Glucose monitoring is required to maintain the fine balance between high and low blood sugars. Regular glucose monitoring can help identify low sugars (hypoglycemia) and high sugars. Glucose monitoring is advised before the meal (pre-meal) to decide on the dose of correction insulin to be given. The blood sugar is checked on waking up to decide on the doses of long acting insulin and make sure that there are no low sugars. Blood sugars are checked 2 hours after the meal (post meal) to understand how high the sugars go after a meal. This can help adjust the insulin dose to a meal.
It is not just the HbA1c and the self-monitored blood sugars that are important. It is also important to know how the blood sugars behave throughout the day. This can be done with a Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS). We usually use a Medtronic Enlite Sensor or an Abbott Freestyle Libre Flash monitoring system. CGMS has helped doctors and patients understand the details of daily blood glucose fluctuations. This helps them make better decisions for patients.