Most people read their CGM the way they were taught to read a finger-stick meter: glance at the number, react to the number, forget the number, repeat. That's not what a CGM is for.
A finger-stick gives you a snapshot. A CGM gives you a story. The number is one frame of the story — and not even the most important one.
Today's idea
A CGM shows you three pieces of information. The current number. The direction it's heading. The speed at which it's heading there. Most people use the first one. The second and third are where the actual decisions live.
A 130 with a flat arrow is fine. A 130 with a steep up-arrow is on its way to 180 in 30 minutes. A 130 falling fast is on its way to 70 in 20 minutes. The same number, three different situations, three different conversations to have with yourself or your care team.
The Pro Tip series puts it this way:
The number on a CGM is the smallest piece of what it's telling you. The direction and the speed carry the rest of the story.
From Pro Tip 1003
For the next four days, you're going to relearn how to read what you've been looking at the whole time.
The number is a piece of the story, not the whole story.
Every time you look at your CGM today, name the direction out loud or in your head before you name the number. Even if you don't change anything. Just practice naming the arrow first.
Small Sip #1442 — Using a CGM Well
What did I notice when I started reading the arrow first?