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I found Mom unresponsive in her SNF with a glucose 56. She had a Libre monitor placed on her arm and the alarm was going off. This was at 4pm. Her noon food tray was still in front of her.


To help keep her safe, we want the ability to see her glucose readings and be alerted when it's out of range. The SNF only knows her level if they scan the sensor. Any advice on how to handle this? She's got dementia and is bed bound.

Libre monitors are great. Company is very efficient on replacing monitors that accidently get knocked off arm . Dr. can download the readings and easily assess and monitor patient progress. Useful in care facilities also!
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Reply to NormaPreston
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Getting tabs or OJ into an unresponsive (almost in a comma) person is tough, go slow and avoid choking on the cure.

FYI most glucose monitors bottom reading limit is 25. So if you ever see a 25 it could be even lower than that.

We have a prescription for a Glucagen hypodermic kit. That's the stuff that EMT's use to wake up a diabetic comma and it works quick.
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Reply to jwellsy
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Contact the company that sold the device. They can walk you through what needs to be done so you are given alarms for high and low blood glucose.
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Reply to Taarna
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Have you spoken to your mother's doctor - the one who manages her diabetes? Is there any way the amount of medication can be reduced, or depending on the medication, stopped entirely? If mom is bed bound and has dementia, then there should be far less concern about her A1C levels being "too high".

The American Diabetes Assoc generally recommends an A1C of under 7; the American Association of Endocrinologists recommends an A1C of under 6.5. But BOTH organizations recognize and make concessions on higher acceptable A1C levels for elderly patients who are cognitively unable to recognize low blood sugar symptoms, or unable to reliably test/read a meter and take steps to reverse a low blood sugar emergency - especially those in a managed care setting. In elderly diabetes patients, the concern over hypoglycemia is greater the concern over hyperglycemia.

I would start with mom's doctor and see what (s)he recommends in regard to mom's medication management.
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Reply to notgoodenough
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Kalamazootx1: Pose your question to the facility administrator.
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Reply to Llamalover47
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I’m not familiar with Libre, but Medtronic and Dexcom allow family members to receive notifications on their phones when the person wearing the device goes too high or too low. It’s amazing your mom allows the device to remain in place. I hope that continues.
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Reply to Sunnygirl1
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They have been around long enough for most nurses to understand. However CNAs might not because of scope of practice. Most patients do not interact with nurses for most of the day. Contact the ombudsman and ask what are training requirements. The staff should at least understand that they need the nurse and not ignore the alarms
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Reply to MACinCT
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Kalamazootx1 Jun 8, 2025
I think the issue is no staff or nurse responds to the audible alarm. Trying to find a solution to mom being safe from low glucose. They are all trained to scan the device
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