After having about three frustrating days with higher blood sugar, I decided to go for the Dexcom Stelo. It’s an over-the-counter version of their continuous blood glucose monitor, a “patch” (with a small needle) that lasts for 15 days and transmits readings to a phone app. I’m told that hardware-wise it is identical to their G7, which is a prescription-only version, but for regulatory reasons the Stelo is “not intended for diabetics on insulin.” Okay whatever.
What I’ve been doing recently is checking my blood sugar before each meal, and deciding based on the reading and what I’m about to eat whether to take fast-acting insulin, and how much. So, three data points per day, with a process that can be awkward and sometimes a bit painful.
From Stelo, I get updated readings every few minutes. I can see when and how much my blood sugar dips in mid-morning. I can get a notification if it starts to spike because I’ve had too many carbs and not enough insulin — information I might otherwise miss because it might normalize before the next meal. I can see what it does while I’m sleeping, and how it responds to activity. I can make more informed decisions.
Integration with Oura (which was pretty much why I thought of trying this) is seamless and lets me correlate glucose with the other health data.
(None of this is useful to people without diabetes or prediabetes, according to dieticians and endocrinologists, despite claims from Dexcom and Oura and influencers. But it’s stuff I wish I knew years ago. For a diabetic, the two goals are to keep the overall average from being too high, and to keep things as even as possible without extreme highs and lows. A1C only measures the first… and managing the second can also help with the first as well as reducing hunger and keeping up a good energy level.)
I got a 2-pack, figuring that a month would be enough to either:
- stop using it when those are done, having learned some things I can use in the future.
decide that it’s not that useful, but with a relatively small investment.(It’s already proven itself useful.)- get a subscription and keep using it, hopefully reducing my need for finger stick tests.
Accuracy wasn’t amazing yesterday, reading about 20 points higher than finger sticks (except during a spike) — but still good for showing overall trends. Dexcom does say that’s expected on the first day. But this morning it was within 1 point of a finger stick, which is pretty great.
I finished reading that massive, weighty tome Full Catastrophe Living. Overall… I think I would recommend Fully Present over it, because it’s a much more reasonable size. If you want to read FCL, I think the first 40-50% or so that outlines the various meditation/yoga practices is best, and then any chapters from the rest of the book which might specifically apply to or interest you. The meditation techniques and overall theory are certainly covered elsewhere, though perhaps in less detail.
And I started but didn’t finish How We’d Talk if the English Had Won in 1066. I was expecting more humor and general geeky fun. Instead, it was extremely tedious. This is the third book I’ve set aside unfinished this year.
Now I’m reading T. Kingfisher’s Hemlock and Silver, which is WAY more entertaining. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read from this author, though this might be the funniest one yet. I’m going to have to grab the rest of her works, I think.