Hello! I am new here. I was wondering how you guys manage de Dexcom arrows or double arrows down? I always get in panic. I think I over react, and developed a trauma response. At what number with arrow or arrows down you decide to correct? I will appreciate your help!
Hi.
I’ve got my alarm set at 100. So I’ve got some time to react to what’s going on. I have a hard time waiting after I’ve taken something to get the numbers back up. But that’s the way life is for me.
Hi! Thanks for your answer! Believe it or not it is exactly the same with me
. 100 is the number and I also have a hard time waiting to get in range. It is an anxious response. I hope we can overcome this. Sorry for my English, it is not my first language.
Hi @mirelyspr . Yes, the arrows are a blessing but can be a bit of a curse. Those arrows do set of panic and it takes a lot of willpower to give an appropriate correction and wait, rather than over-correct ING. I’ve done - and occasionally still do - my share of both.
I’m on a pump, and even with good settings in place I find myself getting rebound highs because of that. So I’ve tried to set my pump settings for a slightly higher target than some might use, since the lower I get the longer and harder it is come back up.
When I correct might depend on the situation: if I’m just having a quiet day sitting around the house it may be lower than if I’m going to be driving or exercising. It also depends on how much insulin I have on board and carbs that may still be “working their way through my system” if I ate a little while ago.
Other people’s numbers might not work for you, so be careful how you use them.
Your English is very good by the way!
Oh, I forgot - welcome to the forum!
Thank you so much for your answer and support! I deeply appreciate it. I am very happy for finding this forum!
Your language is fine. I always carry some hard candy with me for if I go low. Have a great day.
It takes practice to not over correct. It also takes practice to know a CGM isn’t entirely accurate, and so G6 will say you are dropping even though your blood sugar is coming up after a low. I like to use a finger stick meter to show I’m coming up and I ignore G6 until it catches up, which could take between 10 and 30 minutes. 4 grams of glucose (1 glucose tab) raises my blood sugar 20 mg/dl. So when I want to be accurate, I crunch glucose tabs, then wait. Good luck
Like @joe said, cgms are not 100% reliable, especially when it’s double arrows down!
If I see any arrow straight down or double arrows down or up, I first check my blood sugar using my meter/finger poke. Then I consider the number, what time I took my last insulin dose, and if I’ve been eating or exercising, to determine my response.
For example, this afternoon I glanced at my cgm and it said 121 one arrow straight up. I realized I hadn’t taken my insulin for lunch and so I dosed for what I ate and added a little insulin to combat the high I knew was coming.
The double arrows down is scary. Again, test your blood sugar using your meter because you could be lower or higher than the CGM says. I usually don’t pay attention to the double arrows until my blood sugar is under 110, then I start eating.
Patience and self control are definitely your best friends when dealing with rogue blood sugars!
Agreed- this forum is awesome! The amount of experience here is priceless.
Thank you! It helps a lot.
Thanks for your advice! I really, really really appreciate it!
Welcome to the forum!
It’s worth remembering that your CGM will lag what’s actually going on because it’s sampling interstitial fluid rather than blood. Which means the main thing those arrows indicate is that this is when the CGM readings are most inaccurate.
I don’t worry too much about the trend arrows, myself. I try to be aware of what I expect my sugar to be doing. Did I just eat? Then I can wait out the predicted low because I know the food will be kicking in soon and I won’t actually go as low as the CGM thinks. Did I eat an hour ago? Then I’m fully expecting my sugars to be higher than usual for a while. Was I recently exercising? Then it’s good to have the warning that I’m heading low and probably best to have a snack just to be on the safe side. Do my symptoms match what the CGM thinks?
What’s more concerning is when my sugar stays high for a prolonged period. It means that either I miscalculated the food (in which case I should bolus more, keep an eye on my sugars, and trust the pump to adjust the basal rate to give me a soft landing) or the pump cannula has come loose in which case I should replace it and bolus ASAP.
Your body is a complex machine. Some foods digest more quickly than others. They can give you a quick spike or keep your sugar elevated for prolonged periods or both. Exercise can have an effect on your sugar even hours later. Insulin boluses take a while to kick in but will stay in effect for hours. You’re never going to see CGM readings that are just flat. You’re going to go up and down over the course of the day, and that’s fine. Diabetes is a long game. Being high from time to time isn’t going to hurt you. The effects are long-term and somewhat reversible. It’s the overall average that counts. Don’t sweat the occasional spike. Going low is a different matter because that can do serious, even life-threatening damage. Try to avoid that, and to bring your sugar back up if it starts to dip too much. But your CGM will give you advanced warning, so as long as you’ve got something handy (and you should always carry emergency food with you) you’ll be fine.
Learn your body. How it reacts to different foods, exercises, insulin doses. But don’t pay too much attention to the arrows. They’re there to tell you which way you’re heading and to help give you early warning of possible trouble. But they don’t mean much by themselves.
That’s a great information! So much needed! Than you so much!!!
I have to restrain myself from overcarbing when I see those arrows but at the end of the day I’d rather go high than low.
Same here! It is harder than it should be.
@mirelyspr Hello Maria Louise, and welcome to the JDRF TypeOneNation Forum! We are happy to see you here, and your english is very clear.
Keep in mind, that the arrows are what the G6 anticipates MAY happen to your glucose level within the next half hour - but this does not always occur.
Over reacting to treat a low BGL is almost human nature and it is something we have all done. In treating an anticipated “low” by eating carbohydrates I consider what I have recently been doing. For instance, If I had eaten a meal within two hours, I’d thinnk of the foods I had eaten and ask myself if thise particular food types usually push my BGL higher a long time after eating - in that case, I would manage the “two down” arrows with eating fewer carbs to bring my level back to normal.
When I have been exercising heavily, or think that I may have taken too much insulin for a meal I had eaten, I eat a snack to compensate. There probably isn’t a strategy that fits each of us, so experience will be your best teacher.
Hello! Thank you for your kind words. I am in the process of understanding my body better. For some reason about a year ago something change in my body and I started to have frequent lows and the situation make me lost the confidence I use to have managing the disease. Then I developed the issue with the CGM. Thanks for sharing your experience with me. I deeply appreciate it!
Hello Maria, and welcome.
I am glad to know I am not the only one who panics over the double arrows! My son is 14 years old (today actually- Happy birthday my T1D hero!) It is SO hard not to over react when we see the double down! Especially if we treat and continue to see drops in the number. But as previously mentioned, we’d rather see a rebound high as my son pass out. One thing we’ve found is the glucose tablets work quicker than candy or juice. Also if the low is between meals, we follow the fast acting carbs with protein to help stabilize the blood sugar. If we see double down arrows, we will treat at 100 or even sooner if my son has been active. We usually try to finger stick first to check the G6 for accuracy, but if it’s showing 80 or less with two arrows, we don’t wait for the finger stick and start treating immediately. What Dennis said “The arrows are what the G6 anticipates MAY happen” is excellent advice! Those pesky little arrows are very helpful at showing trends, but can also scare a person half crazy! We need to keep in mind the arrows are an assumption of what might happen…maybe that will help calm the panic a little.