A few months ago, I wrote about a low blood sugar or hypoglycaemic (hypo) event, “Didn’t Know Low” and the decision I was considering as a back up plan to prevent it again. The problem was that, even though I have a continuous glucose monitor CGM, I was “snoozing” the early warning and on this occasion I had no low symptoms so considered the CGM to be “fibbing” and so snoozed the “Urgent Low” alarm too. The only reason I didn’t end up flat on the floor was because I use a DIY Automatic Insulin Delivery system and it shut off my insulin until I came back in range.
My fear is that the one symptom that I may have had was the loss of rational thinking and that if this happened again I would end up in serious trouble. So, myself and my devoted hubby came up with a back up plan and I have to say in a week where I’ve had quite a few mild lows the plan is working really well.
What’s the plan
My husband has my CGMs “Follow” App set up on his phone and the plan that we agreed on was that he would only activate the “Urgent Low” alarm on his app. My end of the plan is to endeavour to act on all “low” alarms in the future regardless of whether or not I think my sensor's accuracy is off. I will promise myself not to be complacent because I’m “only” sitting around and will behave as if my alarm is alarming while driving my car and stop whatever I’m doing to finger stick.
How is it working?
As I said above, it is working really well. It’s a bit like having “big brother” watching because on the one hand I don’t want to cause concern or alarm in other people but also there is the “threat” that if I don’t act in a timely manner, there will be a “nudge” from someone that might be unpleasant or embarrassing.
This plan has made me think about how I’ve lived so much of my life with diabetes and I still have to find new ways to make diabetes work for me and keep me safe.