Parent or Spouse Monitoring Adult T1D Blood Glucose

Hello everyone! I’ve had T1D for seven years and have been fairly well managed throughout. I’ve never passed out or been hospitalized as a result of a low blood sugar. For the past 4 years, my parents have monitored my blood sugar remotely through the Dexcom app, just in case of emergencies, but I just graduated college and I figure it’s probably time for me to be a bit more independent in my care. However, I don’t really know what’s considered a normal level of independence for adult T1Ds. How many of your have someone else, such as a parent or spouse, monitoring your blood glucose levels?

Hi @etaeckens welcome to Breakthrough T1D. My opinion is this is a 2-way decision just like a relationship. If your parents want to and if you want to then it’s “normal” at any age. Also, if you live alone it might be different than if you were married or if you had roommates. Also it might be different if your parents live in the same or vastly different time zones.

Perhaps start with a conversation and with considering how risky your situation is. There is no shame in backup. Good luck :shamrock:

@etaeckens Wecime Eli to this T1D Community Forum!

As @joe said, there isn’t any shame in backup; and is really a personal choice for each of us. “Remote real-time sharing” ia the new kid on the block, only been available in the recent expansion of CGM; personally I do not use this feature but wish it had been available in the days I traveled alone for business.

A question you might ask yourself - “am I comfortable being on my own, am I confident that I’ll make proper [management] decisions?”. I dare say Eli, that you know more about effectively managing your diabetes than anyone else.

Hi @etaeckens and welcome to the forum. Personally I think it’s good for young adults to start cutting some ties with their parents in college. I’m 60+ and don’t share my numbers with my husband or anyone else as I’m confident in handling things on my own. But sharing and with whom is a personal decision and dependent in large part on one’s confidence in their ability to care for themselves. Sharing with a spouse/significant other - even a roommate or neighbor - might be more practical than sharing with a parent if the person feels they need it, but of course the decision is yours.
One thing to keep in mind, via a personal analogy: I started having some issues with balance a couple of years ago (not diabetes related) and got a watch with a fall detection feature. Of course my spouse is one of the emergency contacts if the alert goes off, but it occurred to me that I should include a neighbor - if I’m home when it happens and my spouse is out they would be likely to reach me before anyone else does.
Again, welcome, and I look forward to your contributions. Congratulations on your graduation, and all the best to you in your career!

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Hi Eli. My wife has sharing with my dexcom results, and I am pleased to have that help. Especially at night, if I do not hear an alert, this increases the chance of my addressing it because she has the alerts as well. That said, your desire for independence now makes a lot of sense. I don’t think it is all or none. Perhaps you could share your information with a close friend, roommate, or significant other?

Hi there @etaeckens Eli. The T1D Exchange is running a survey question right now that is similar to what you are asking

As of when I post this 201 people, including me, have responded
63% None
29% 1-2
3% 3-4

Note that 5% are “other” or don’t use a CGM and from the comments some people don’t understand the difference between a doctor accessing your CGM data for reports and the near real time data sharing the question is asking about.

Personally my parents stopped being involved in my health care during my college years. I spent a lot of years on my own so when I did find someone who I might share with I didn’t feel the need. Have you asked your parents if they still look at your CGM data or have alerts turned on?

People who have grown up with real time CGM data sharing like you are just starting to get to the point where they have enough distance and experience to look back and evaluate their choices. I hope you’ll come back and update your post in 6 month or a year with how things are going and what, if any, changes you’ve made.