Sarah Howard (nee Tackett) has dedicated her career to supporting the T1D community ever since she was diagnosed with T1D while in college in May 2013. Since then, she has worked for various diabetes organizations, focusing on research, advocacy, and community-building efforts for people with T1D and their loved ones. Sarah is currently the Senior Manager of Marketing at T1D Exchange.
So what else is new? Bells, arrows, screeches, whistles. I do love the Control-IQ, however, in which I am flatline from about 10:30 to 5:30. Pump is still fussy about signals, kinks, blockages, etc ¯_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯ ¯_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
My dexcom reads super low every night before stopping to read. I think I have heard the term “pressure drop”. It alarms every night. If someone knows how to stop the alarms, please tell me.
I agree – Control IQ does help flatten my overnight results; however, it sends me notices telling me I was high, or low 2 hours ago so those can come in the middle of the night, the cartridge is below a pre-determined amount, it cannot connect, etc. I wish there was a way to turn off those alerts when sleeping (unless it requires immediate action).
I agree with Rick and Ahh Life about CIQ. Awesome overnight control, but there are alarms that are not important for which I get woken up which is most annoying night after night. I recently took a pump break and could not help remarking several times a day how great it was to have no alarms.
I’d say 80% of the time I do not have alarms at night. Then I hit one of the periods when 4 to 5 hours after my last food of the day, I go high at night. I have no idea why this happens. Or why I don’t go low earlier in the evening if my insulin is outpacing my food. When it happens, it lasts for one to two weeks. Once I see the trend, I try to adjust for it.
This is my biggest complaint for the 670G and now my 770G. If my SG IS CONSTANT but at 70 or 80 and the algorithm doesn’t call for basil pulse for over 2 hours, it sends out an alarm to do a blood test. This is a pain! This is unnecessary. Why do I need to be to be awakened for this? Its as if the algorithm doesn’t trust the sensor. I have looked for a way to extend the time or mute this type of alarm but have not been able to find a setting for that. One other frustration I have is more on my side. If I don’t to a blood test before I go to bed then the sensor times out I get an alarm to do a blood test. To fight this I set a alarm on my phone to do a blood test before I go to bed. There should be some overnight blood test warning.
I would agree that my Medtronic 670G alarm system regularly asks for a BG in the night. So I wake up and put in the current number showing because I am not going to get up and take a blood sample if all is going well. It is a nuisance.
Before the age of being a senior, I could sleep through the night even with LADA. However, now that I am in my 70s, I have to get up for a trip to the ladies room. I scan my Freestyle Libre at that time too, sometimes eat some gumdrops, and hopefully go back to sleep. Giving up caffeine has helped a lot with sleep, so cut off caffeine by noon. Turning off the screens for awhile before bedtime also helps sleep. It is always hard to separate T1D with other factors because everything is connected inside the body, mind, and spirit.
I’m so tired of interrupted sleep that I am strongly considering moving away from the Tronic and using the tandem system along with decks calm. I’d love to hear from others as to their experience with tandem
Bladder wakes me more than T1D. I do not have a sensor. Changed my mind after reading about TIR getting so good with Censor but now am back to NO if the alarms are going to make me lose sleep. I’ve never had a bad episode during sleep and only about 2 when awake in over 20 years. A1C is 5.9 pre
At my recent visit with my endo, I told her I was fed up with the “Mickey Mouse” alerts from my Tandem Tslim2 with control IQ and ws thinking of taking a “pump-cation”. I get nonsense alarms that are of no use to be aside from waking me up. For example, if my b/s is rises as the result of a meal, and for which I have bolused for, I get an alert and woken up. Then I get another alert five minutes later saying that ControlIQ is adjusting my basil. If I go low, the pump/cgm wakes me up as it is supposed to. I treat the low, but out continues to wake me up as it takes time for the carbs to hit my interstitial fluids. I get continuously awakened until the pump/cgm catches up with reality. I am really fed-up with this cycle, its impact on my sleep cycle and my lifestyle. I have been told that in order to get approval from the FDA the alarms are needed without my ability to control them. My endo told me that she has many patients who are also suffering from “alarm fatigue” and advised me to change my thresholds to at least reduce the impact of the alarms. I see this as lessening the effectiveness of the pump/cgm. Previously. I had a DAD dog who was much more user friendly and could get the upcoming lows far sooner than the pump. Once I treated a low, I only had to give him the command that I was OK and he would then resume watching over me and let me rest. He was smarter and more user friendly than the pump/cgm.
I use the tslim and Dexcom and gave CIQ and find in “sleep mode” I rarely get woken up. Reading the comments about being woken up so often from his pump makes me wonder if he knows there are some that can be turned off…and I also keep mine on “vibrate”.
Same here. Just about every night there is some type of alarm going off. My poor husband gets so frustrated from these alarms so I discovered if I sleep on my belly and tuck the pump under me I can quiet them and he doesn’t feel/hear the vibration so easily. He works construction which are long/hot days and needs his sleep. I wish I could somehow subdue the alarms. I also get the lost sensor alarms etc. Just frustrating and always hoping for improvements after 46 years of Type 1. We have made great big strides…hope they continue.
Last night, already to get snuggly into bed and it started in. I stood there running in place (holding my breasts up because I’d already taken off my bra) to get sugar to drop, not for the first time this week. And I created a nasty little chant to vent my frustration as I did so. And the little bugger kept screaming at me, so I bit it. Duh. Don’t recommend. Now I’m $200 for a Dexcom receiver. But it felt a little good at the time. I am pissed off with this and have been such a good sport for Too Long!!
I silenced all of the alarms except the required ones (low blood and sensor/transmitter expiration). I had a nice alarm just last night for a 33 BS. I suppose keeping one alarm worked in my favor! ;p
I think some need to adjust alarms. I answered 7 days because my alarms and CGM are correct for me and usually I’m grateful for them. But if it’s not a BG issue it’s pain and discomfort from complications after T1D 52 yrs.
I am working on Ciq trying to trick it lower than the 110 because I got better bg with basil iq. So it is a work in progress. I had a, for me, perfect flattish line last night fluctuating between 87 and 112. I hope I can repeat that. My alarms are set at 80 for low and 120 for high. #ocdt1d
I invariably get woken around 4am because my pump wants me to enter a Blood Sugar reading. I just tell it what the CGM says it is and it is happy. I guess i should read the manual and find out why!
I’m rarely woken at night but I FASTED Friday/Saturday (skip dinner, only rest fruit for glucose levels, than eat dinner Saturday) so I set my alarm for 2AM for safety. BTW lost 12 pounds in 2 weeks although I admittedly watched my diet closer and got called to work Saturday.
It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one getting seriously irritated by the alarms, but also disheartening. I have a 670g now. I miss my Dexcom daily. The 670g is not as accurate and seems to be extremely sensitive if the site isn’t perfect. And particularly sensitive to compression. The pump alarms when I near the low threshold every 5 minutes until I’m nowhere near the low threshold. So I could be holding steady at 5 points above and I’d get notified every. 5. minutes. all. night. long. I’ve taken to just turning it off at night when I realize it’s going to be one of THOSE nights. I just need some sleep!
I have learned to sleep with my pump under a nearby pillow. This doesn’t always work. I often need to stay up a bit late in order to prevent alarms. Tandem control IQ and Dexcom during my sleep mode with vibration still alert me many times during the night for numerous reasons that can’t/don’t need to be dealt with immediately.
My blood sugars dropped quickly this morning while I was sleeping. I have become very good at snoozing my pump alarm, unfortunately, and by the time I managed to wake myself up to eat some honey, I was at 2.2
So what else is new? Bells, arrows, screeches, whistles. I do love the Control-IQ, however, in which I am flatline from about 10:30 to 5:30. Pump is still fussy about signals, kinks, blockages, etc ¯_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯ ¯_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
2 times due to pump alarms (Medtronic 670G): 1 for a lost sensor signal and 1 for a sensor calibration.
My dexcom reads super low every night before stopping to read. I think I have heard the term “pressure drop”. It alarms every night. If someone knows how to stop the alarms, please tell me.
I agree – Control IQ does help flatten my overnight results; however, it sends me notices telling me I was high, or low 2 hours ago so those can come in the middle of the night, the cartridge is below a pre-determined amount, it cannot connect, etc. I wish there was a way to turn off those alerts when sleeping (unless it requires immediate action).
I agree with Rick and Ahh Life about CIQ. Awesome overnight control, but there are alarms that are not important for which I get woken up which is most annoying night after night. I recently took a pump break and could not help remarking several times a day how great it was to have no alarms.
I’d say 80% of the time I do not have alarms at night. Then I hit one of the periods when 4 to 5 hours after my last food of the day, I go high at night. I have no idea why this happens. Or why I don’t go low earlier in the evening if my insulin is outpacing my food. When it happens, it lasts for one to two weeks. Once I see the trend, I try to adjust for it.
This is my biggest complaint for the 670G and now my 770G. If my SG IS CONSTANT but at 70 or 80 and the algorithm doesn’t call for basil pulse for over 2 hours, it sends out an alarm to do a blood test. This is a pain! This is unnecessary. Why do I need to be to be awakened for this? Its as if the algorithm doesn’t trust the sensor. I have looked for a way to extend the time or mute this type of alarm but have not been able to find a setting for that. One other frustration I have is more on my side. If I don’t to a blood test before I go to bed then the sensor times out I get an alarm to do a blood test. To fight this I set a alarm on my phone to do a blood test before I go to bed. There should be some overnight blood test warning.
I would agree that my Medtronic 670G alarm system regularly asks for a BG in the night. So I wake up and put in the current number showing because I am not going to get up and take a blood sample if all is going well. It is a nuisance.
Before the age of being a senior, I could sleep through the night even with LADA. However, now that I am in my 70s, I have to get up for a trip to the ladies room. I scan my Freestyle Libre at that time too, sometimes eat some gumdrops, and hopefully go back to sleep. Giving up caffeine has helped a lot with sleep, so cut off caffeine by noon. Turning off the screens for awhile before bedtime also helps sleep. It is always hard to separate T1D with other factors because everything is connected inside the body, mind, and spirit.
I’m so tired of interrupted sleep that I am strongly considering moving away from the Tronic and using the tandem system along with decks calm. I’d love to hear from others as to their experience with tandem
Bladder wakes me more than T1D. I do not have a sensor. Changed my mind after reading about TIR getting so good with Censor but now am back to NO if the alarms are going to make me lose sleep. I’ve never had a bad episode during sleep and only about 2 when awake in over 20 years. A1C is 5.9 pre
Ugh! Pretty consistently. I get very hot when I go low on my sleep and it wakes me up. Now I’m not sure what I want to do.
At my recent visit with my endo, I told her I was fed up with the “Mickey Mouse” alerts from my Tandem Tslim2 with control IQ and ws thinking of taking a “pump-cation”. I get nonsense alarms that are of no use to be aside from waking me up. For example, if my b/s is rises as the result of a meal, and for which I have bolused for, I get an alert and woken up. Then I get another alert five minutes later saying that ControlIQ is adjusting my basil. If I go low, the pump/cgm wakes me up as it is supposed to. I treat the low, but out continues to wake me up as it takes time for the carbs to hit my interstitial fluids. I get continuously awakened until the pump/cgm catches up with reality. I am really fed-up with this cycle, its impact on my sleep cycle and my lifestyle. I have been told that in order to get approval from the FDA the alarms are needed without my ability to control them. My endo told me that she has many patients who are also suffering from “alarm fatigue” and advised me to change my thresholds to at least reduce the impact of the alarms. I see this as lessening the effectiveness of the pump/cgm. Previously. I had a DAD dog who was much more user friendly and could get the upcoming lows far sooner than the pump. Once I treated a low, I only had to give him the command that I was OK and he would then resume watching over me and let me rest. He was smarter and more user friendly than the pump/cgm.
I use the tslim and Dexcom and gave CIQ and find in “sleep mode” I rarely get woken up. Reading the comments about being woken up so often from his pump makes me wonder if he knows there are some that can be turned off…and I also keep mine on “vibrate”.
Same here. Just about every night there is some type of alarm going off. My poor husband gets so frustrated from these alarms so I discovered if I sleep on my belly and tuck the pump under me I can quiet them and he doesn’t feel/hear the vibration so easily. He works construction which are long/hot days and needs his sleep. I wish I could somehow subdue the alarms. I also get the lost sensor alarms etc. Just frustrating and always hoping for improvements after 46 years of Type 1. We have made great big strides…hope they continue.
Last night, already to get snuggly into bed and it started in. I stood there running in place (holding my breasts up because I’d already taken off my bra) to get sugar to drop, not for the first time this week. And I created a nasty little chant to vent my frustration as I did so. And the little bugger kept screaming at me, so I bit it. Duh. Don’t recommend. Now I’m $200 for a Dexcom receiver. But it felt a little good at the time. I am pissed off with this and have been such a good sport for Too Long!!
I silenced all of the alarms except the required ones (low blood and sensor/transmitter expiration). I had a nice alarm just last night for a 33 BS. I suppose keeping one alarm worked in my favor! ;p
I think some need to adjust alarms. I answered 7 days because my alarms and CGM are correct for me and usually I’m grateful for them. But if it’s not a BG issue it’s pain and discomfort from complications after T1D 52 yrs.
I am working on Ciq trying to trick it lower than the 110 because I got better bg with basil iq. So it is a work in progress. I had a, for me, perfect flattish line last night fluctuating between 87 and 112. I hope I can repeat that. My alarms are set at 80 for low and 120 for high. #ocdt1d
I invariably get woken around 4am because my pump wants me to enter a Blood Sugar reading. I just tell it what the CGM says it is and it is happy. I guess i should read the manual and find out why!
I’m rarely woken at night but I FASTED Friday/Saturday (skip dinner, only rest fruit for glucose levels, than eat dinner Saturday) so I set my alarm for 2AM for safety. BTW lost 12 pounds in 2 weeks although I admittedly watched my diet closer and got called to work Saturday.
It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one getting seriously irritated by the alarms, but also disheartening. I have a 670g now. I miss my Dexcom daily. The 670g is not as accurate and seems to be extremely sensitive if the site isn’t perfect. And particularly sensitive to compression. The pump alarms when I near the low threshold every 5 minutes until I’m nowhere near the low threshold. So I could be holding steady at 5 points above and I’d get notified every. 5. minutes. all. night. long. I’ve taken to just turning it off at night when I realize it’s going to be one of THOSE nights. I just need some sleep!
I have learned to sleep with my pump under a nearby pillow. This doesn’t always work. I often need to stay up a bit late in order to prevent alarms. Tandem control IQ and Dexcom during my sleep mode with vibration still alert me many times during the night for numerous reasons that can’t/don’t need to be dealt with immediately.
My blood sugars dropped quickly this morning while I was sleeping. I have become very good at snoozing my pump alarm, unfortunately, and by the time I managed to wake myself up to eat some honey, I was at 2.2