Back to old fashioned methods!

[Sally71]

Aaagh! Daughter’s Dexcom ended last night and then she discovered that she doesn’t have a spare one 😱 She lost a few days in the summer when it was hot and she was sweating under them, and then her skin started reacting to the sticky and so she was having difficulty keeping them on. Didn’t report it as they only lost a couple of days each and it wasn’t really the sensor’s fault. So we’ll have to go back to finger pricking for a few days, that will be interesting!! Might have to use it as a handy chance to basal test, T-Slim uses an underlying basal pattern to base its calculations on, and I haven’t done any adjustments to that for ages so it’s probably a bit out of line from where it needs to be.

Thankfully we are due a delivery of new Dexcoms next week, and the lady in customer services said she’ll bring it forward to ship out on Monday, so won’t have to last for long without HCL!

 

[Inka]

I had to do that for a couple of days this year. It was strange at first and a bit scary, but after the first night, I found it more relaxing. I wouldn’t choose to do it, but after the initial weirdness, it was ok. I hope your daughter finds the same @Sally71 🙂

 

[Miggs]

Understand your anxiety, mine actually ended, middle of night, few days ago. I'd been ill, re heavy cold, just didn't pre empt this n deffo no energy, to insert new reader, at that time..managed a finger prick, which was OK.. even early nxt morn still OK, b4 inserting new sensor. Do sometimes think, new tech..despite being great, can cause unnecessary anxiety..especially, if , like me. You've, done, old fashioned, blood tests, wee tests, insulin, with a syringe, etc, for decades..am sure , it will be fine , xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hope the break goes well @Sally71

After self-funding Dex for so long where I needed to restart each sensor to get 20 days rather than 10 from them (in order to make the funding even vaguely possible), I couldn't get out of the habit when funding happened, so managed to build up a little spare stock by the time I switched to Medtronic and Simpleras.

No chance of restarting a Simplera though, and I do feel a little 'exposed' counting down the sensors (even if they all run to full time!). I've not had a repeat delivery yet, so I've no idea whether they allow any overlap, or whether I'll have a few sensor-free days at some point?

 

[Sally71]

And then we discovered that one of the blood test meters doesn’t work any more!! It’s been unused for so long that the batteries had leaked, I cleaned it up as best I could and put new ones in, there’s some life in it as it keeps beeping but I can’t get it to switch on properly! Thankfully she’s got another one that does work, and in-date strips for it!!
Just goes to show that you can’t be too careful about making sure you have enough emergency back up supplies. And if you have any equipment that doesn’t get used very much, check it every now and again!

 

[SB2015]

Hope the break goes well @Sally71

After self-funding Dex for so long where I needed to restart each sensor to get 20 days rather than 10 from them (in order to make the funding even vaguely possible), I couldn't get out of the habit when funding happened, so managed to build up a little spare stock by the time I switched to Medtronic and Simpleras.

No chance of restarting a Simplera though, and I do feel a little 'exposed' counting down the sensors (even if they all run to full time!). I've not had a repeat delivery yet, so I've no idea whether they allow any overlap, or whether I'll have a few sensor-free days at some point?

I purchased a box of G4 sensors as a buffer to remove the stress of wondering if the next delivery will be in good time especially when there was a period of doubt a while ago.

Having now switched to funded sensors like you I shall wait to see what happens.

I also built up a bit of a stock of G4s as any that didn’t go the full 7 days were always replaced, and there were times when I had a run of those.

I hope that your daughter copes okay over the weekend @Sally71 and thanks for the reminder to check that our emergency stuff is in a usable state. I recently took a spare cartridge of my test strips away with me only to find out that they were out of date. Glad I also had my Libre reader with me and had squirelled away some test strips in there.

 

[Inka]

Yes, I always wish I could do that @SB2015 (buy buffer sensors). I had a lucky escape recently where my Dexcom delivery arrived in the morning about 3hrs before I started the last sensor in my previous box. Lucky it did, as that last sensor refused to pair and I had to remove it. It would be nice if they gave us a couple of extra sensors as a buffer.