Drumroll please…
Results
Three months prior to looping › first three months of looping
- Predicted HbA1C 8.2 › 6.8
- Time in range of 43% › 70% (76% in Nightscout)
- Average glucose 10.5 › 8.2 (8.3 in Nightscout)
- Standard deviation 3.6 › 2.6
- Lows 1% › 1%
Before
Dexcom Clarity report
After
Nightscout report
So far so good
For many people a HbA1C of 6.8 would still be troublingly high. For me it is a major breakthrough, especially with my time in range increasing from 43% to 76%.
As Neil McLagan, a T1D athlete who’s not looping but has found stability on a low carb diet, said to me, “Before it was like, I was always going through the zone. I was high going through the zone on my way down or low going through the zone on the way up. Now, I’m always in the zone and it’s a good feeling.”
For me OpenAPS is a self-correcting system in that it gives me enough of a feeling of control (not just BG control) that I have the confidence, the breathing space, and hopefully the tools, to make further changes to keep my blood sugars in range even more of the time by adjusting my settings and modifying some of my diabetes behaviours.
It’s like another new looper on the Facebook Looped group said, “I’m ten fold more motivated now.”
Due to the instability of my blood sugar levels prior to looping and my high insulin sensitivity, a lot of my diabetes management over the years has involved hypo-avoidance strategies. Having a system that helps me head off hypos by adjusting insulin delivery to match BG data every five minutes, and a CGM that gives accurate warning of hypos means I can surf closer to the ideal blood sugar range without freaking out.
It is very motivating seeing results, after so many years of putting in effort for little return.
In fact five days after posting the three month results above I checked my reports again and found my predicted HbA1C had decreased to 6.3 with an average BG of 7.5, standard deviation 2.2 and 84% of time in range over the past two weeks. So it’s very encouraging.
Compare that with this. The same record for the three months before I starting using OpenAPS
Thank you to everyone who offers their support and knowledge for this DIY technology on social media, blogs and gitter. It has been mind-blowing to find such a savvy and supportive community after all these years.
And once again, I will always be grateful to the pioneers who said #WeAreNotWaiting and found a way to make it happen. The sheer dedication and years of hard work involved are staggering to contemplate.
I’m planning to keep this site updated with the strategies I’ve tried and the things that have worked for me. Everyone’s diabetes is different, this is no walk in the park, and I realise I have been lucky to have a very supportive and technically knowledgeable partner, but by sharing my experiences I hope others can learn from them too.
Hold on a minute… it gets better... One week later …
10 September 2018
The last week’s predicted HbA1C is:
- 6.0 with 1.2% of CGM readings less than 4mmol/L, 94.2% time in range and down to 1.6% standard deviation.
- Or if we change the hypo range to being less than 3.9, we get 0.8% readings less than 3.9
- 0.1% of readings less than 3.0mmol/L with 95.3% time in range
… Very happy camper… you can see why this is motivating!
My Artificial Pancreas 