Feeling validated- CGM for fasting levels

29 weeks, FTM diagnosed just before Christmas (and my Birthday). To say it’s been a rough month is a bit of an understatement but we’ve made it through.

I am planning for a home birth as where I live that is the only way I have access to a birthing pool and I am eager to use water for pain relief as I intend to avoid an epidural for personal and previous medical reasons. Don’t get me started on how archaic it is that hospitals don’t provide this, my mother birthed my sister and I unmedicated in a pool at a hospital 30 years ago(albeit in a different country) so it’s shocking to me, it is what it is.

For these reasons, I am extremely invested in remaining diet controlled. The moment I am required to take insulin, I risk out of midwifery care, will have to find a new provider and will be required to birth in the hospital without access to a pool. Since I received my glucometer a little over two weeks ago, I’ve changed my diet and routine and am completely diet controlled for post meal numbers. I had two spikes from homemade meals, removed those ingredients from my diet and have been fine since. My fasting was all over the place though. I bought another monitor out of pocket because my readings would often vary over 1mmol/L (18 points for the Americans) when taken over a ten minute span. I was going insane. I am required to be below 5.3 for fasting, and I would typically get one reading below this, and 2-3 around 5.6-5.8. I have implemented all the tips and tricks, Metamucil before bed, apple cider vinegar and magnesium, walking after dinner, almond butter on high fibre toast as a bed time snack, nothing made a difference.

My dietician has booked me for an appointment to come in to discuss insulin for my fasting number and I was devastated. I strongly believed that my fasting numbers were good (they always have been on hospital blood work) but that the stress of waking up and testing was having an impact. I went and bought a Dexcom G7 last night and I feel so incredibly validated.

Overnight my numbers were completely within range, except for when I woke up at 5 to go pee and then again at 7:30. When I wake up, my readings shot up by 1-1.4mmol/L!!! This could explain why often I get one low reading followed by a bunch of highs when I test.

For example at 7:20, before I woke up I was reading 4.6, by 7.30 I was at 5.8 😳. 30 minutes later I am sitting at 4.9. Overnight my readings ranged from 4.8-5.3.

I know it’s just one day, and I still have a long road ahead with this pregnancy and insulin resistance spiking in the coming weeks, but this has been so incredibly validating. I’ve been reading everything I can on this subreddit for the past two weeks and wanted to share in case anyone else has been considering exploring a CGM to help them understand their fasting patterns.

Good luck to everyone here, this diagnosis is extremely challenging, stigmatizing and limiting at an already difficult time, you are all so strong for making it though.

Edited to add: my glucometer reading this am was only .1mmol/L off of the Dexcom, so while I know I am still within the calibration period I am cautiously optimistic.

Editing to add for future reference: it has now been 36 hours with the sensor. I’ve done 5 finger pokes that have all been within less than .5mmol/L of the sensor so I feel like it is accurate and within the tolerances. I experienced another peak upon waking this morning. Before waking my CGM showed a reading of 4.3, within 10 minutes of waking it shot up to 5.9 then over the course of 30 minutes it dropped back down and stabilized between 4.7-5.1. Throughout the night all readings were between 3.9-5.4 except for one jump around midnight when my husband came to bed. I waited for the peak to stabilize before finger pricking and got a 4.9 (CGM was showing 5.0 at the time).