Nightrider callabration

[annliggins]

Hi guys ,had my blucon nightrider for 3 days it missed a low alert this morning as in it read 4.4 and actually i was 3.2. Should i callabrate every 12 hours or more in anybodys experience? I will do it twice anyway ..just checking cheers

 

[Scott-C]

Hi, @annliggins , I've been using blucon for about a year now. Any cgm, whether it's blucon, dexcom, medtronic or whatever is only good if it's calibrated properly.

Calibrating it too much or at the wrong times can make it wildly inaccurate.

I tend to wait until my levels have been stable for a while. In the morning before I get up is usually a good time. Because I've not eaten for a while and have been resting, there's a fair chance that glucose in my blood and interstitial fluid will be about the same and that's a good time to calibrate.

Im using it with xdrip+. There's a calibration graph in it. One axis shows the raw number the sensor is producing and the other shows how that number is interpreted as a reading. For example, 200 works out as 5.6, 240 as 7.2.

If I've just eaten and my bg is rising that bg rise will take time to be reflected in interstitial fluid. So, if I bg test at 7.2, my interstitial fluid might still be at 5.6 because the food glucose is still in the bloodstream but hasn't seeped out into the interstitial fluid yet, so it's just going to confuse the cgm if I calibrate with the 7.2. The sensor is actually reading 200, which it interprets as 5.6 because that's what the glucose in the interstitial fluid actually is, because the glucose from the food hasn't got there yet, so if I start telling it by calibrating that the 200 means 7.2, it's going to throw it out of whack.

Whereas if I wait until I'm stable, like in the morning, there's a better chance that the levels in bg and interstitial fluid will be about the same, so a calibration then stands a better chance of matching the sensor reading to what my bg actually is.

So, I tend to calibrate in the morning, sometimes before my evening meal, and before bed.

I made the mistake in the first few weeks of using it of calibrating way too much, trying to chase and correct rapid changes before realising that was making it worse because I was telling it bg numbers which didn't yet match what was happening in interstitial fluid.

Stephen Ponder's book Sugar Surfing and William Lee Duboi's book Beyond Fingersticks, both on kindle, discuss calibration in detail and are well worth a read.

Good luck with it - it's made real difference for me!

 

[annliggins]

Hi, @annliggins , I've been using blucon for about a year now. Any cgm, whether it's blucon, dexcom, medtronic or whatever is only good if it's calibrated properly.

Calibrating it too much or at the wrong times can make it wildly inaccurate.

I tend to wait until my levels have been stable for a while. In the morning before I get up is usually a good time. Because I've not eaten for a while and have been resting, there's a fair chance that glucose in my blood and interstitial fluid will be about the same and that's a good time to calibrate.

Im using it with xdrip+. There's a calibration graph in it. One axis shows the raw number the sensor is producing and the other shows how that number is interpreted as a reading. For example, 200 works out as 5.6, 240 as 7.2.

If I've just eaten and my bg is rising that bg rise will take time to be reflected in interstitial fluid. So, if I bg test at 7.2, my interstitial fluid might still be at 5.6 because the food glucose is still in the bloodstream but hasn't seeped out into the interstitial fluid yet, so it's just going to confuse the cgm if I calibrate with the 7.2. The sensor is actually reading 200, which it interprets as 5.6 because that's what the glucose in the interstitial fluid actually is, because the glucose from the food hasn't got there yet, so if I start telling it by calibrating that the 200 means 7.2, it's going to throw it out of whack.

Whereas if I wait until I'm stable, like in the morning, there's a better chance that the levels in bg and interstitial fluid will be about the same, so a calibration then stands a better chance of matching the sensor reading to what my bg actually is.

So, I tend to calibrate in the morning, sometimes before my evening meal, and before bed.

I made the mistake in the first few weeks of using it of calibrating way too much, trying to chase and correct rapid changes before realising that was making it worse because I was telling it bg numbers which didn't yet match what was happening in interstitial fluid.

Stephen Ponder's book Sugar Surfing and William Lee Duboi's book Beyond Fingersticks, both on kindle, discuss calibration in detail and are well worth a read.

Good luck with it - it's made real difference for me!

Hi, @annliggins , I've been using blucon for about a year now. Any cgm, whether it's blucon, dexcom, medtronic or whatever is only good if it's calibrated properly.

Calibrating it too much or at the wrong times can make it wildly inaccurate.

I tend to wait until my levels have been stable for a while. In the morning before I get up is usually a good time. Because I've not eaten for a while and have been resting, there's a fair chance that glucose in my blood and interstitial fluid will be about the same and that's a good time to calibrate.

Im using it with xdrip+. There's a calibration graph in it. One axis shows the raw number the sensor is producing and the other shows how that number is interpreted as a reading. For example, 200 works out as 5.6, 240 as 7.2.

If I've just eaten and my bg is rising that bg rise will take time to be reflected in interstitial fluid. So, if I bg test at 7.2, my interstitial fluid might still be at 5.6 because the food glucose is still in the bloodstream but hasn't seeped out into the interstitial fluid yet, so it's just going to confuse the cgm if I calibrate with the 7.2. The sensor is actually reading 200, which it interprets as 5.6 because that's what the glucose in the interstitial fluid actually is, because the glucose from the food hasn't got there yet, so if I start telling it by calibrating that the 200 means 7.2, it's going to throw it out of whack.

Whereas if I wait until I'm stable, like in the morning, there's a better chance that the levels in bg and interstitial fluid will be about the same, so a calibration then stands a better chance of matching the sensor reading to what my bg actually is.

So, I tend to calibrate in the morning, sometimes before my evening meal, and before bed.

I made the mistake in the first few weeks of using it of calibrating way too much, trying to chase and correct rapid changes before realising that was making it worse because I was telling it bg numbers which didn't yet match what was happening in interstitial fluid.

Stephen Ponder's book Sugar Surfing and William Lee Duboi's book Beyond Fingersticks, both on kindle, discuss calibration in detail and are well worth a read.

Good luck with it - it's made real difference for me!

 

[annliggins]

Thanks for that ,really interesting. Youre dead right ....if its not calibrated correctly theres no point and its dangerous . Going to give the books a looking at aswell .