A singular piece of unbuttered toast.

Or

A big bowl of pasta. Covered in butter with roasted chicken. Omg sooo good.

Note: I am not a doctor and nothing here is advice.

I have a home server and I do all sorts of things with it: Media server, route security camera footage through it, general server metric tracking, etc.

Back in May, I thought about the amount of data that comes out of my Twiist pump and how much I can access via Tidepool. One thing I didn't like is how disconnected it can feel from the rest of my life. Tidepool allows you to see what is happening but unless you are watching that day, it is actually pretty hard to identify issues and more specifically, identify changes in pump settings or behavior that you should consider.

So, I started building my own site at home. I started collecting and writing all of my diabetes data from Tidepool - glucose reading but also much more. Tidepool works really well with Twiist because it is also pulling information off the pump like setting change events, workout/meal presets being active, basal rates at any given time as well as how much insulin the pump is giving you.

Additionally, I thought it would be very valuable to connect other bodily metrics from my Garmin watch like stress, heart rate and most importantly activity data. This would allow me (and a local AI) to start to see patterns that I couldn't see anywhere.

Right now, I call it my Daily Health Cockpit. I can check the site for (relatively) up-to-date information. The real value I have found is only recently when I did a big site overhaul to try and put suggestions at the center of everything. An open-weight AI I have running locally is constantly monitoring this information and looking for patterns, inferred metrics and suggestions for me.

Here are some of the highlights (in screenshot order):

1. Suggestions with an experiment tracker: The AI knows every setting on my Twiist that I could change. It also knows roughly what positive and negative changes to these settings might look like. For example, if I change my correction factor, it will watch over the next 5-7 days to see how the pump's corrections work. If it sees that corrections are taking too long to come down, this value is likely too weak. If it sees they are sending me low, too strong. As days progress, it marks which settings were changed and made things better vs worse. This then feeds back in to the loop. Of course, when I am in a good state, this is pretty quiet and suggestions are not recommended.

2. At a glance: This section is really nice to just see how the day is going. I can see my TIR, my last glucose value, carbs and insulin on board, stress, recovery, sleep. etc.

3. Battery (experimental): This is a sort of collated dataset that is packaged into "metabolic battery". It is attempting to mix in things like how variable my sugar has been, stress readings from my watch, amount of sleep, and "safety" - which is really just the threat of lows today. I have sometimes found this section useful but it is not quite right yet

4. Infusion Site Age: Something I have never really seen while inspecting data elsewhere is how infusion site age affects my control. Many places can show you when you changes but do a bad job at correlating that to control. Funnily enough, a fresh site is usually the worst for me and they get better with time (until they need changing)

5. Long range (basal analysis): This what the part of the site I focused on first and it is really interesting to see it fill with data over time. We often boil long term control to just A1C but there is a whole host of data we can look at to get a better idea as to why our A1c might be the way it is. Of course, have an a1c of 6.0 can be good for some and bad for others. If you have many many lows a day, you can have a good a1c and that is sort of useless because you are always correcting. One recent addition here is this "scheduled vs delivered". It compares basal delivery vs what the pump actually gave you. In my example, you can see that my pump is pretty much always giving me more than scheduled - across all parts of the day. This likely indicates my basal rates are slightly too low across the board. But "ideal" here is more in the 110-120% range. If you were right on 100%, you might feel like you were having more lows than anticipated.

6. Long range (TIR): Time in range is just something to always have and visualize. So, having visual graphs about raw TIR (just percentages) as well as the lower graph which takes CV (coefficient of variation - how variable your values are) into account as well. CV is a number that is also not pointed out enough. This is a nice value to show you how "stable" your glucose is. You might have 99% TIR but a high CV - this means you are close to low then close to high over and over again through the day. This might indicate that you are really good at correcting but tired from how much you have to do it. There are also some other classic visuals here like the ambulatory glucose profile and comparing sugars today vs the last 7 days, etc. And then the heatmap. This can be sliced by different things like highs and lows. It is a nice way to see if you are trending in a better direction lately for those things.

7. Experiment outcomes: As stated before, changes to settings are treated as experiments and they are/should only be accepted after certain outcomes. This section tracks what has been changed and early indicators in the data for how it might be helping/hurting.

Of course, there are many other things (giving notes to the AI about things that might be confusing in the data recently, chatting to it about your data, etc) but that is mainly it. It still has a long way to go but I have found it very helpful lately. This is just a personal project and it is not available anywhere. I have considered this but you do really need a server setup to pull the data and store it, have a local AI, etc.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please comment! I am always looking to make things better.

Can’t quite distinguish the color of the ketone urine test. I think it’s trace? Kinda struggling with medical insurance rn so any advice would be appreciated! I’m still pretty new to all this.

I made some chili the other night. It has vegan ground beef, kidney & black beans, hemp hearts, quinoa, pecans, tomatoes, cocoa powder, coffee, tomatoes, and spices. Usually this combo of protein and fiber doesn’t spike my blood sugar, but for some reason a small bowl of this chili does. Any ideas for how to mitigate it? Both sharp spikes are following a bowl of chili.

I’ve been off ozempic due to surgery so I doubled up on metformin and am generally well-managed. I lowered my A1C from 7.9% to 6.5% in 8 weeks with diet and meds. But still trying to understand what things might be causing extra spikes and why. Any thoughts, things you’ve learned over time? I was only diagnosed in January and am still learning.

ETA the vegan beef is just pea protein, porcini mushrooms, and spices. Itonly has 5g carbs and no added sugar, plus 18g protein per serving. It’s a really healthy (and expensive) one. I only use one pack (3 servings) for an 8 serving pot of chili.

Edit: My fitness pal calculates that the chili is 46g carbs and 22g protein with 12g fiber. I’ve had meals with far higher carbs that don’t do this. Maybe the lack of a GLP1, maybe just my body reacting for no good reason. 🤷‍♀️

Hey everyone! I’m a new t1D, diagnosed at 23. In wondering if anyone has an idea of how long their honeymoon phases lasted? I feel like my numbers are way too good to be true and I’m going low after every meal even with only giving myself 1-3 units of fast acting insulin per meal. Any advice?

I am a 30 y/o female. I’ve been having signs (peeing a lot, always thirsty, and lost 30 pounds unintentionally) but I don’t have insurance at the moment (will be enrolling through my job in Nov but won’t start till Jan 2027). I went to a quick lab place and my BS was 384 (& I was unintentionally fasting). They gave me a dose of a GLP1 and started me on Metformin. My Hemoglobin A1C is over 15.5. With changing my diet, starting to exercise and the Metformin: Is it possible that I can get my A1C down? I’ve been reading that people with my numbers going into the hospital but I don’t have insurance and wanted to avoid the hassle.

I’m new to this subreddit so bare with me but I don’t really know where else to share my frustration and maybe even help someone else going through what I am.

I’m 28 years old and I have had type 1 for 21 years now.
I’ve never been the best diabetic but I’ve tried to live my life in the way I want to without confining myself to a diet and lifestyle that isn’t me. For a long time it didn’t effect me much but now I feel like I’m just a slip away from taking a trip in a hearse. Might be dramatic but honestly it’s just a lot anymore.
I don’t have just diabetes which I know statistically we all have to have something else along with the diabetes.
I have persistent depression disorder, ADHD, hormone issues, and to top it all off I’ve been battling eye issues for the past three years. Half the time I wonder why I’m sticking with it, I wonder to myself why am I so broken and what’s the point of continuing.
I feel a burden to whoever I’m with because this thing I was born with and had no say in, makes me feel like I need constant supervision or that I just drag them down with medical problem after medical problem.
I finally have such a good grasp on controlling my blood sugar but at the same time I am so worn out in having to do it all that I wonder if I should keep doing it in the first place.
I don’t want pity from other people and I don’t want sympathy either. At the end of the day I just want to live without being confined. I’ve always wanted to live like other people but I can’t.

If you are struggling with it right now, talk to me. PM me, reach out and honest to god let’s talk. Diabetes is a struggle no matter how many of the normies say, oh just check your blood sugar and eat right. Well Janice, I like food and unfortunately the universe blessed me with a pallet that loves everything but a pancreas that can’t even handle it! It’s bullshit in my opinion. All of it. I’m on a CGM, I have an Omnipod and it all basically does it for me but I still can’t go months without something being wrong with my body or mind.

I know this post is mostly a rant but I am having to go back to the retinal doctor again to figure out how I can have these floating bits in my eyes taken care of so I can see again with hindrance and I just feel like snapping or giving up. I don’t understand fully why I am alive but if one of you out there needs to get angry at this disease then be angry with me and let’s talk about it. Maybe then we can overcome the anger and maybe even find a little peace. It’s hopeful and may even be the desperation of a mentally broke person but I rather be there for one of you then give up.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk…

Ive been able to keep my blood sugars in range but every month, right after i ovulate, my blood sugars spike. Suddenly i go from 1.5u/hr basal rate that keeps me around 100-120 to nearly 2u/hr just to stay out of the 300's. Im so tired of of waking up feeling sick. It's making work nearly impossible.

After my period or even around my period, my numbers go back to normal, often times dipping really low after ramping up insulin. I have been checking for keytones and they have been trace, which let's me know that 2u/hr isnt enough.

Im just really tired of diabetes right now and to top it off being a woman makes it even harder 😪

Im in PH, I was recently diagnosed with T2, since I just started, Im a bit paranoid how my diet spike my glucose, Ive been pricking more than 5 times a day, to check if certain foods spike sugar. I'm tired of pricking, can anyone suggest chepest brand of CGM the one that actually works? Ive been searching but I need some real life experience and suggestions. Thank you in advance!

I have type 2 diabetes, and I know how to research info, but I met 2 ppl that told me they were type 2, and now 1 . How is that possible?

guys I give up. it’s Apple sauce and toast until I can eat regular food again.

My husband was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes less than a year ago.He took the news pretty hard, although he tried to act like it didn’t bother him.

At first, he did everything right. He went to his appointments, changed his diet, and followed the doctor’s recommendations.

After about two months, I noticed a shift. He started eating things he shouldn’t, stopped working out, stopped going to appointments, and slowly started letting everything go.

I tried approaching it gently. I suggested taking baby steps instead of changing everything overnight. I understand how overwhelming this diagnosis must be. His entire lifestyle changed, and I know that’s not easy to accept. I also know he hates hearing people tell him it’s not that bad or that he’ll be fine.

As time went on, he became distant and cold toward me. Even asking how his day was or how he was feeling would result in short answers or him snapping at me. When I finally brought up the distance, he told me it wasn’t about me and questioned why I always made everything about our relationship.

I explained that I wasn’t making it about myself. I was trying to tell him how his behavior was affecting me. He barely talks to me, spends most of his time on his phone when we’re together, and dismisses me when I try to tell him about my day. Our conversations have become one-sided.

I’ve tried giving him space to process everything, and I don’t believe he’s intentionally hurting me, but it’s becoming difficult to communicate with him.

Then things became more concerning. He stopped wearing his glucose monitor, stopped taking his Ozempic consistently, and started missing insulin doses. He would tell me he was taking his medication, but I eventually realized he wasn’t. When I confronted him, he brushed me off and didn’t want to talk about it.

He also wanted me to go to a game with him where there’s usually a lot of drinking. He promised he would only have one or two drinks but ended up drinking all night and getting drunk. When I questioned him, he got defensive and said we were there to have fun.

The next day, I finally reached my breaking point. I asked him, “Do you want to die? Because if that’s what you’re trying to do, I can’t sit here and watch you do this to yourself.”

I know that sounds harsh, but I’m watching him neglect hisself, and I feel helpless.

I dont know what to do to help him…. Please help!!

My diabetes is in remission now through a A1C test I know this but I don’t have the emotional energy to prick my finger. I don’t have insurance so can’t get the monitor right now. Anyone else have advice on how you would overcome this phobia? I really want to overcome it but this is really hard for me everyone please no mean comments.

My insurance recently switched from approving Freestyle Libre CGM sensors to requiring Dexcom instead. That issue, combined with some recent issues with the Libre 3+ sensors, caused me to try out the Dexcom and compare the two. I tried to be as unbiased as possible. I'm posting the results because I have been pretty shocked by the comparison. I've only been on the Dexcom for less than two months so the data is limited.

I went into the evaluation with a strong preference for Libre. I’ve been a user since the Libre 1 sensor at the very beginning. At the time, the Libre sensors were smaller and lasted longer. I have been a user of Libre for several years now. For the comparison, I started using the Dexcom G7 and had been using the Libre 3+. Here are a few things I found:

Quality of Measurement – The Dexcom G7 has so far been way more accurate. The readings have all been within 15 mg/dL of the glucose meter readings.  The Libre3+ meanwhile, at times has been off by anywhere from a few mg/dL to as much as 50 mg/dL. This has created serious issues for me, especially at night. As a result, I had been under-estimating my glucose levels and my most recent Doctor visit revealed an increase in A1c.  That is the first time that has happened in several years. This issue is by far the most important, and Dexcom so far has been way better.

Reliability of the Sensor – So far I’ve had no problems with the G7. All three inserted and worked fine. Meanwhile, in the last few months I’ve had several Libre 3+ sensors fail, including two that bricked within 30 minutes of insertion, and 2 that failed within 2 days of insertion. Other Libre sensors that didn’t fail had the reading problems described above. I think in the last several months I’ve only had one or two Libre sensors that worked fine.

Stand-Alone Sensor Reader – Each product comes with a stand-alone reader that will display the sensor readings. Here the Dexcom reader blew away the Libre reader. The Libre reader advertises a week of battery life. I’m lucky if I get a day and a half. Meanwhile, I’m at the end of the second week on the Dexcom reader with plenty of battery life. I have no idea why the two are so different. Maybe I just have an old Libre reader. But the even more critical difference is the pairing options. The Dexcom sensor allows you to pair with BOTH the reader and your cellphone app. So if, for whatever reason, the cellphone app isn’t working with the sensor properly, you still have the reader and haven’t wasted a sensor. The Libre only works with the reader OR the cellphone app. In addition, I found myself going back and forth between the reader and the cellphone app depending upon my activities. Sometimes I wanted to have my cellphone, but other times I preferred having the reader. This ended up being a big issue, like the quality of measurement issue.

The Cellphone Apps – Both are fine, with an edge to the Dexcom. It has some cool features like being able to set-up two different alarm profiles.  The Libre app also had a few small annoyances, like when you start a new sensor at first it doesn’t respond and you think the pairing has failed. Just as you are about to panic, you finally see the 60 minutes until use message. It’s not a big deal, but it’s annoying having that issue every time. But overall, the differences aren’t big enough to matter. One caveat is that because I haven’t been using the Dexcom long, I’m unclear whether bricking a sensor is an issue with the Dexcom. It recently became an issue with the Libre.

Sensor Attachment – the Dexcom comes with a patch that goes over the sensor. This has been very helpful in keeping the sensor from falling off. With the Libre, I was having to buy third party patches. The third party patches were of lower quality so they would fall off after a week and I’d have to apply a second one for the second week. I haven’t yet had to replace the Dexcom patch with a third party patch, but I did buy some in case its necessary. Because I haven’t yet tried the Dexcom third party patches, I don’t know if they are any good.

Size of sensors – The gap between the Libre and Dexcom sensor sizes has narrowed greatly.  The Dexcom is still slightly larger, but it doesn’t bother me anymore because it’s small enough. In the past, the larger, odder shape of the Dexcom made me self-conscience.

Price – The price of the two sensors is roughly in the same range within $5-10 per month of each other.

So, the final result isn’t even close. The Dexcom blew away the Freestyle. I’ve read on Reddit of some problems with the Dexcom too, so it just may be that I’ve lucked into good sensors.  As I continue to use Dexcom, I’ll come back and update the evaluation. In the meantime, the feature advantage of the Dexcom reader makes it clear I’m going to stick with Dexcom for the foreseeable future. Just thought I'd pass this along because I've been pretty frustrated with the Libre's in the past year after loving them for many years.

Hello guys, I was just diagnosed two months ago and I'm currently on insulin and mounjaro. My nutritionist recommended that I increase my protein intake by using some protein powder or shakes. She stated that it has to be 30g+ of protein per serving.

I'm currently drinking the members mark ultrafiltered milk shake, it's relatively inexpensive and tastes ok, but I don't like the clumps that form at the bottom (won't go away no matter how much I try to shake)

Any recommendations would be super helpful, I bought a couple of single serve ones to try out but trying to expand my options while trying to keep it within budget.

Also, been struggling with meals, super huge fan of Asian dishes (particularly Japanese, Thai, and Chinese in that order) any ideas? Haven't had any Asian foods in 2 months lol

My drawer is a total mess right now. It's basically a graveyard of odds and ends in there. Half of Contour test strips, Medtronic infusion sets, Skin Tac wipes, and a pile of Dimora silicone bandage I hoard for rashes and skin tears. Any time I need a lancet I end up digging through a bunch of different brands like I'm on an archaeological dig.

Do you keep yours organized, or are you like me? Feel free to share what your setup looks like right now.

hey yall, im ore diabetic and my doctor prescribed this to me. the first month was totally fine, no side effects. but after that I have 0 appetite, im queezy all the time, and I only diarrhea.

its working great though my sugar is constantly going down anf ive gone from 280->240 in three months (im 6'4) so i kinda wanna keep asking it but woof. anyone have any advice to mitigate or get rid of the side effects?

I have type 2 diabetes and some shots I've given myself have been easier than others. But mostly I panic as I'm trying to give myself a shot because of the fear of any pain (bad spot, insulin burning the spot). I've even made myself bleed just from the shot. I'd really like to know if I'm alone in this. 😞

New to fast acting insulin.. new to CGM.. had a low 2.9 as per fsl2, had a glucolift drink, 20 mins later still falling, drank can of regular coke.. got reading from cgm and finger prick.. see images!! How can this be and which to believe?

For context, I am T2 diabetic and currently on Trulicity. I’m now looking into options to avoid losing my healthcare but I am very nervous that I’ll have to stop taking it if I don’t figure out a solution. Anyone else stressed over it?

PS. There is a lot more to my circumstances than just simply not wanting to work. I’m only stating this because it seems that any time anyone complains about the changes, people jump to conclusions. All I ask is some grace.

I have my breakfasts figured out. I eat the same things every morning and it works well for me. My insulin needs don't really change much because the meal is consistent so the fat/protein/carb ratio is generally the same. I will switch out the protein or the carb to vary the taste, but the ratios are the same.

I can't figure out dinner. My meals are all over the place. Sometimes it's chicken, sometimes it's a burger. I'll add in a small dessert, like a pie or some ice cream as well.

I know if I eat the same thing like I do for breakfast I can figure out what my actual insulin needs are for dinner/evening time. I just can't find something that I can eat every day like I have for breakfast. I don't know why.

I'll put a graph of a typical day for me (not to brag or anything but just to show what I'm talking about):

So what are some dinners I can do that will help me achieve the same results?

I feel so secure and confident at breakfast, but as soon as 4pm hits I have no clue what is going to happen. You can see the dinner bolus around 5pm actually went fine. It was a burger with some mini cupcakes. The issue is I think the fat hit later even though it was more than four hours post meal.

Any advice on what to eat that is:

- low fat so I don't spike later but actually tastes good

- more than just a salad

- balanced with protein and veggies, and carbs for dessert

- purchaseable in Canada

I'm so tired of these unpredictable evenings. It's frustrating because I have the mornings so damn figured out.