Sunday, September 10, 2006
(yawn!) I asked for this, didn't I?
One of the benefits of having the Gov'ner is that it goes bing at me if my glucose values go out of range. It is part of what I was asking for, wasn't it?
On the other hand, being woken up every 20 minutes after midnight until it registers you're above 80 mg/dl is not how I want to spend the small hours of the morning. Nor is being woken up every 2 hours if I'm above 240. And to kick it, that's what it's measuring in intersitial fluid, which doesn't match capillary values, nor is it expected to be really close (it has a 20% plus/minus accuracy range) to capillary values that a traditional fingerstick measures. In other words, if it alarms, you really do have to turn on the light and do a fingerstick if you're going to respond appropriately and not risk overdosing. To say nothing of determining if it's in calibration in the first place. The other night it told me I was 250, when the meter said I was 168.
Gotta love intensive management. Then again, the sooner I can bring down the highs, the less damage they will do over time.
For those of you new to glucose management, normals (i.e. the non-diabetic population) have blood glucose that standardly ranges 70 -115 mg/dl and might rise as high as 140 mg/dl within the 2-hours after a large meal (think Thanksgiving). The A1c (how much glucose is clinging to your red blood cells) ranges 4.6 - 6.4%. Bear in mind, if you choose to borrow someone's meter and you get a higher measurement than this, home meters are not sufficiently accurate to permit outright diagnosis, but it would be a good idea to phone your doctor and ask if they think you should have a lab test. Diabetes, especially type II, is rampant in the American population, much of it undiagnosed and contributing to many secondary complications like heart disease. High blood glucose can do a lot of damage to a body without even being felt.
Then again, being at the doctor's office on a Friday morning and having a glucose higher than their in-office meter can read will get them to phone to the hospital asking for you to get a bed for the weekend.
I haven't been knitting much this week since I got back to work. The lovely vacation-level readings are history, so I'm back to dealing with swings, and being up in the night dealing with highs has made it hard to stay awake in the following evenings. I've also been dealing with a number of Boston Knit-Out details that just take time. If anyone else responds that they can't possibly volunteer for the event because this year the date co-incides with Rosh Hashanah (yes, we're sorry, but would you rather it was on Yom Kippur?), I'm going to let them know what needs to be done through June, July and August and early September.
Last weekend I restarted work on Himself's impossible-to-photograph dark blue Wonderous Woven Cables sweater. It's still on the sleeves. It's going to take awhile. Seats are still scarse on the Red Line, so the 7th (?) iteration of the Baby Surprize sweater is going very slowly.
On the other hand, being woken up every 20 minutes after midnight until it registers you're above 80 mg/dl is not how I want to spend the small hours of the morning. Nor is being woken up every 2 hours if I'm above 240. And to kick it, that's what it's measuring in intersitial fluid, which doesn't match capillary values, nor is it expected to be really close (it has a 20% plus/minus accuracy range) to capillary values that a traditional fingerstick measures. In other words, if it alarms, you really do have to turn on the light and do a fingerstick if you're going to respond appropriately and not risk overdosing. To say nothing of determining if it's in calibration in the first place. The other night it told me I was 250, when the meter said I was 168.
Gotta love intensive management. Then again, the sooner I can bring down the highs, the less damage they will do over time.
For those of you new to glucose management, normals (i.e. the non-diabetic population) have blood glucose that standardly ranges 70 -115 mg/dl and might rise as high as 140 mg/dl within the 2-hours after a large meal (think Thanksgiving). The A1c (how much glucose is clinging to your red blood cells) ranges 4.6 - 6.4%. Bear in mind, if you choose to borrow someone's meter and you get a higher measurement than this, home meters are not sufficiently accurate to permit outright diagnosis, but it would be a good idea to phone your doctor and ask if they think you should have a lab test. Diabetes, especially type II, is rampant in the American population, much of it undiagnosed and contributing to many secondary complications like heart disease. High blood glucose can do a lot of damage to a body without even being felt.
Then again, being at the doctor's office on a Friday morning and having a glucose higher than their in-office meter can read will get them to phone to the hospital asking for you to get a bed for the weekend.
I haven't been knitting much this week since I got back to work. The lovely vacation-level readings are history, so I'm back to dealing with swings, and being up in the night dealing with highs has made it hard to stay awake in the following evenings. I've also been dealing with a number of Boston Knit-Out details that just take time. If anyone else responds that they can't possibly volunteer for the event because this year the date co-incides with Rosh Hashanah (yes, we're sorry, but would you rather it was on Yom Kippur?), I'm going to let them know what needs to be done through June, July and August and early September.
Last weekend I restarted work on Himself's impossible-to-photograph dark blue Wonderous Woven Cables sweater. It's still on the sleeves. It's going to take awhile. Seats are still scarse on the Red Line, so the 7th (?) iteration of the Baby Surprize sweater is going very slowly.
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Hell no, there's the constant delivery of basal metabolism, but the software that suggests boluses is still in its infantcy. There is no way it's ready for automatic correction anytime soon.
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