Back to Basics

Ever felt so overwhelmed that every little thing that didn’t go to plan made it feel like your whole world would fall apart? Welcome to my past few weeks. It could be a bit of the post natal blues or anxiety over some major career transitions coming up or the continued sleep deprivation that I thought we’d be over by now. Life has been rough and I’ve been trying to take things day by day.

One thing I noticed was my frustration seeing my wild CGM traces and the constant notifications of being high or low. It didn’t help that my past few sensors haven’t been super accurate to the point where I’d just turn the bluetooth off at night to stop the alarms. The last thing I needed when chasing every minute of sleep is a false urgent low alarm that could wake the sleeping children (not the husband though).

When an opportunity came up to try a blood glucose meter + app + cloud reporting system, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to take a CGM break to change things up. However, I wasn’t expecting for it to be such an eye opening experience with such mixed feelings involved.

The biggest thing was the anxiety of not knowing what was happening in between finger pricks. It also took a bit of time to get used to doing so many finger pricks again. Usually I’d check my sugars before each meal and before and after exercise (mostly walking these days). After about a week though, I realised that ignorance is bliss. I was so used to hyper focusing on my blood sugars from pregnancy that each time my sugars went above my target, I’d get anxious. So it was nice not to see what was happening immediately after meals and be reassured that my sugars were often within target range by the next meal or snack. It made a huge impact on my mental health and was the break I needed to give me more energy to deal with other things.

I know that I will go back to using my CGM for the convenience factor. Bringing my blood glucose kit everywhere and making sure it’s close by (aka not having it drown in the nappy bag) seems like such an added burden after simply relying on my phone for so long. Trying to manage two little kids during mealtimes also adds to the chaos around checking my sugars at the same time. Also, the meter I’m currently trialing is absolutely hopeless to use at night, when I need that extra reassurance as that’s when the lows hit me with no reason or warning. But for now going back to basics gave me that bit of mental reprieve I needed to focus my energy elsewhere. Thankfully I’ve got an appointment with my educator soon to get some extra support and encouragement.