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| I hate CGMs and Libre specifically pisses me off by laudablepuss 12/18/2022, 1:28am PST | ||||
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| Continuous glucose monitors. Maybe I'm being dumb here but this shit just ruins my day. I've been using the Libre 2 sensor but I can't take it anymore and I doubt I'll ever go back. I've also tried the dexcom 2. Here's what sucks:
Both: - not very accurate at low ranges - nobody's ever had continuous data before so it turns out that your glucose levels go up and down for no apparent reason and no one knows why (yet) Dexcom 2 - hurts - not great android support -- when I was testing this, there was no app available for my phone so I had to use their little device which had no wifi and couldn't send data to my Dr. - Big and comes in two parts - 10 day life span for the part that sticks in you and hurts (as opposed to 14 for the libre) Libre 2 -- my complaints are only about the app (other than the general accuracy issue) - A bunch of annoying bugs that get fixed and then a new bug's added. I won't go into the weeds on this but it's usually a minor irritation - Can't turn off the very low glucose alarm. Ok, safety I guess but if I just use my glucometer, I don't have an alarm. Millions of people have lived their entire lives without a low glucose alarm - Can I at least turn down the volume? NOPE. It's absurdly loud, louder than I had any idea my phone could be. If you enable the other alarms, low, high, and very high, this shit can go off in public and none of the alarm volumes can be changed from KLAXON. - Can't adjust what it considers "in range". Glucose 181? You're out of range! Dexcom at least lets you change this. - The arrows are lies. It gives you your glucose reading and an arrow indicating where it thinks you're heading. It's usually bullshit. Straight down or straight up arrows frequently, when checked 10 minutes later, show the opposite reading. - Basically never trust any individual reading, ever. If it seems like you're low or high, wait 10 or 15 minutes and check again to be sure. And now the worst part of the Libre app, and what I can't put up with anymore. The "Time in range" stat, measured over the last 24 hours, on the home page. It's your fucking score and it's bullshit. Managing diabetes is an exercise in *patience*. If you eat, it takes something like 30 minutes for it to start to affect your glucose. A typical short term insulin (or at least the hemalog that I'm using) takes about an hour to start affecting your glucose level. So if it's high and I give myself insulin, it'll be an hour probably before I can do anything about it, assuming I put the right amount in. So, critically, if you put insulin in and it's a bit high, just wait. Don't add more, don't panic, just wait. BUT YOUR SCORE IS DROPPING RIGHT NOW. This is an instantaneous measurement and if it goes down, it can't be brought back up again for 24 hours because that's the sample size. The combination of the bullshit arrows and YOUR FUCKING SCORE tend to cause angst and work against any kind of calm, patient approach. It's high NOW. DO SOMETHING. Or it's LOW!!! Maybe, probably not, but it thinks so and you're getting dinged for it. If they just took this stat off the home page, I'd be happy. Make me click a button to find it, I promise I won't. Please, Libre app developers. So I end up chasing peaks and valleys like a moron. It's high and it thinks it's going up. Add some insulin. Oh that was bullshit, I need to eat even though I don't want to. Oh yeah, these readings are sometimes wrong -- I knew that, why did I forget? Partly because of the stress of worrying about my score. (I think these insulin pens are cheap garbage too. I test them sometimes to make sure insulin is really shooting out, but I wonder if sometimes I dial up an amount and inject it, and a lower amount actually makes it in. I need ridiculous amounts of insulin for what seem like pretty low carb meals sometimes.) Anyway, it's yet another thing to cause me stress and I'm sick of it. I'll just use my glucometer. Maybe I'll go back but right now, I doubt it. Also the Libre 3 seems just as bad. I can't discern any advantage from my research, although I haven't actually tried it yet. The dexcom 3 might be out soon, maybe it won't HURT TO USE. Ffffff whatever. Just as an aside, I'm diabetic mostly because of the giant doses of prednisone that I've been on for almost 12 years. In case anyone is wondering after reading this rant. My first thought was to to put this in the Candy Crush forum but we don't have one. This works I guess. |
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I hate CGMs and Libre specifically pisses me off by 12/18/2022, 1:28am PST  Re: I hate CGMs and Libre specifically pisses me off by 12/20/2022, 11:16am PST My wife had to deal with gestational diabetes so I can sympathize. by 12/20/2022, 4:55pm PST Re: My wife had to deal with gestational diabetes so I can sympathize. by 12/21/2022, 8:13am PST |
