I’ve been using a glucose sensor to help manage my diabetes for almost five years and, for me, it has been the best tool I’ve had access to in my 27 years of diabetes. I have been so lucky to have it and I rely on it a lot.
However, it is a piece of technology and, like all tech, it will and does fail occasionally. In this instance, this was my first, for definite, false low glucose reading on my sensor caused by compression, ie me sleeping soundly on my transmitter.
How did I know it was a Compression Low (“Liar Low”)?
My sensor alarm went off a couple of minutes before my wake-up alarm, I looked and it said 2.8 mmols but I felt absolutely fine. I wasn’t quite awake so I hit snooze on the alarm and almost went back to sleep. Then, just after my wake-up alarm went off, the sensor alarm went off again, this time saying 3.5 mmols. This is how I knew it was a compression low - the reading never comes back up that fast and I was able to find the snooze button on my wake-up alarm no problem. Usually, it takes me a few seconds.
Yes, I know that I should have checked on my meter but my bedside meter was dead as a dodo due to lack of use and my other one was downstairs. As I mentioned before, I was not ready for early morning activity.
So five minutes later I jumped into the shower and after that my reading was at 6 mmols and I did a calibration finger stick check as soon as I got downstairs.
Tips for Getting the most Accuracy from your Glucose Sensor
There are a number of other reasons that your glucose sensor may give you a false or inaccurate reading and as there is a steady increase of people using Glucose Sensors in Ireland now I thought it might be good to include some Tips for Getting the Most out of your Sensor resources in this post.