LifeAfterDx--Diabetes Uncensored

A internet journal from one of the first T1 Diabetics to use continuous glucose monitoring. Copyright 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

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Location: New Mexico, United States

Hi! I’m William “Lee” Dubois (called either Wil or Lee, depending what part of the internet you’re on). I’m a diabetes columnist and the author of four books about diabetes that have collectively won 16 national and international book awards. (Hey, if you can’t brag about yourself on your own blog, where can you??) I have the great good fortune to pen the edgy Dear Abby-style advice column every Saturday at Diabetes Mine; write the Diabetes Simplified column for dLife; and am one of the ShareCare diabetes experts. My work also appears in Diabetic Living and Diabetes Self-Management magazines. In addition to writing, I’ve spent the last half-dozen years running the diabetes education program for a rural non-profit clinic in the mountains of New Mexico. Don’t worry, I’ll get some rest after the cure. LifeAfterDx is my personal home base, where I get to say what and how I feel about diabetes and… you know… life, free from the red pens of editors (all of whom I adore, of course!).

Friday, April 17, 2009

Low down dirty dogs

1649 hours.

! Predicted low glucose. Arrow 45 degrees down.

Ah ha! Despite quite a few lows and highs (me: great tour guide, not such a great role model) since the shootout began, this is the first predictive Navigator alarm. I had already decided the predictive system wasn’t worth a shit. Guardian’s is nearly flawless.

But Guardian, right now is show smooth sailing at 116. Hardly an emergency in the making. I get my Red Presto out of my cargo pants.

Click, snap, slurp. Holy crap! 71. I’m wearing two fricken CGMs and a hypo just snuck up on me and whapped me upside the head. So much for technology. I should get one of those hypo-sniffing service dogs and the hell with all the gear. It could sniff out patients too. I’ve had two diabetic patients “go hypo” in my office this week.

I down a bottle of glucose liquid.

1657 hours.
Presto 79. The sugar is doing its job.
Navigator 84 with 45 degree down arrow.
Guardian 104.

1707 hours.
Presto 96.
Navigator 79 and level. She never reached the low threshold at 75.
Guardian, late to party, predicts a low. Current SG 90.

And I bet dog food would cost less than these damn sensors too.

Next time: with dogs come fleas

2 Comments:

Blogger Crystal said...

I am in Serious agreement with you on the service sniffing pooch. Most definitely much cheaper and More Reliable.

Since I first heard about a beautiful german shepard doing an amazing job as companion and "predictor of lows" with a teenage boy, I was hooked on the idea.
Now, to get the money, the dog....

8:28 AM  
Blogger Molly said...

My endo calls Dixie (my service dog), my "furry continuous blood glucose monitor." She's way more accurate than my trial with a CGM. Cuter too!

11:29 AM  

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