Finger Stick Post #1

Jenny Says:
I have had several conversations this week with various people with diabetes or parents of children with diabetes, including Wil, the man that blogged his Guardian RT experience, (www.lifeafterdx.blogspot.com), regarding finger sticks and coninuous glucose monitors. Tommy currently tests his blood sugar a total of 9-15 times a day (with 2 or 3 of them occuring while he is asleep.)

Our main motivation for getting the Guardian RT is to be able to be proactive and not reactive to this disease. It is to use the trends to head off trouble. (Sleeping more at night is also pretty motivating.) We are learning that the Guardian RT tests the interstitial fluid just under the skin. These readings may be different than the readings from our blood glucose meter. According to Wil and a Mom that has a child in a Navigator trial, you can get these numbers from the CGMs to be very trustworthy. In the case of the Guardian RT, you need to calibrate it daily for optimal readings. Wil is currently calibrating one at wake up, one at 4 pm and one at bedtime. He is getting good results. (He also tests his blood before meals and sometimes before giving a correction. He also tests before treating a low. But he doesn't enter them into the Guardian RT.)

So, to me that means that I can estimate that after our learning period with the Guardian RT, we might still be testing 5 or 6 times a day. We will be eliminating the 2 hour after eating tests and the 2 in the middle of the night. That is more than I thought we would be testing, but if it effectively helps us prevent lows and highs from happening then I think it is worth it. (We'll see what Tommy thinks.)

Wil said that he has not had any alarms in recent weeks. So that means no highs or no lows! That is truly amazing to me. And the Mom with the child in the Navigator trial seems to also have very low standard deviations like that.