Sensor Readings

Betsey wears a Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS) that basically reads her blood sugar for her, through interstitial fluids. Interstitial fluids bathe and surround the cells in the body. It is the fluid in which materials are exchanged between the blood and cells. The monitor is a transmitter the size of a quarter & looks like a sting ray that she attaches to a catheter that we insert into subcutaneous fat (fat that lies directly under the skin.)

It does not take the place of actually testing her blood sugar on her fingers and getting a blood glucose reading, nor is it as accurate. It does help us to see what happens when she is doing other things and not testing; like after she eats, during sports and most importantly, while she is asleep. It reads in "real time" - every 5 minutes a number is updated to the pump and a graph is displayed showing her blood sugars readings right on her pump screen. The pump also gives a warning when she is going to go high or low, and she is supposed to (key words!) adjust or treat accordingly.

It is very accurate for us once calibrated and we rely on it every day and at night for blood sugar readings. I upload the readings to the Medtronic Minimed site (Betsey's insulin pump manufacturer) as needed and if I see a trend that needs some adjusting to her pump settings, I contact Yale and we go over the readings and discuss how to adjust.

We also keep a detailed log of her numbers. Her sensor readings and her blood sugar readings are very, very close. I love it!! It provides very valuable information and I am so thankful to have her wearing it. It brought her HbA1c down dramatically over 3 months time.

Below is a graph of Betsey's blood sugar readings in a 24 hour period, for 7 days. The different colored lines depict different days. The big green bar is her ideal range--where we want her blood sugars for optimal health. That 'off the chart red line' is the day she woke up recently and had the ketones and was sick because her battery had died in the pump!



As you can see, even with this wonderful technology and our constant tweaking and daily logging, it is a struggle to keep Betsey's blood sugar in super tight control. Every day is different, every day brings new challenges. And every day we hope it's the last day for type 1 diabetes.