Ah

Woke up to the dulcet tones of my glucose monitor announcing I was having an urgent low (the monitor itself said that; my phone and watch read 39, which is, indeed, pretty freaking low. [Normal's about 80-120 for a diabetic.) Then the sensor went offline, which sometimes happens during the first 24 hours within placement (I am, at least finally doing well with putting it on my arm, and I found an overpatch that actually holds the thing on that I can easily put on myself. Anyway, I ate some Meijer version of Honey Nut Cheerios with banana and rice milk, because that usually makes my blood sugar rise quickly. The sensor came back up and it was 94 within a few minutes. Yay! So glad this woke me up. That's its job, and I'm glad I stuck with it through the learning process (Dexcom sent me no less than nine replacement sensors in the first six months (each lasting 10 days). There were seven that fell off as I couldn't get them on where they stayed. One malfunctioned, probably because I hit a capillary and blood fountained through it (gross), and one I managed to bump into something and tore it right off (ouch). Each time I contacted Dexcom directly, filled out what had happened and they sent another one for free. I'm very grateful for that. There was a learning curve when I started the G6. This was harder. The G7 goes on the arm, not on the abdomen, and I'm fleshier than most of the pictures and diagrams I've seen. But once you get it on, it has more accurate readings, warms up in about 30 minutes rather than 2 hours, and has a 12-hour grace period of readings after the sensor expires before it stops giving readings. I have also learned that if you use both the Dexcom and a smartphone (and by extension a watch, which is connected to the phone), pair the phone first, not the receiver, as it takes almost the entire warmup time to pair to the phone if you don't. Anyway, I would really recommend this, just know it's going to take a while to get the hang of it.

Whoever invented the ceiling fan is my hero

Sitting under three fans (two ceiling, one pedestal) as my blood sugar went low at Kroger and I get very hot and drenched with sweat when that happens, on top of feeling shaky. I carry glucose tablets with me normally, so I ate some and waited till I felt better to drive. But now that I'm home and I've gotten the groceries inside during the rain and my roommate has put then away, I've checked my blood sugar (it's normal now) and stripped down to shorts and a tank top to sleep in. I still need to do some things before bed but I'm going to stretch out and set an alarm and enjoy the moving air.

It's not good

when the first thing you do once you get home is to check your blood sugar and then wind up having to take some glucose tablets because it's all of 55 mg/dL, which is way too low, and if I'd realised just how low I was, I wouldn't have driven home until I could get it back up (70-130 mg/dL is the ideal range for a diabetic). So now I'm eating some crackers and peanut butter to bring it back up. I just thought I was getting sleepy because it was late, so I rolled the window down a bit (I was hot) while driving. But the shakiness didn't start till I got out of the car, thankfully. I will definitely be more careful in the future and test if I feel the least bit off before getting in the car.