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Dexcom CGM arrives today

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Here we go.......4.8 on blood testing machine....4.5 on CGM:D. just had a liitle bit of Lucozade because my BG went down to 4.4 which is my hypo warning on the CGM....The CGM beeped to tell me it had gone down. Wow this is so amazing
 
AJLang said:
Here we go.......4.8 on blood testing machine....4.5 on CGM:D. just had a liitle bit of Lucozade because my BG went down to 4.4 which is my hypo warning on the CGM....The CGM beeped to tell me it had gone down. Wow this is so amazing
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Hi AJLang,

That is great news - it is great using sensors and you will get used to them and wonder what you did without them.🙂Bev
 
AJLang said:
Here we go.......4.8 on blood testing machine....4.5 on CGM:D. just had a liitle bit of Lucozade because my BG went down to 4.4 which is my hypo warning on the CGM....The CGM beeped to tell me it had gone down. Wow this is so amazing
Click to expand...

I hope you aren't going to stay up all night watching it! :D Great to hear that is is reporting so close to your fingerprick tests already 🙂
 
It's amazing told me that my BGs were rising rapidly after the Lucozade and five finger prick tests were very similar to CGM. Mark was extremely patient when I checked it ten times during dinner:D Alan I Need to sleep tonight............ so that I know it wakes me up when my BGs change too much:D:D
 
Glad it is going so well. I want to hear how you get on too, I am v intrigued by them.
 
The high points last night were that it told me that my BG was going low so that I could have Lucozade in time to prevent a hypo. It also told me when my BG was around 11 so I had two units of insulin which kept me below 10 for the rest of the night rather than my average rise to 17 plus. However some of the readings in the first few hours after inserting the sensor were completely erratic. The CGM told me that my BG had gone up to 11 when it had gone down to 6. Another time it kept climbing to 17 when it was 10. It also woke me during the night with a hypo alert when my BG was 6.2!! It was a very tiring night as I started to panic that I had made the wrong decision.. I'm hoping that this might be a few hours of the sensor needing to settle in. I've been calibrating the CGM lots with about 10-12 finger prick tests since yesterday evening (my fingers are now very sore). So fingers crossed it will work better today. Certainly the last test was good 8.2 reading as 8.0 on CGM and obviously have to allow for differences in both the CGM and the meter. If I have any more problems after today I will phone Advanced Therapeutics for further advice. Once I can report that everything is working ok I will update you on how the alerts etc work - they are pretty cool:D
 
From what I've read of other people's experiences the sensors can take a little while to settle in, so I hope they become more reliable for you. I definitely think you have made the right decision! Thousands of these are in use in America and they wouldn't be able to sell them if they didn't make a huge difference to people's lives and control, although I can imagine it is perfectly natural to be dismayed when they appear to be getting things wrong. I imagine ti will take a little while to get used to its little quirks and experience will establish trust.

I look forward to the next instalment! 🙂
 
Thanks Alan and Bev for reassuring me. I've been very good and resisted doing a finger prick test for an hour. It's absolutely amazing watching my BG on the CGM screen🙂 Mark says I'm acting like it's Christmas:D
 
Hi AJLang,

This is all perfectly normal for sensor useage. What we have found helps (but remember we use Medtronic) is to insert the sensor for at least twelve hours or so before attaching the transmitter as it gives the sensor time to 'wet' and settle in. Alex also drinks a big glass of water to help with this. We dont do them before bedtime as we cant 'trust' the readings. I would also make the point that some sensors are 'good' and some are not. There doesnt seem to be a reason for the difference - but once you have used them for a while you will start to *know* from day one whether you have a 'good' one or not. I also dont take a lot of notice of every single reading as it can take a while for the sensor to 'catch up' if levels have been erratic. Another point about callibrating is not to do it too much - it 'confuses' the sensor. We normally only callibrate two or three times in a day and also when Glucose levels are 'stable' (i.e. four hours after eating) and first thing in the morning or during the night as you are normally more steady then. I wouldnt callibrate half an hour after eating or anything like that as there is too much movement in the levels for the sensor to catch up. You will learn your own methods of callibrating and these are only ours and might not suit everyone - so I am just sharing our experiences of sensors if it helps.

To be honest, you will need to have used sensors for a good few weeks/months to get to know how they work for you as everyone is different and its a bit like what sets people use - they seem to choose the person rather than the other way round.🙂Bev
 
Hi Bev

Thanks very much for this. It's really helpful information. I understand that the Dexcom is slightly different from other CGMS in that can be callibrated when BGs are erratic unlike other CGMs........but I know that I've definitely been over callibrating. Having now tried this it makes complete sense about the sensors taking a while to settle in. We've now decided that when we put the next one in we will do it on a Saturday morning when I can do my finger prick tests more often so I can check my BGs with that whilst the sensor settles in. We had previously thought that the evening was best but what you've just written has confirmed my thoughts last night that we were wrong with doing this. It is a steep learning curve but I am excited - I've had some insulin this morning which may get my BGs in perfect range or may make them too low - so I'm sitting here waiting to see if the buzzer will tell me that I'm in hypo range - I won't make any decisions based on the CGM results alone - any corrections (insulin or carbs) will be based upon double checking with the meter. Alex must love his CGM!
 
AJLang said:
Hi Bev

Thanks very much for this. It's really helpful information. I understand that the Dexcom is slightly different from other CGMS in that can be callibrated when BGs are erratic unlike other CGMs........but I know that I've definitely been over callibrating. Having now tried this it makes complete sense about the sensors taking a while to settle in. We've now decided that when we put the next one in we will do it on a Saturday morning when I can do my finger prick tests more often so I can check my BGs with that whilst the sensor settles in. We had previously thought that the evening was best but what you've just written has confirmed my thoughts last night that we were wrong with doing this. It is a steep learning curve but I am excited - I've had some insulin this morning which may get my BGs in perfect range or may make them too low - so I'm sitting here waiting to see if the buzzer will tell me that I'm in hypo range - I won't make any decisions based on the CGM results alone - any corrections (insulin or carbs) will be based upon double checking with the meter. Alex must love his CGM!
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Hi AJLang,

Your right - it is a steep learning curve, but one that will give you so much information and 'behind the scenes' information that you will wonder what you did without them. At the FFL conference we went to they explained that not using sensors is like reading the first sentence of every page in a book and not knowing what happened inbetween - but with sensors you get to read the whole page. I think that is a good analogy.🙂

Alex does like having sensors on and he knows they keep him safe at night especially as they turn the pump off if he is low. Just another tip, I wouldnt set the 'hypo' range to anything higher than 3.5 or you will be alarming a lot - he he. I think Alex's is set at 3.5 and we do have less alarms. Also think about the timing of the alarms as ours was set at 20 minutes but was giving too many alarms so we changed it to 10 minutes. But this if 'fine-tuning' and you dont need to worry about it for now. You are doing amazingly well and I can 'hear' your excitement so well done.🙂Bev
 
Hi Bev thanks for all of the updating and advice. I'm glad you said about the hypo setting because I've now had two "warnings" when I've set it at 4.4 but the actual BG was 6.2. I've now turned the warning down to 3.9 - the only other option is 3.3 - not sure if this is too low to set it?

Well the past three hours have been amazing. My BG was 9.2 on waking (yesterday it was 17.4 but the CGM gave me a warning when it was 11 during the night so that I had some insulin for that). This morning the CGM gave me the confidence to give myself two units of insulin for tighter control. It has now stayed at 5.5 for the last hour and I'm not worried about an unforeseen hypo. It is a fantastic feeling. The receiver is sitting snug on my trousers so it is with me wherever I go - the only time I notice it is when I check it (ok that is every five minutes :D). If it helps me to keep my BGs closer to 5 and no higher than 11 I will be absolutely estatic. Consultant told me that a HBA1C of 7.8 was the best that he had ever seen in someone with gastroparesis - if I can get it under 7.5 (or lower) then it will be worth every penny (sorry if I'm repeating myself it's just that it is making me feel "normal" probably for the first time ever when it comes to BGs):D:D:D
 
Couldn't be more pleased for you AJ.

I really wish some big cheese from NICE would read this thread and push the buttons to get the ball rolling on recognising CGM as a genuine treatment option in certain cases.

I know they are costly, but so are many treatment options, and treatments for avoidable complications don't come cheap either.

M
 
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I agree with you Mike. I try not to dwell on it but part of me wonders that maybe I wouldn't have maculopathy in one eye and gastroparesis if I'd had a CGM to keep my BGs better..........or even more so that it would have highlighted to the consultants sooner that it was the gastroparesis causing the wildly fluctuating BGs which probably contributed to the maculopathy. If this CGM works as well as I hope I will certainly do everything I can to promote it to my consultants and to try to get them on board with regard to promoting it to others within the NHS. The more people who have free access to it the less the risk of complications and the problems that these cause with employment, hospital stays etc i.e. there is a cost/benefit argument. I can't believe that so many Americans have access to CGMs, on their insurance, whilst we have to struggle to find the money which is often not possible to be able to access. The monthly costs on the CGM aren't much different to what my monthly mortgage payments would be if it was a 25 year mortgage.
 
For the 4th gen Dexcom sensors, which go with the Animas Vibe, the cost of a box of 4 is ?186, so ?46.50 per sensor. They are licensed for 7 days which works out at ?6.64 per day - but Dexcom has a reputation of being able to get more days than 7 out of them, so they'd be even cheaper than that. So works out pretty cheap really in the long run!
 
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