Dexcom: Teaching an old dog old tricks.

It’s the last day of Diabetes Awareness Month and I have come to tie up in a pretty pretty bow the rear of a month that can only be described as craptastic. (Thanks election.)

Regardless of who is President of the United States, Diabetes still lives in my house…and a new day has dawned, as we are now proud owners of three shiny Dexcom G5’s.  Which is awesome, and also craptastic in its own right.

Three teenagers. Three constant flows of numbers.

See Meri’s swelly brain.

See Meri’s swelly brain explode from information.

(Thanks to Cassie on Facebook for this one)

For the most part, I’ve embraced my new role as the pancreas switchboard. Texting “You need insulin” and then seeing the arrow dip down has been exhilarating. It’s the late nights that have been releasing my sanity from its cradle and essentially kicking it in the arse over and over and over again.

And over again still.

I’m not wired for nighttime checks anymore as I’m not the young, spunky mother I once was. I’m fickle, and I need sleep…which doesn’t matter because kids come first and diabetes doesn’t sleep, and a million other reasons. Thankfully, I’m pretty close to dialing in B and L’s basal rates and may not have to do nighttime checks for the eternities.  L went to sleep last night at 132 and woke up at 150. B went to sleep at 152 and woke up 121. I didn’t make any corrections for the first time in forever at my 1am check, and that’s no small feat for two boys in the throes of puberty. Don’t start feeling all inadequate though, their numbers generally aren’t so pretty...L’s correction ratio has been changed no less than three times this month. I’m grateful for the extra information Dexcom is providing, even if it is brain exploding.

I do realize I’m an old dog learning old tricks. I know a lot of my friends have been using Dexcom for YEARS and I’m just now jumping on that bandwagon. Medtronic broke us. Their first CGM hurt, and was inaccurate, and completely thwarted any positive thoughts about trying a different one. I’ve waited patiently for the day I could throw on CGM’s that would be accurate and comfortable. I feel a little stupid we waited this long, but I haven’t been in an appropriate space to begin such experiments until now.

Getting their numbers on my phone is a big plus, although completely erratic. My information depends greatly on three things: them keeping their phones charged, them keeping their apps open, and them actually calibrating. I probably see their numbers 50% of the time, which may sound unacceptable to you, but for me? I try hard to welcome the breaks. The information we do get is invaluable. I’ve made about thrity bajillion changes to their pump settings this month. I echo the sentiments of my fellow DOCers: Dexcom is worth its weight in gold.

And holy hell, it is accurate.

Also, lest I fail to mention: my boys love their Dexcoms. They don’t complain about insertion, and they like having their numbers at their fingertips. The arrows bring great peace of mind to my little L who suffers so from anxiety. At first I worried that the numbers would bring greater anxiety, but that hasn’t been the case at all.

Dexcom has been a bright light in a November that I think all of us would rather move on from. All in all, it’s been an awesome, if not eye-opening, experience...now if we could just lobby for the next Dexcom update to include a servant of sorts who would do the nighttime checks, that’d be great.

Here's to a happy December for all!