When I read David Mendosa's post, L is for Lazy, I just had to blog on it.
I was really struck by his comment
Even when it may appear to others that we “aren’t doing anything,” we may well be taking care of our bodies. Nothing is as inactive as sleeping, yet many people with diabetes suffer from getting too little of it, as I have written here.
My wife and I were talking about diabetes over the weekend. We realized that our three children have really no idea about the amount of work I do to try and keep my blood sugars in a reasonable range. If they don't know, what chance do others have.
So kick back and relax a little every so often. It's not being lazy, you're just taking better care of yourself.
I think it's a well organized list and clearly thoughtfully put together. I'm always working at making my blog posts better and this may be a useful checklist for me. I hope you find it useful.
I've been wearing a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor for almost three weeks now. And you know what? I've now got this super power.
No, it's not X-ray vision.
Even better, it's a power that folks without diabetes don't have.
I can see my blood sugar readings. In fact, I can also predict them some. It's like I'm looking into my bloodstream at the molecular level.
And here's what it looks like as I'm writing this entry.
So what, I hear you say.
Well get this. If I'm about to get in my car and drive, I can simply take this out of my pocket and tell in a split second whether it's safe for me to drive.
If I'm running around with the kids, I can take a quick look and make sure that my numbers aren't dropping too quickly.
And if I've just eaten more than I should, I can keep an eye on this and correct before my numbers get way too high.
It's simply amazing to me. And I'm already seeing a benefit in my numbers. Less horrible highs and tighter control all round.
There are drawbacks. It's another gadget to carry around. And I don't yet know whether my insurance will cover it. But with the announcement from Medicare/Medicaid, I think it's only a matter of time.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to go jump over my house. After all, I do have super powers.
In the batch of photos that I published earlier about the Dexcom, one of the photos shows a trace of the redness left after using a shower cover. Now this was after I'd worn the sensor for about 4 days. So I'd have at least 3 shower covers applied in the same place.
Here's that picture again. And if you jump to Flickr, you'll see where the red mark from the shower cover is visible.
I'd read somewhere (don't remember I'm afraid) that the Press n' Seal food wrap worked pretty well for shower covering. So I decided to invest in a box and try it out. Here's a picture of the results before a shower.
Overall it's worked pretty well for me, and I've tried this three times so far.
Now this isn't a perfect alternative to the Dexcom shower covers (about $0.60 each). First of all, you need to trim the wrap because it's too wide. And I've found that even with a sharp scissors this is difficult. Also it's hard to get a tight seal all around the edge. You'll probably get some amount of water in behind the wrap.
But it is much easier on my skin. The last time I used the shower cover it was really sore to take it off. I've heard that the Dexcom shower cover does seem to work in swimming pools, so that's a benefit for those.
I've also tried showering without any cover over the transmitter. After I'm done I've found that sometimes there's very little water behind it. Sometimes there's a lot. Immediately after the shower, I take the transmitter off the sensor and dry carefully both the transmitter and the sensor. Then I reattach the transmitter. I try to do this at some distance from the Dexcom receiver so that I don't send it strange readings that might throw it off. So far that's worked fairly well the 3-4 times I've tried it.
Can I point out another CGM benefit? My wife likes that she can see where things are by simply looking at the CGM. Sometimes when my blood sugar gets low I get very uncooperative. I think in situations like that it'll be nice to have something where she can quickly see what the number is right now and where it's been for the last hour or so.
The way I've described it to people that I meet (I love yakking about this thing) is that it gives me a much better feeling of control. I hope that my A1C will actually reflect that.
I'm meeting with my endo on Wednesday and I'm going to start the paperwork for the insurance reimbursement after that.
I have two minor issues with Dexcom support. First of all, I still haven't received the download software. It's been over a week since I paid for all this and I can't download readings and see what the software's like. That's really irritating.
Second, I tried to call the Dexcom support number on Friday morning to talk about getting an extended period of "---" results. I wanted to see if they had any suggestions for resolving this. I spoke to someone (after about 5 minutes on hold) who took my number and said that a support person would call me back shortly. In the end, I got the callback over 90 minutes later, when I wasn't there to talk with them. If the Dexcom sales take off substantially, how will they deal with the likely increase in support calls? I'm hoping this is a once-off issue.
What a difference a day makes (Dexcom trial continued)
Sunday was a really trying day with the Dexcom. In the middle of the morning, the Dexcom decided that my blood sugars were rising - fast.
I tested and they were on the high side, but the values were actually stabilized. Now I was at church without the large cable, so I couldn't synchronize the meter and the Dexcom receiver. So I watched the Dexcom values climb through the 300s until it just said HI, meaning over 400.
Once I got home I did the synchronization and the Dexcom responded with an X, meaning that the system was out of calibration. I tried calibrating several time and even reset the sensor. I never got another reading out of the Dexcom for the rest of the day on Sunday.
I e-mailed the representative and she mentioned that taking some medications such as acetaminophen can cause problems. I had taken some that morning and that may have been the cause of the problem. Unfortunately this was not something that was mentioned during the training on Friday.
So on Monday I put on my second (and last) sensor. This time I did it after showering so that wouldn't cause problems. And it's been working really well ever since.
I'm hoping that it will last until Friday.
It looks as if I can't get the software before this Friday. This makes it very hard for me to evaluate the overall system. So I'll probably spend most of my visit on Friday experimenting with the software itself.
I decided to change the High and Low settings on the receiver to 180 mg/dL and 90 mg/dL respectively. This way the receiver will buzz me before I hit levels that concern me. This will give me more time to take corrective action.
One thing that I've found from wearing the Dexcom for just a few days is that my dawn phenomenon starts to kick in around 3:30 AM. This is much earlier than I ever expected.
So I've adjusted my basal rate to start 30 minutes earlier and give me an extra 0.5 units at that time. I'm taking it very slowly so I don't end up over-correcting. Here's hoping that tomorrow morning I remain under 180!
I guess my summary for today is. When this thing works it's fairly good. I like the results and the visualization, they're very powerful. I don't like the packaging, the user interface, the loooooooooong cable, the need to use 2 glucose meters. When it doesn't work it's incredibly frustrating, especially because the sensors are $35 each.
The Diabetes Technology Blog is focused on using technology to life better with diabetes. I review: blood glucose monitors; continuous glucose monitor; blood sugar meters; diabetes software and living with diabetes.
About Me
Name: Bernard Farrell
Location: Massachusetts, United States
I was born in Ireland and now live in the US.
I have had Type 1 diabetes for over 35 years. I struggle with my blood sugar, the same as most people with diabetes.
I wear a Cozmo 1800 insulin pump and a Dexcom SEVEN CGM to track my blood glucose levels. I also take Symlin to help control my post-meal blood sugars.
I'm blessed by God, and every day brings the possibility of a cure.
