No, I’m not referring to the popular song by The Four Seasons. I’m referring to last night.

After dinner I checked my blood sugar, got a reading of 246, and dosed 5 units of Apidra on my pump, which is what I normally dose for a 250 reading. I went to bed around 9, and woke up to four loud beeps and a reading of 50 on my Dexcom around 12:30 am. I ate two glucose tablets and went back to sleep. Around 1:15 am my Dexcom beeped four times again, and after doing a finger stick and getting a reading of 54, I once again ate two glucose tablets and a small box of raisins and went back to sleep. Another hour passed, another four beeps, and this time the Dexcom read 40. What on earth was going on? This time I drank a small box of juice, and once again returned to sleep. After another hour I got the four beeps again. I got up and swallowed a tablespoon of maple syrup, the old standby my husband always used when I was comatose from a low. When I woke at 7:30 this morning, my fingerstick showed a reading of 83. So overnight I consumed approximately 55g of carbs, and still only woke with a blood sugar of 83!

Now before I got the Dexcom, I wouldn’t have been awakened four times in one night. My husband would have been awakened by me convulsing. He would have then proceeded to force feed me tablespoons of maple syrup and then wait patiently for me to wake up. This used to happen to me several times a year. It has only happened once in the four years that I’ve been using the Dexcom.

At the present time, Medicare doesn’t approve the use of a continuous glucose monitor. I will be on Medicare in a year and a half. At that time, I anticipate that like Sue from Pennsylvania’s husband, my Dexcom will be a thing of the past. Sue’s husband had a telephone hearing last summer with the Medicare administrative law judge, and he is still awaiting the decision.

As Sue stated in her December 26th post titled The Crusade Continues, there is a bill being introduced to Congress, H.R. 3710: Medicare CGM Coverage Act – to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for coverage of continuous glucose monitoring systems (CGMS) as durable medical equipment under Medicare, and for other purposes. In my opinion, after young children, seniors are the ones who most need CGMs. I pray that this bill gets signed into law, and this age discrimination by our government becomes a thing of the past.