Sensor Pie Charts

I uploaded Betsey's sensor info last night to send off to Yale for her nurse to look at. Her graph looked much better than the one I previously shared - I had made some adjustments to her pump settings after that and once again in between. She still seems to be going higher than she should in the wee hours of the morning.

There is something type 1 diabetics can encounter called the dawn phenomenon which is high blood sugars in the early morning hours before waking. If left untreated with insulin pump adjustments or shot adjustments before bed, the sustained high blood sugars in those early hours can cause the nausea upon waking, which may be attributed to ketones building in the body. Not good stuff.

The dawn phenomenon occurs because there is not enough insulin to keep the blood sugar down, obviously. This happens when during the night, the body releases hormones that trigger the liver to release glucose. In non diabetics, our body adjusts for us and release the right amount of insulin to correct it and keep us balanced, so to speak. With Betsey, she relies on the pump settings I, along with Yale, have set for her. Her pump doesn't respond to elevating blood sugars and give extra insulin. Her sensor will beep and alarm if she is going high, but she and I don't always wake for that.

When I upload her sensor readings online, I am able to look at her graphs and see whats going on while we sleep.

This is the chart from this past week. The left side of the chart is 12 am and then each vertical line is in 2 hour increments. Each day is color coded so you can follow one color for the day and then keep the reading by following the next day's color back at the left side. Make sense? The green bar is Betsey's ideal blood sugar range. This chart looks OK. But I can see from about 11:00pm until 4:00am, she is running high. The problem with making adjustments during this time frame is the fear of her going too low. And since there are a couple of nights where she was in range and even dipped low (below the green bar) around 10:45pm, I rely on Yale to help me decide what to do.



This is a pie chart from her sensor readings this past week. The white part of the pie is the time during each day she was "in range" - blood glucose between 80-130 mg/dl. The yellow part indicates high blood sugars and the orange are lows.

It is tough to balance I tell ya! I'd love to find a graph of a non diabetic to compare, knowing what it would look like, but just to see it. It's amazing how much work it is to try and get it just so. I marvel at those that can get their A1C in the low 6's!