Month: October 2024

Three weeks away from a (virtual) conference you should be at

/ rivagreenberg / Leave a comment
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I’ve spent the past twenty one years speaking to people with diabetes and health professionals around the world, typically about the emotions that come with living with diabetes – and how to flourish.

November 8th and 9th I’m the closing speaker at the Diabetes + Mental Health Virtual Conference. If your mental health is worth $50 you should be there. Health professionals will earn 7 CEUs for attending. As a caregiver, you’ll gain new insights, and tools, how to support your loved one.

This is the third year world experts are gathering online to help us deal with: eating stresses, general and specific fears, perfectionism, stigma, diagnosis trauma, the burden of tech, anxiety, depression, shame, having tough conversations. This is a mecca in the all-but-desert of our diabetes emotional world.

The on-stage experts are too numerous to name, so take a look and also see the agenda. As the closing speaker for the conference, I will share with you what I’ve shared around the world, that we can, and how to, flourish with diabetes. Like ‘Redraw the Frame’ for instance. And, I’m sharing simple calming exercises to stay safe and clear-thinking when you feel overwhelmed.

I don’t recommend things often or lightly but you deserve to live your life less burdened by the ‘scaries’ of diabetes and more knowledgeable and able to manage them when they come.

The Diabetes + Mental Health Conference, November 8th & 9th, 11am-6pm EST. I hope to see you there. Click here to get tickets.

CGMs’ strength is marking the relative field rather than being 100% accurate

/ rivagreenberg / 1 Comment

I remember having this conversation years ago with a friend, fellow type 1 and doctor. He said to me, and I didn’t want to hear it, “Your CGM isn’t going to be accurate or precise in the way that you want it to, rather it’s going to tell you about where you are.” Why, I thought, can’t it tell me I’m 106 or 202 or 57 with pinpoint accuracy? Well, I get it now.

Wearing the Freestyle Libre 3, that delivers blood sugar (although it ‘s really interstitial fluid) results every single minute, I can see how it isn’t precise. Not in that machine-like way we think of precision. One minute I’m 104, next minute I’m 108, next minute I might be 105 or 119. And I have learned to take a pause before I determine if I need to do something about where my blood sugar is.

It’s mind-boggling to think what in the world is happening in my body for these moment to moment readings to be ever fluctuating like this. I don’t know. What I do know is you can’t think any one number is perfectly it. So I am learning to slow down a bit, watch the numbers and look at the trend. That’s really what CGMs are all about. Showing you trends. Indicating about where you are and if you’re climbing or bottoming out.

As I was keeping an eye on my CGM today, I just thought this was worth mentioning.