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Overall, how do you feel using a CGM affects your stress related to T1D management? If you’ve used one in the past, reflect on that experience to answer the question.
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Decreasing my stress is the wrong wording.
Using a CGM (hopefully) keeps me from an immediate appointment with the grim reaper.
Definitely more at ease.
I do not fully trust it , but it is a quick easy way to see how I am doing..
Using a CGM makes my life easier. I don’t have to keep stopping to do blood tests. It automatically communicates with my insulin pump, and the pump makes adjustments, as needed. I used to have to do all of those things myself. Definitely less stressful.
Before blood testing existed, I simply ignored everyting and hoped for the best. CGM has gone beyond blood testing and makes it possible to do a decent job of managing. Of course, there is more worry than in the “ignore it” days because now there is responsibility coupled to having actual knowledge/data.
I would probably not be here this long if it hadn’t come along.
It’s the arrows!! I raised 2 T1ds without the help of a CGM. They didn’t exist then. Being diagnosed myself at the age of 56, I find following the arrows can be stressful. It has so many good points don’t get me wrong. I do love it and don’t want to be without it, but being LADA, those 2 arrows down can be quite stressful. I can just imagine my poor boys, I can’t imagine following their arrows. However, at night time when they were sleeping or if they were sick, it would have been a gift.
I picked both. I am less stressed sleeping with CGM because it will catch lowes before they get too far. I get more stressed while driving. I can’t easily get to my pump with my seat belt on. I use a phone holder in one vehicle but checking SG is destracted driving hence more stressful. Still much better than pumping blind.
Using a CGM decreases my stress more by allowing me to see my low blood sugars coming on. It increases a slight bit because my husband can be on my case. -you going to take care of that-I did not see you eat anything-why is it to coming up.
Don’t have to carry my test kit everywhere
Makes T1D so much easier to manage. Prior to CGM I would be testing 10 times a day. Poor fingers. Only complaint I have with Dexcom G7 is that sometimes not accurate first day. Oh and the lousy adhesive. I use liquid SkinTac instead of patches. What’s the point of a smaller sensor if you have to add an over patch.
I agree. I think the G7 should have a larger adhesive
Overall, I am more confident with CIQ, but the alarms can be stressful and annoying, especially the unnecessary ones that come repeatedly.
The CGM is one of the most beneficial devices for T1Ds. Knowing my glucose level in real-time decreases my stress in managing my brittle T1D. The downside is the alarms, but Dexcom app has adequate tools to eliminate alarm-overload.
Both. Enjoy the ability to see my bg at any time, but frustrated with frequent inaccurate values. With that said, it makes clossed loop pumping much easier and keeps me in my target A1c target range.
Using a CGM is far and away better than finger sticks: better control, allows AID use with a pump, etc. It’s a life saver for those experiencing lows/severe lows. However, it can also be frustratingly stressful for unexplained highs and large swings if alarms go off if you’re not in the mindset of “Great! Now I can control it!” and more of “Damn! Now I have to control it!”
The convenience of being able to check blood sugar levels is so great!
But the alerts that cannot be turned off is Not!
Overall, CGM has made life much better. Reduces stress around worrying about unpredictable lows. The alarms and additional device management can also increase my stress at times. The last couple of days were associated with some CGM-stress. Sensor session ended just as I was getting into bed. Got up, replaced, comfortable that it would start reading in a couple of hours, but I failed to hit the last start CGM confirmation. Woke up in a rush for work with no readings. Started sensor, then about 1-2 later I get an alarm that my transmitter failed and needs to be replaced. Dang. Wasted a sensor. Then last night, with a brand new transmitter, I got multiple alarms of lost signal. I sleep so poorly as it is, such moments make me feel a little less appreciative. When it alarms that I’m heading down fast without symptoms, I quickly forgive it.
It has my back and protects me from severe hypoglycemia, a predator which has hunted me for 55 years. I know I can go to sleep and am extremely unlikely to be awakened by my wife frantically trying to revive me, or worse yet, a paramedic in my bedroom. I could be dead without CGM.
When CGM values are close to correct, stress disappears. Opposite, when values exceed acceptable variance, stress is magnified!
Agree!
On roller coaster days or on days when I have a stubborn high I watch my numbers too much and stress over them trying to stabilize but most of the time the CGM decreases stress. It would be extremely stressful to be without a CGM. I used to test 8-12 or more times per day before CGM and still unsure where my trend was going. I am so grateful for the CGM science and all it has done for my diabetes management.
Yes, the CGM is a major stress reducer. But I suffer from “alarm fatigue”. My biggest complaint is if my BG is going down but still above 180, the **** CGM keeps sending alarms. And it craves attention to actually tap “OK” to space out the alarm intervals. But still, the CGM is a major game changer for me and for so many other T1D! Therefore, a stress reducer across time.
Majlor decrease in the stress dept! Prior to CGM I was 15-0 fingersticks a day (why do many? Every time I got behind the steering wheel of my car I checked. I responded to too many accidents caused by impaired drivers to not check). I esp[ecially value the real time bg as well as the trend arrows and a day’s worth of flat-lining.
I am very aggressive in my T1D mgt, I aim for normal labs, my settings reflect the range of non-D people. My CGM allows me to do that. It is also far more accurate than the meter covered by my health plan. The covered meter routinely read higher than actual (learned about that issue at an Endo CME). purchased the highest rated meter, ran my own experiment. The CGM and the highest-rated meter were very close. The covered meter often 100+ points higher than actual. That led me have an insulin correctio bolus when that was the last thing I needed. I am grateful for the alarms – and there are many since my range for alerts s 60-120.
Data overload and intermittent errors increase my stress while the ease of frequent use definitely decreases stress. Considering how often I experienced frequent, disabling lows in the past, use of a CGM now has reduced the burden of living with T1D.
It’s the alarming that stresses me out
My stress decreases on days 2-7 of my G6 because it is pretty accurate then. My stress increases on the first and last 2-3 days of the session because at it time it proves totally inaccurate. Back to multiple finger sticks and eventually a call to Dexcom to replace the bad sensor.
Dexcom user since 2007— less than a year after diagnosis. Before insurance covered Dex, I paid cash and made use of every bit of data I could get—charting what happened with different foods and modifying how I ate to minimize spikes. On MDI I had random overnight low lows and the Dexcom alarms kept me alive when I was awakened at 70 — not 38!
Getting a CGM was also a great stress reducer for my husband. He didn’t have to wake me in the night to check my BG, he could just look at the CGM reader. The low alarm from DexCom really helped to wake me/us up if I really needed to make a correction.
I had a couple of times that I didn’t get a new transmitter before the weekend and had to wait a couple of days. Being without it made me realize how much I depend on my CGM.
Both.
I’m more OCD about blood sugars and management but I also can live more carefree in terms of lows because I know I’ll be alerted before it becomes an issue.
I feel much better
Using a CGM is great but it has definitely increased the stress levels. Lack of sleep is main factor. Fighting insurance and now medicare for supplies….. I could go on.
I love the CGM and wouldn’t do without it.
The only time I stress using a CGM is when I have inserted the last one on hand from my diabetes supply closet and I await delivery of the next shipment from supplier. I am grateful and thank the powers of goodness that I have T1 diabetes sister friends nearby and we often borrow from one another to cover each other’s ass until the next shipment comes. Otherwise CGM makes T1D life so much better and less stress filled.
I love my CGM! I live with epilepsy as well, so knowing that my pump will take care of things on its own if I fall out is a real blessing.
I think my seizure disorder developed AFTER having severe hypoglycemic episodes with increasing frequency. No seizures since taking relatively new anti seizure oral med w/o side-effect of brain-fogging liver-taxing Dilantin.
After the initial stress of learning how to apply a CGM & then learning how to avoid “compression lows” from commentators on this website, it’s more time in range, better control, better understanding and much less stress than ever. Cherry on top: last week’s grand jury conspiracy indictment for a prominent US Mussolini/Franco wanabe.
I was hoping for a choice of not increasing or decreasing my stress. I do worry less about going low, but I don’t know if my worry was enough to be called stressful.
I have been a person with Diabetes for 55 years, on an Insulin pump for over 40 years, along with using a CGM for over 11 (Medtronic and Dexcom) years. The best thing so far to maintain my overall health, including Diabetes.
I do not NEED to know what is now available every waking second of every day. The approach induces severe hyper-vigilance, dangerous obsessiveness that has zero tangible improvement to the quality of our lives. Evert five minutes is excessive data… I was never afraid before the technology existed. Too many are now solely because of it. If you do not immediately (and instantly) know your BG soooo what! I will not be taught fear because of this technology. A good and positive life is very possible without dependance on any tech, much less this tech. Maintenance is never cure.
the arrow that says that my blood sugar is increasing or decreasing quickly often causes me to take a little too much insulin or too much glucose.