Wife is 83, Type II, diagnosed in 2001. She is not very good about dieting.
She takes five injections daily, does (or did, before the CGM) three finger sticks:
-- AM: Lantus and Novolog (Novolog on sliding scale depending on finger stick reading)
-- NOON: Novolog
-- PM: Same as AM
Over the past 5-6 years she has had 2-3 hypoglycemic episodes per year with BG 40 - 50. Every one of these was traced to having missed a meal -- traveling and meal schedule as messed up; didn't want to eat; sewing on a quilt and did not want to stop to eat; etc. I'm an old EMT, we keep a stock of 15g packets of glucagon. With each episode, I administer one glucagon, call 911, administer a second glucagon, and make a PBJ sandwich. Medics have never transported her because after they arrive, she is up to 120 or so, feeling good, she eats, we have a nice visit with the medics, and that's it.
Three weeks ago she got a Libre 3. Sensor is set with 70 as low limit. We have had two episodes where the reader beeped and indicated 66.
-- First incident finger stick with her old meter showed 90 while reader was beeping at 66. We did one glucagon and a PBJ just to be safe. CGM reader went up to 110, finger stick showed 120. Did not call 911.
-- This morning we were awakened with the reader beeping and showing 66. Finger stick showed 109, reader still beeping at 66. One glucagon, one banana, PBJ. After a few minutes, the reader started beeping high warning, 250. Our doc told us he's not worried about occasional high readings so we ignored it.
All this happened between 5:45 AM and 6:30 AM. It's now 9:00, she's napping, reader shows 196.
Prior to getting the CGM she did three finger sticks daily, AM, NOON, PM, and used that reading to set her Novolog according to sliding scale.
We are thinking the CGM is either not reading correctly, or, not communicating with reader, or this is just the way it is so get used to it.
We got the GCM because in all her hypoglycemic episodes, she faded out, I noticed she was fading, not responding, looked as though she had nodded off. We are afraid she may have a hypoglycemic episode that I don't notice and it proves fatal, hence the CGM to warn us.
So -- I guess the point of my post is that (1) we will continue to use the CGM to warn of low BG, and, (2) when we get a low BG alarm from the CGM, we will double-check with a finger stick.
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