Hi @Eaden,
This won’t help the false highs after a meal, but a fairly common issue with false lows while sleeping is what people refer to as “compression lows”. If the sensor is in a place where she’s sleeping on it, the pressure can sometimes cause a false low.
One possible solution is to try and find a different spot on her body that she won’t press down on while sleeping. Maybe an arm or the inside of an arm.
People here may have other suggested places to try putting the sensor for compression lows.
Thank you for your suggestion. She wears it on her upper arm. Even on the nights that I lay with her so she can’t roll over on that side, we still get low alerts that don’t match up with the finger stick. For wherever reason, it just seems really unreliable at night.
I just read your advice on another thread about no code mode and calibrating. I’ve never tried no code mode! I also didn’t know that you shouldn’t calibrate if you do use a code. Man, no wonder our sensors are so messed up.
@Eaden I always calibrate. A few times the first 24 hours. My sensors almost always start off low, by quite a bit sometimes and it lasts for hours. It’s Dexcom that says you don’t need to calibrate it when using a code. A lot of us here I’m pretty sure disagree with that.
We can differ in how well it works. I am OCD about wanting mine accurate and to be within 5 points. But the Dexcom is a gem because you can calibrate it. That’s what makes it different from a LIbre.
That’s interesting, mine almost always (nothing can be consistent with T1) starts off high! The first couple of times with the G6 (a marvel and a curse at times) I treated for the high, only to go lower than desired, I learned quickly (I think most of us have) the first day (at least first few hours) can be a little wonky. It’s kind of a game now…”Let’s see what this one does….” I particularly “like” the algo they use…”Let’s see I just calibrated, put in 118, it was at 143, so now it should be 118, right? Wait, it says 132?! But I just told it…”
I started putting in the finger stick number 3 times in a row to get Dexcom to read that number, but what you say is right - put in 118 and get something between 118 and the original number.
It used to be that 3 meter readings in a 10 minute window reset the algo. Not sure if that holds true anymore… My experience and @CarlosLuis’s comments sort of dovetail, especially with a recalcitrant sensor. sigh
@elver and @CarlosLuis I’m sure there’s logic to the Dex algorithm, and I probably should “let the system work,” but I’ve found entering a calibration twice usually does the trick for me, then sometimes it heads back in the direction it wanted to go at first despite my body or a finger prick telling me otherwise. Sometimes I think the sensors have an obstinate personality! The first time, though, I thought “Great! I’ve already broken it!” (hadn’t been here on FUD or elsewhere to “know” about the algorithm yet!)
I had my first experience this morning with pre-blousing and and forgetting to eat…got to working on something, thought @&#*($ need to eat, then all the alarms started going off with double down arrow…realized I’d been in a Brain Fog for a couple of minutes (shades of Joe vs the Volcano) and really had the shakes (I really hate those, despite my young 68 yrs I don’t think of myself as old quite yet)…live (hopefully) and learn, eh!
The app and reader for Libre 3 are pretty much exactly the same as for Libre 2, except the system is CGM v FGM. I haven’t seen any other features or the ability to calibrate.
I’ve been using Libre 3 since November 2022, but I’m in Germany so it’s possible the app is slightly different in other countries. But there’s no calibration as far as I’ve seen.
Thanks. I checked as much as a could, and as far as I can tell you are absolutely correct - no calibration for Libre. The only explanation I’ve seen for the discrepancies is that the sensor reads glucose from interstitial fluids, as opposed to directly from blood, but I’m not feeling like that’s a satisfactory answer, and idk if that also applies to Dexcom or only Libre.
@TomH I love to forget to eat after I’ve prebolused. I go off and do something and just forget. So I started setting my timer on my phone to remind me to eat or start fixing my food. There is nothing more irritating than to forget you prebolused for a nice meal and instead you are eating a quick hypo fix.
The Libre and the Dexcom read interstitial fluid. The Libre 3 actually MARD tests at a slightly lower percent of error than the Dexcom. The benefit with Dexcom is with calibration you can narrow that error percent.
I have not tried the Libre 3 and probably won’t. But I wear both a Libre 2 or the 14 day a lot because of my swimming. I can’t get the Dexcom to read when I’m out in the ocean. But the Libre will scan, the reader is in a waterproof pouch. It has been a blessing to know what my BG level is trending. It generally reads between 20-30 points lower than I am at. But as soon as I am out of the water the Libre reader goes back into my purse to be ignored. Hopefully Dexcom doesn’t decide to drop the calibration ability as they have with the new cheaper version in the UK.
@Eaden There are a few people that have a terrible time getting a Dexcom to work well for them. The no code and calibrating daily has worked well for a lot of them. It’s weird how different we can be. I can restart mine and get an average of 25 days, but others struggle getting it to last even the 10 days. But some people have had amazing results from the no code and calibrating daily method.
That is so good to know and I will keep it in mind. After talking with her nurse today, I think we’re gonna go analog for a little while. Fortunately, she has zero issue with letting me check her before and after meals. We’ll see how long this lasts.
That’s all CGM and FGM sensors. There can be a lag of as much as 15 minutes. For this reason Dexcom denies calibration when data is rapidly changing. When stable the difference between blood glucose levels and interstitial glucose levels should be nominal.
