longer during the winter when its cooler. Last one worked for 4 weeks quite good, but in the summer they stopped working in less than two weeks.

I realized I wrote weeks - the transmitter is good for 3 months and gets flaky in the last couple weeks.

I found some pictures of someone replacing the battery on the transmitter of a G6. This is.... not really practical. [1]

What would be interesting is if you could pull out the internals and 3D print a new enclosure that had an actual user serviceable battery.

[1] - https://seemycgm.com/2018/07/12/g6-transmitter-battery-repla...

Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#52

Post by tjohns »

pimeys wrote: post #19
nknealk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dexcom has a similar sensor on the market that’s approved for insulin dosing decisions. I don’t know if any of the other continuous monitors have that particular feature which might be important to those who take fast insulins.

Dexcom G5 and G6 are the best available CGM systems for type 1 diabetics. What they add over the libre is a Bluetooth transmitter over the sensor, giving values to your phone every five minutes. Used together with xDrip and AndroidAPS it can easily safe the life of a person using insulin and not waking up to a hypoglycemia, me included. Or work as a part of a closed loop system. The problem with Dexcom is the price.…

I can understand why the sensor will expire, but why does the transmitter expire? Shouldn’t it just require changing a battery?

Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#53

Post by cpwright »

troydavis wrote: post #17
gwern wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to still be invasive: https://www.freestylelibre.us/support/faq.html#faqTabstab-3 > The sensor is applied to the back of the upper arm with a simple, disposable device called an applicator. When the sensor is applied, a small (5mm) filament is inserted just under the skin, and held in place with a small adhesive pad. 'Inserted just under the skin' means it's still invasive, but that sounds nicer than regular…

Per the people I know who have tried it, including the author of this post, it's totally painless. One can debate whether or not a filament you can't feel is invasive, but for all practical purposes it's the same as no filament. For clarity: the measurement you pasted is the length of the filament. The width/thickness is ridiculously tiny. Basically, this product has the same UX as a nicotine patch.

I have a Guardian 3 sensor from Medtronic, which I've been using for about a year. The initial insertion isn't "painful", but can definitely be uncomfortable, and there might be a bit of blood that leaks into the sensor cavity. Once it is in, there is no discomfort.

The adhesive tape which is needed to attach it to your skin is actually more uncomfortable than the sensor.

Combined with a 670G pump it has been a huge benefit for me. My A1C of 9.0 is now down in the 6's. My pump broke while I was on vacation for a week, and my control was clearly worse with pens and finger sticks than the pump and sensor.

Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#54

Post by bdcravens »

dboy1612 wrote: post #44
bdcravens wrote: post #24

I have the Medtronic MiniMed pump, which includes its sensor that the pump uses for automated basal dosing. Accuracy is similar to what others have described.

How well does the automated bits work? I've considered a pump in the past for that reason, but was always afraid what mistakes could happen.

Pretty well. You actually have to recalibrate it with traditional blood readings at least twice a day (and when it sees extremes) or it goes out of auto mode, and when it hits certain boundaries, it also turns off auto mode. It's worked great, and in a few months, I went from an A1C around 12 to around 7-8.

Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#55

Post by westoncb »

uncleberg wrote: post #18

I wear a FreeStyle Libre every day, AMA. It's very good for T1s, of course. It's reliable enough - the biggest downfall is that it's around 15 minutes behind real-time, ie, what you can measure with blood. Sometimes it can feel 'stuck' too, and change rapidly between a short amount of time. The second model, which I am waiting to try, includes Bluetooth alerts if a trend high or low is detected. This may make it even…

What do you mean by 'second model'? Like a new version of the FreeStyle Libre?

I just got my first CGM, FreeStyle Libre 14 day, 2 days ago :) The relief I've already experienced from not having anxiety about where my blood sugar is at has been incredible. That said, being able to set alerts for lows/highs and not having to manually scan the sensor would be huge improvements.

The way I was checking blood sugar before (finger pricks) it seemed like I'd gain relatively little by using a pump, but now I'm thinking a pump may be indispensable if used in combination with a CGM: Since I can now see how my blood sugar is changing in near real-time, if I have errors in dose size, I'm going to want to be able to make small correction...

Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#56

Post by westoncb »

ng12 wrote: post #13

> The sensors worked as advertised I mean... yes. They're a prescription medical device used by Type 1 diabetics to stay alive.

Unfortunately this means less than you'd think. See other comments on this thread on the subject of accuracy. Also, from my understanding, the current (still wanting) state of accuracy is the result of large improvements during just the past few years. Prior to that, CGMs were still prescription medical devices used by Type 1 diabetics to say alive.

And more unfortunately, it has been my experience that information about managing blood sugar given to diabetics by doctors is almost uniformly quite bad (I've received the same sort of overly simplistic, misguided instructions from 4 or 5 different doctors myself; now I just nod and let them finish speaking). As a result, nearly every other (non-engineer/scientist) diabetic I've been met has very bad numbers (A1C: three month average blood glucose)—as I would have too were I to follow my doctors' advice. Instead I have very good numbers which are a result of research and reasoning I had to do myself.

Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#57

Post by village-idiot »

beardface wrote: post #49
mrfusion wrote: post #41

Are there any devices that track insulin levels directly? That’s what I’d be most interested in. Folks conjecture that it’s your insulin response that causes weight gain rather than the blood sugar increase. They’re not as correlated as you’d expect! Source https://www.google.com/amp/s/optimisingnutrition.com/2015/05...

Summary: I have no citation but my understanding is that measuring insulin levels needs to be done from a blood draw, so a Freestyle Libre-type device wouldn't work. The Freestyle Libre and regular continuous glucose monitors measure glucose in the interstitial fluid under the skin - not blood. This is why the numbers can be wildly different to a blood glucose test done via finger-prick. From what I've seen while res…

Sounds like what you’d be interested in is insulin sensitivity, the ability to control blood sugar with the minimal amount of insulin possible. Sadly this is also a huge pain in the butt to measure, and the only way I’ve heard is to spike your blood sugar and time how long it takes to return to normal.

I personally use a keto mojo to measure blood glucose and blood ketone bodies. I’m not diabetic so I don’t need to use it, but I’m a fan of being able to tell how far into ketosis I am.

Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#58

Post by ng12 »

westoncb wrote: post #56
ng12 wrote: post #13

> The sensors worked as advertised I mean... yes. They're a prescription medical device used by Type 1 diabetics to stay alive.

Unfortunately this means less than you'd think. See other comments on this thread on the subject of accuracy. Also, from my understanding, the current (still wanting) state of accuracy is the result of large improvements during just the past few years. Prior to that, CGMs were still prescription medical devices used by Type 1 diabetics to say alive. And more unfortunately, it has been my experience that information a…

That's troubling. Which doctors have you been speaking to? I've always gone to see endocrinologists specializing in diabetes and have never had a doctor give me overtly bad advice.

Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#59

Post by georgebarnett »

uncleberg wrote: post #18

I wear a FreeStyle Libre every day, AMA. It's very good for T1s, of course. It's reliable enough - the biggest downfall is that it's around 15 minutes behind real-time, ie, what you can measure with blood. Sometimes it can feel 'stuck' too, and change rapidly between a short amount of time. The second model, which I am waiting to try, includes Bluetooth alerts if a trend high or low is detected. This may make it even…

I’ve been using my Libre with Miao Miao, Spike and Nightscout for getting a real time feed for a while now. It took some time to get a feel for how the sensors behave, but I’m happy with the setup - it’s certainly good enough for my goals.

I really like the real time data aspect which means I can access it easily on other devices.

I also still regularly use the official phone app to get a reading via NFC which suits certain circumstances for me and I find pretty accurate most of the time.

Re: Tracking Blood Sugar

#60

Post by westoncb »

ng12 wrote: post #58
westoncb wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately this means less than you'd think. See other comments on this thread on the subject of accuracy. Also, from my understanding, the current (still wanting) state of accuracy is the result of large improvements during just the past few years. Prior to that, CGMs were still prescription medical devices used by Type 1 diabetics to say alive. And more unfortunately, it has been my experience that information a…

That's troubling. Which doctors have you been speaking to? I've always gone to see endocrinologists specializing in diabetes and have never had a doctor give me overtly bad advice.

Always general practitioners. I tend to just visit them when I need a prescription now. I haven’t visited an endo since I never understood the purpose: I suppose they are more expensive and I can just use the internet. My A1c is generally high threes, so I’m not sure what else they could offer. I’ve asked general practitioners and they have never been more concrete than: endocrinologists can help you figure out which pump is right for you. But, internet.

Edit! High fives, not threes. See my comment below.

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