I second
@SimonP78 's suggestion of multiple hypo treatment options for confidence. Also, when I have a bad low (below 3) I find that my dexcom lags significantly so using a glucometer can give you confidence that yes, your levels are going up (or at least not going down), when your cgm is still showing a scary downwards trend. My dexcom also tends to read slightly low during a severe hypo so having my glucometer to hand is really reassuring for me.
When low, I ignore the CGM and go by feel - both the lag and potential offsets make quite a large difference when there's such a large effect over the space of only ~1mmol/l. They are quite useful to see that you're rising though, as otherwise the desire to keep eating is hard to overcome (though I also get short rises that then drop again, especially when exercising.)
CGMs are definitely useful to flag the fact you're going low early enough to treat it less aggressively though - I use XDrip+, which has rate of change alarms as well as absolute level alarms, all of which are very useful to head off hypos and hypers - I still get them though, especially when cycling.
When she has a ‘normal’ low she feels it but we treat it and she’s fine. A ‘bad’ low is when she’s had a couple of times dropping fast, she’s felt it but can’t explain how she feels and she has then panicked which has made the situation more stressful. She’s only had a couple of these but feel they’ve made her now more worried if she goes even slightly low.
It can be hard to explain, and we all feel different things, and these things can also change over time.
But thinking what you have all mentioned is having more hypo treatments. We have these at home, they’re everywhere! But I’ll put together a hypo kit for when she’s out of the house. At the moment we just put in lift shots loose in her bag. But maybe having something dedicated for hypos will make her feel safer.
Does she like them? It's much easier to eat something you like, you don't put if off for as long, or indeed spend time faffing thinking what else you could eat that you'd prefer. It's useful for it to become "muscle memory" - I'm falling at a slow rate, I'll eat this (immediately) to begin with, I'm falling fast I'll eat that (also immediately.)
I used to have Dextrose tablets, they taste awful (to me), I would therefore try to find something else to eat (or wait until I could find something) rather than eating them, which isn't ideal. I now have a couple of things I will eat - Skittles are fast acting, these are the fallback if dropping quickly (and if out they are pocket portable so they are what I have). They taste pleasant enough that I'm not unhappy to eat them. If I'm at home and dropping more slowly I'll eat chocolate (I know, this is not recommended, don't do as I do) - Lindor chocolate balls or if I've run out of those some Minstrels. I actually quite like eating these, so it's not a chore, but they are much slower acting. The important point is that I have e.g. 3 options, I will eat one of them immediately without needing to spend time debating what would be the best thing to eat (which can take a long long time when you're hypo!)
We don’t do much regarding IoB. We’ve been looking at it if she’s going to exercise but wondering how do you all monitor that?
As I mentioned above I use XDrip+ (alongside Juggluco, which reads the sensors and provides the data to XDrip+) - as well as level alarms and rate of change, it gives you an approximation of IoB and CoB and a projection of likely BG. Not at all perfect but a reasonable guide and trying to do the calculations in your head is not viable imo.
Exercise is it's own subject, avoiding IoB is ideally what I try to do, though this can be impossible to achieve depending on the timing of the exercise wrt food + bolus. There are also pre-match/ride/event nerves and DP/FotF which require bolus. Depending on duration and type I will eat e.g. lunch uncovered before exercise and also reduce basal for days with lots of activity. Might be a question for a different thread to avoid it getting lost at the bottom here.
