• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Continuous Glucose monitoring device advice please

D

Diabeticdom

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I have type 1 DM for about 10 years and I cycle a fair bit. I manage things fairly ok but obviously have a lot of variances with my dosing depending on exercise amounts. I manage with a multidose novarapid dosing with Levemir as my long acting insulin. I dont often get hypo when exercising but I guess I let it drift up a bit, and take tiny amounts of insulin in breaks. I recently did a long trip in the Alps with 100miles a day and 2-3000m of climbing per day.
A few of my colleagues who exercise have recently switched to CGM. Im fairly ok controlled. I run it tight usually and get a few hypos (maybe 1-2 per month where Im properly low). I have full insight when going low. My HbA1c is ok but not perfect. CGM looks really exciting.
I have looked at some of the info on devices but would appreciate people's thoughts on what works best. I would pay for it myself if I had to.
I cant see me swapping to a pump as I dont like the idea of having it strapped to me but would be ok with a CGM implant on arm etc...

This is my first post and I am grateful to anyone for their advice.
 
I use a Dexcom G5, couldn't live without it. Syncs to my iPhone keeping an extra gadget in the pockets down.

I can see highs coming if I have misjudged, can see lows on their way down before they get into hypo territory.

I also run and I wait until the dots start going down and top up on lucozade sport to catch it.

It does get very addictive!


Sent from my iPhone using DCUK Forum mobile app
 
I really like the freestyle libre - slightly different to the above. A lot of data but you can access it so easily and through clothes. I row and it means I can quickly test my blood sugar out on the water in between pieces and then I can react to that. Very light and unobtrusive as well :)
 
Is the libre provided on the NHS, or does it have to be self funded if you are Type 1?
 
As a very regular cyclist I can't recommend pumps enough. You may not want one because you think they are a pain to wear them all the time but I can assure you this is a very minor inconvenience that you very quickly get used to. At the moment I am training to do the London Surrey Ride 100 next month and am currently averaging about 150 miles a week.
This weekend I did 70 miles in just over 4 hours without having a break. I left the house with a BS of 5.2 and got back at 6.5. I have managed to develop a routine for these rides of reducing my basal by 20% for the duration of the ride and taking on board about 30-35g of carbs per hour with no bolus. This works for me probably 4 out of 5 times without having hypo's.
It's obviously not a complete solution but if you add it in with Libre or CGM it can become a very powerful tool. I can't really afford those at the moment but my pump helps n end for these big rides. Worth thinking about and chapeau with the Alpine climbs
 
Using the 640G with the Auto Suspend is awesome - I've found it works really well to avoid hypos when doing physically demanding exercise. Very impressed with it!
 
As @tim2000s has said,I use the same set up and have done for the last year,with the auto-suspend no more hypo problems for me.
 
What I've been most surprised at is that I haven't had huge bg level increases after the suspends either. WHat about you @yingtong?
 
Back
Top