Approaching 24 hours with the Dexcom

The Dexcom was waiting outside the door when I got home last night, a day early. So I opened it up, reviewed the getting start process, plugged the receiver in to charge, and went about dinner and #DSMA. After #DSMA, it was time.

I'd worn a Dexcom for about 10 days a month earlier, in a trial through my CDE. (Note, sometimes I call her an Endo, sometimes a doctor, sometimes CDE. I don't really know. I don't really care. She does everything I need and is generally awesome.) I read the process of sensor insertion about half a dozen times and started. It must have taken 15 or 20 minutes to get it in OK. Getting the needle in went ok. Removing the insertion mechanism took some work. Getting that collar up as high as can be HURT. The entire sensor lifted up towards the middle and there was some blood clearly visible. But I did manage to remove the mechanism, and settle the sensor down closer to my skin. The pain was much more severe than when my doctor did it. I suspect that's just the learning curve, because she also did it much faster than I was able.

It was nearly time for bed once calibration was complete. But around 4AM, my wife woke me up because the Dexcom woke her up. (It had been going off for pushing an hour by then.) It was a 48. Confirmed and it really was low, so grabbed some sugar from the nightstand and went back to sleep. When I woke up for real three hours later, the screen looked like ____/----/`````. It said 140-something, but my meter said 104. But over the course of the morning, I had a stubborn but mild high that just didn't want to go away. In retrospect, I wonder if it really was closer to 140.

And now we're at lunch. I had a slice of pizza and salad. Started a square wave 10 minutes or so before eating, so had a slow descent and was in the high 90s while eating. But an hour later, I was still creaping up, past 150. Small correction and kept climbing. Repeat. Repeat. I managed the arrest it by 175 a half hour agp, so the Dexcom adverted a high. I'm flat or slowly descending at 166.

I can't know how I'll feel in 6 months, but for now, I love seeing this kind of information. Probably check the silly thing every 10 minutes. My immediate goal with the Dexcom is just to tighten the ranges. My A1c is pretty good (Labwork likes to warn me that with an A1c around 5.8, I'm at risk of developing Diabetes: HAH!) but it's only that good because I have far too many lows. If I can go from 60 being an every day occurrence to, say, once a week, and make the corresponding cuts on the high end, I ought to be able to hold an A1c in the high fives or low sixes, but hold that much more safely. It'll be the Dexcom's credit if that happens.