I love my Dexcom system, and like most, I used to keep it beside me when I slept at night. The problem with keeping it on the night stand is sometimes I would knock it off in my sleep. So, I did what I thought was the next best thing… I put it in the bed with me beside my head. But somehow, during the night, it would shimmy itself everywhere and I would not hear it alarming.
A couple of weekends ago I was re-decorating stuff in my living room. I took down the Command hooks (finally) that we use to hold our Christmas stockings up and packed them away in a drawer. But then I had an idea….
The Dexcom Commander
Now, since my Dexcom stays in my TallyGear case with the clip attached, I just hook it on and sleep with it above my pillow and I hear the alarms just dandy.
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Donna over at Tallygear.com. This woman can pretty well make anything I have ever contacted her for from adding windows to her belts to making a leg band so I could wear an especially form-fitting dress to a friend’s wedding. She has blindly been able to make a case for my t:slim insulin pump (we’re still working on the design), and now, she’s made an awesome case for the Dexcom G4 Platnum CGM. She went through several different revisions, but after being able to have one on-hand, she pretty well perfected the thing:
The case I have is called “Jazzy Dots“. It’s quite jazzy!
Now, I can clip my Dexcom to my Vera Bradley Hipster hook and know that it’s there, and not somewhere at the bottom of my purse. I also use the clip to hang it on my pajama pants after I’ve gotten ready for bed at night while I’m finishing up a few last minute things before actually going to bed. And, If I want to, I can also wear it on a belt loop around my waist during the day for times when I don’t absolutely need to carry a purse.
Now, Donna didn’t ask me to write this, but I just have to share this case with you. Some still use the case that came with it, but I found it to be bulky and very hard to clip onto anything I needed it to. This case is easy to use and versatile enough that you shouldn’t have to take it out of the case unless you just wanted to. I always slide mine in with the charge port facing the opening so that I can just charge it inside of the case. Easy peasy!
Inserting the Dexcom is easy. Just roll back the top as if you were rolling up your sleeves. Then, just slide the Dexcom receiver in, roll the top back over and voila! Nothing to zip or snap, and the receiver stays in securely.( I can actually do this move a lot faster, but I was trying to video from my phone and it wasn’t working out as smoothly as I had hoped.) AND, the window is big enough to access all buttons available on the receiver (as unintendedly demonstrated when in the video when my “Replace Sensor Soon” warning appeared).
I love that we have innovative people in the DOC that work hard to help living with diabetes gear fun and fashionable. And I love that Donna is so dedicated to contributing her talents to the d-gear world.
As a diabetic woman, we use our boobs to hide our pumps or CGM devices somewhere in the elastic band or right between the girls. We have even been known to have music playing from them. We’re sort of accustomed to make a bra do a little more than just help us look better, perkier, and all around “controlled”.
Yesterday, I figured it was about time to change out my Dexcom sensor that had been in my leg for the past 28 days. It had a great run and died just shortly before sensor time had “ended”. Since it was starting to randomly lose signal and becoming a bit “off”, not to mention the “ewwwwww!” factor was setting in pretty hard, I had to find a new place to put a new sensor. I wanted a place that I could reach with both hands so that I could to my re-tapping / re-gluing technique as needed, so arm sites were out. And I’ve used my legs A LOT lately not just for CGM sites, but also for pump sites as well, so I wanted to give them a rest. So I started poking and pinching to find anywhere else that would have a bit of fat cushion to get good readings out of.
Granted, I’m not a small woman, so finding a place is not that hard, but I’m oddly shapped in that the further you go up, the less cushion I have. BUT, with the new G4 sensors, you can pretty much place those suckers anywhere. Case-in-point:
Rib-ish Site
Yes, that’ s my bra. My new Dexcom sensor is located just below my bra area. If I bend over just enough, there becomes a roll there that’s squishy enough to place a sensor there and is just low enough to be bothered by my underwire.
Women who have substantial boobs may not be able to do this, but for those of you who are like me and weren’t blessed in that department, this might be a good place because there’s no extra bump to be seen under clothing. Since your shirt sort of drapes over your chest area, the sensor sort of falls under the drape and not as an extra, well… you can imagine from there. Amazingly, there was no pain inserting it either. Just if you do this, take caution to point the inserter angle away from the ribs and more towards the squishy part between the ribs (also known as the epigastric region).
And, if you’re wondering about sensor verses meter comparisons, they’ve been pretty on-track with each other there, so I may have a new go-to area for a while until my thighs can heal a bit.
I have been making my Dexcom sensors last as long as possible. Somehow, I’ve had a good run of 22 days with my first one and the second was cut short by my transmitter dying.
My current one was inserted on Christmas Eve and I’m on day 22 with a restart this morning. I debated on pulling it, but decided that I’ll let it go as long as possible. Granted, this is NOT medical advice as I’m sure it’s not medically safe. BUT, a lot of why I’m doing it is because of our increased deductible this year and all that jazz.
So, with a restart and a bit of re-glueing and replacing tape, I’m hopin I can get another week out of this one.
So, it’s no surprise that Tandem does not have t:connect available to the public yet (thank you, FDA!). So, I’ve been logging as best I can, but I still have “holes” in my data. Good thing my endo isn’t picky about actual individual numbers!
He likes my Dexcom graphs better. He gets more info from them than a ton of numbers on a spreadsheet. But, I’ve always just sent one… the “Hourly Stats” page. But, as I’m becoming more familiar with the program and the different graphs and things, I see that I like a lot of them. However, some just aren’t very informative for me personally.
So, I need your help. If you use a Dexcom, which graph do you like best? Why? How many days to you show your endo? If you could choose 3 graphs, which would be your top 3? My appointment is Thursday, so I want to be sure I have everything I need for that afternoon sans the pump upload (since there’s no way to have one).
Since I’ll be switching over to the t:slim later this week, I am searching ways to log my stuff since the t:connect software is not available yet. I’ve downloaded and tried a few apps on my iPhone, with the Telcare app being the top contender for me right now. Though I love the Glooko app, I can’t manually add BG numbers into it, and I can’t sync my meter to it because I use the Verio IQ. But, since I have the new Dexcom G4 system, I thought I’d try the “Events” logging feature of it. I tried it before with the Seven+ system and it wasn’t great at all (from what I can remember, you couldn’t even log prior stuff… it had to be logged at the time of the event) and so I didn’t stay with it long. But, since they’ve made lots of improvements to the new system, I figured there wasn’t anything to lose in trying it.
So I started this morning:
I like that I can upload the Dexcom and see the symbol below the graph with the log beside it to tell me what I had to eat or taken with insulin. The only problem is that in logging the information, you can only go up by 0.05u, not 0.01u, so it may not be quite as accurate as a hand-log or some of the others (for example, the Telcare app lets me put in, say, 5.41u).
Either way, I hate logging. It’s tedious. It’s not something I want to think about and most of the time, I fail within a week. I really hope they have the t:connect approved VERY soon. I mean, the whole idea of going to the t:slim is because it’s so simple… and manual logging does not make things more simple, but more complicated… for me anyway. Until then, I’m on the hunt. Something simple yet comprehensive…. and with PDF reports, not just CSV files. I’m open to any suggestions if you have them!
Yesterday, FedEx delivered the most wonderful WDD present ever! My new Dexcom G4 system! AAH!! I was and still am super stoked about this thing! I immediately went through and opened it and did all I had to do to get it set up (you know, charging it, etc, etc, etc). Which, thank the LORD I have friends who already use it. I had to text Stacey a few times about the battery {long story}.
One thing I will mention though is that a lot of people who have their system have raved about better accuracy out-of-the-box than the Seven+ system. I didn’t find this to be true at all for me. Mine took about 3 extra calibrations spread about 20 minutes apart for it to read right. But, once I did that, it read MUCH closer than the Seven +.
But, since I haven’t used it but a day, I’ll do a full review later. Until then, here’s some pictures {because everyone loves pictures, right?}…
I love that my Verio meter and the G4 fit comfortably in my zipper compartment of my wallet!
The sensor is way thicker to me. And Kip noticed it too… he’s never noticed the bump from my CGM before.
Comparison to the Verio meter size.
Side view! They’re *almost* the same thickness!
Comparison to the thickness of the Seven+
They’ve stayed very close so far.
Hmm…
Overall, I do like the G4 system much better just because it’s more portable it seems. Also, I like that the colors indicate where your BG is or has been is great because highlights the areas easier to see. I also like that the keys are “softer” and barely have the clicking noise, though they seem harder to press too. One downside is that I’m more scared I’m going to lose it though because 1) I hate the clip and refuse to use it and 2) it looks easy to slip out of a pocket (thankfully, it still fits in my Vera Bradley case, though it looks lost in there compared to the Seven+!). I’ll let you guys know if I see any other cases that it fits snugger into or if I find a way to MacGuyver a clip case!
Okay, so yes, I’m very intrigued by the new Dexcom G4 Platinum system. And while the new colors aren’t very “cool” to me (I’ll probably still go with black), the better accuracy and thinness of it are.
Right now, I could order the system, but I can’t order sensors until after my 3 month re-order date is here, which won’t be for another month. So, I’m holding off and ordering everything at once. Plus, that will give me time to be better “financially responsible” and not charge it to a credit card or something. I’m going to use this as a lesson to learn to pay for only what I can buy from my own money.
So, after November 8th, I’m going to order the new system in hopes to have it and the sensors by January, which will last until March – giving me 3 more months to save up for my wonderful new high-deductible which will render me to have to pay full price for a 3 month supply! Eek!
I won’t be totally kicking the old system to the curb, though. I do have 6 sensors left for the Seven + system, so those will also be extended to their maximum amount of time – hopefully putting me well past March for a re-order of sensors.
This week, I have been snooping around in the interwebs about the Omnipod system and what’s on deck for them. For over a year, I’ve heard about how they’re working on integrating with Dexcom, but it still has not happened. An unnamed source did tell me that they are still working on it, and it was set for approval, but then the FDA declined it because Dexcom was coming out with their new sensor, and they didn’t see a point in approving something with old technology.
Though I’ve seen pictures of how much “smaller” the pod will be, I’ve spoken with someone who has actually seen it in person and they said that it is definitely a lot smaller. We are still waiting on FDA clearance (some minor issue they wanted fixed, and now has been, so we’re waiting yet again), but hopefully we will see the new ones by the end of the year.
Until then, I’ve wanted to see more of what this new system will look like…. mainly the pod. I’m not concerned with the PDM until they come out with Dexcom integration. So, the websnooper that I am, I went to the site where the new pods are approved – The Netherlands. Granted, if you go there, you have to use Google to translate it if you want to read it, but there is a video on there showing what it looks like as the actress fills and places it on her skin. Still can’t tell how much of a difference in size there is? Here’s a few pictures for comparison (all of which belong to the mylife Omnipod site)
And, because I’m very much a visual person, I created this:
Everything including the blue outline should be about the size of the new pod.
(Video)
Though I can’t find real evidence of this, there has been said that the new cannula will have a blue hue to it so you can see it better through the window. But here’s my question: What about when there’s condensation built up in the window? How do you get rid of it to see the cannula?
Also, if you watch the video, the insertion is at a 50° angle instead of the 45° one. Whether or not this is much difference, I don’t know, but I do know that for some, the 45° doesn’t suit their needs.
While I’m excited about a smaller pod, I’m still more interested in the integration. Either way, I know I said I’d never consider an Omnipod again (or any patch-pump for that matter), recent events have had me re-thinking it and re-weighing options (Like, Kip thinking my tubing is a fun toy and pulling out my sites.) My only complaint is that even with the redesign, they believe that their pod is a one-fits-all, which is not true. Not everyone can wear a standard ~9mm cannula (going in at a depth of 6.5mm). Maybe a ~13mm cannula with a depth of 9mm? Like the longer Silhouette sets.
So what do you think? For those of you who didn’t want the pod before because of it’s size, would the new, smaller size turn your thought wheels? If there were anything you could do to improve the pod (other than the size), what would it be?
