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If you wear a CGM, how often do you notice your blood glucose levels are going low before your CGM alerts you?
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I go low at least daily. My CGM is latent or off probably twice a month.
It can be difficult at times to decide when to do a sensor warmup as I know changing BG levels during warmup can make my sensor be off.
Too often. Fortunately I have symptoms though sometimes subtle.
I set mine to alarm at 85, so usually it alarms before I feel sick, but sometimes when it’s dropping really quickly I’ll feel it coming. The other day at work I scanned the sensor and got a reading of 90 but had a snack anyway because I was hungry. About 2 minutes later the low alarm went off.
Mine goes off at 70, and I usually can’t feel a low until well below that.
I actually know more often than not even when I’m sleeping. I often wake up. It’s nice to have the back up though.
I am constantly checking my CGM, by habit. So, I often see when it is going low. I have several small snacks each day to offset the lows.
I check it occasionally during the day, particularly when my activity level varies from routine or when meal schedules shift from normal. Often I find that my BG is trending down, so I drink or eat extra carbs. In those cases I frequently find that my action is about 10 minutes before a “low glucose” alert.
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I do have a CGM, the 14 day freestyle libre, but it has no alerts or alarms. I think I appreciate that because I can scan constantly often day and night.
I have hypoglycemia unawareness. I recently got a service dog, mobility & DAD. She alerts me at 5 minutes – most times earlier – than my Dexcom G6. I feel much more confident now, traveling alone.
I’ve set the alarm on my Freestyle Libre 2 for 64, but I often wake up a few minutes before and cannot go back to sleep. It’s an excellent warning system and why I have a CGM. When they installed the alarm system, I started to use a CGM.
Perhaps the best thing about any CGM is that they allow you to constantly watch how YOUR body responds to various foods or routines and helps you anticipate changes (up or down) well ahead of any alarms. Of course in the middle of the night, that’s where the alarm comes in handy.
Because of hypoglycemia unawareness I rarely catch going below 65 before a low alarm sounds. I’m very relieved that the Dex 6 is available for me to use.
My Freedom Libre (not the newest version) does not provide alerts – I have to purposely scan the sensor to see what’s going on…. If the BG is out of range, either high or low – then it alerts.
I’ve become considerably less hypo-aware in recent years, due to a combination of getting my BG in much tighter control* and maybe just getting older. I used feel it in the 70s, even physical symptoms like my knees locking and making me walk funny, but now I don’t usually feel anything unless I’m < 60, dropping very fast, or both.
*Everyone knows that what feels "low" depends very much on your average level, right? For instance, if you are used to running in the 200s, the 120s can *feel* like a hypo even if technically it's above normal.
I wear a Dexcom and have little hypoglycemia awareness these days. Thank goodness I have my Service Dog, who regularly alerts up to 20 minutes before a low shows up on my CGM. When we first got her I thought she was making mistakes because I’d look at my Dexcom after a “poke” from her and it would be steady/fine and then, sure enough, within 20 mins with amazing regularity my blood sugar would drop. So grateful for the extra layer of protection.
I have mine in my watch so I see it often and can track trends.
I think I answered the question incorrectly, choosing “often”. I notice it only because I look at my pump or phone often so I can see if I’m trending down. As far as my body noticing if I’m low, never. I can no longer tell when I’m low.
Very rarely I’ll feel a low before the CGM if I’m dropping fast or if the sensor calibration is off .
I have hypoglycemic unawareness, but seem to notice lows more often now prior to the alerts. This has been a change in the last 3-4 months. Not sure why
I have no faith in Tandem’s Control IQ. I have been on the Tandem X2 for almost a year and still have to anticipate/corrections before I get any reaction from the Tandem X2 Pump.