I've been so occupied with our house guest that I have not had time to blog about her! But now I will.
Her name is Dexie and all three of us are totally, completely, 100% over the moon in LOVE with her!
Last week, I called our Dexcom rep and asked about the possibility of trying a cgm. I was tired of waiting for the hospital to get it together. The wonderful lady that I talked to said that it was no problem and she would put one in the mail.
Dexie arrived last Friday.
A little background.... "Dexie" is a cgm - or continuous glucose monitor made by the company Dexcom. From the Dexcom website: "A CGM system is a device that you wear to measure glucose levels in real-time, day and night — even during sleep it's watching out for you. This is like seeing up to 288 fingersticks daily, but unlike fingersticks, you see so much more than just a number. You see continuous glucose information, the direction your glucose is headed, and the speed it's moving." A cgm measures the level of glucose in the TISSUE, not the blood. It does NOT replace fingersticks. We still must prick her fingers and test her blood. We have been told that glucose level in the blood is more accurate. So we must always test a finger before we take action. The cgm measure the amount of glucose in the tissue every 10 seconds and gives you a reading of the average amount of glucose every 5 minutes. This is great! But for us, the best part, is the trending information. To see where she is going and where she has been is PRICELESS!
We have no rep that lives close to us.... so we were on our own with the insertion and education. I watched the videos on the Dexcom website a few times and it seemed easy enough. Simple, really.
So.... Saturday night we gave it a try. After Sweetpea was sleeping peacefully in bed, we crept into her room and inserted Dexie. She barely moved. It was easy peasy lemon squeezy!
The next morning I introduced her to Dexie! She thought Dexie was pretty cool. She, too, was obsessed with checking to "see what Dexie says". (Did I mention that I could not sleep the previous night, with all the Dexie checking that was going on? And how my love for her was sealed when I checked her in the morning and she showed a steady 150 bg?)
We inserted Dexie into Sweetpea's rump. She has Dexie on one cheek and her pump site on the other. Sweetpea did NOT EVEN REALIZE that Dexie was there until a few days later when we did a site change. "What is THAT?" she asked. "That's Dexie. You didn't know it was there? You never saw it when you went to the bathroom." Crazy look.... "Uh, NO. It's purple. I like it." (for the record, it is not purple. It's more of a gray. But purple is her favorite color so I'm not pointing this out.)
This is what the transmitter looks like:
And this is what the transmitter looks like when it's when it is snapped into the sensor. The sensor is the part that is inserted under her skin. Once together, they form a waterproof pod. So she can bathe and swim to her heart's content!
It IS a little big and it DOES make a little bulge that can be see under her clothes. But right now, that's not an issue for us.
I tried putting another pouch onto her pump pouch but it was just too heavy. So, we are using another pouch. This one she wears in the back. We ask to see Dexie and she sticks her rump out for us to get to the pouch.
"Mommy, I think I like Dexie." Sweetpea said to me the other night. I'm so glad. That's why we wanted to do a trial... to see what it would be like to wear another site and another pouch. That was one of the big reasons I held back about it. But it's no big deal. She does not seem to mind it at all. And honestly, I think it makes her feel more comfortable to know it's there.
As for ME - LOVE. Love, I tell you!
Is it perfect? No. Sometimes it's just a point or two off. Sometimes it's about 20 points off. But.... I now feel like I'm not totally blind as to what is going on in her body.
It's already made a difference in how we treat her diabetes.
For example, the other night at bedtime she was 96. That's a little too low for a bedtime number for us. Normally we would have given her a few grams. BUT... Dexie said she was steady. So we waited. And we watched. And guess what? She came up on her own. Had we give her the extra carbs she would have been WAY too high.
AND... we have been able to see what certain food does to her bg. And "low" treats. We have learned that juice sends her up but not as fast and as high as smarties. Smarties are deadly. Good when she's really low. But if not.... horrible. She goes VERY high VERY fast.
Watching her bg with Dexie has also led us to make another major change in the way we treat her diabetes. We have started prebolusing her food. I knew that food made her bg go up. But to SEE it..... totally different. We were never pressured by the hospital to prebolus. It's really hard to do with a young child - at least OUR young child who never eats the same things and often only eats little bits of food. She eats healthy food - but she does NOT eat a lot of it. However, we are trying. We are guessing how much we think she'll eat and bolusing a "safe" number. Then when she's done, she bolus the rest. And it's working. Her numbers are looking steadier already! Baby steps!
So.... Dexie is a keeper! For sure!
Only thing is.... Dexie isn't a keeper. She's a loaner. And she has to go back by next Saturday. (And next Saturday is my birthday. Not fair.)
HOW am I going to give her back? Now that I know what she does? Now that I know how great she is? Now that I am relying her to help me keep my baby safe? HOW???
I have been proactive. I got my stuff together the Monday after Dexie arrived and faxed it to the company. I sent them the insurance info, the copies of the insurance cards, the release forms and 60 days of blood sugar logs. They are looking for numbers under 50. In the past 60 days, she had 8 bg's under 50. She had 12 under 60.
I talked to the Dexcom Dude in Cali on Thursday night. As soon as he gets our letter of medical necessity for our Doc, he thinks we're good to go. So.... I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will get our OWN Dexie very, very soon.
I sure hope so!
Because we are in LOVE!
We love our Dex too! You might consider what we do for J as far as keeping Dex close. He has a fleece belt I made him (about 5" wide) that has two velcro patches on it. I put velcro on the back of his Dex and his pump. (looking back, duh, I could have put the silicone skins on both of them and put the velcro on those, but live and learn). Anyway, we then just stick the pump and the Dex to his belt, one over each hip. Of course, being a teen, he is a lot bigger than your little Sweetpea. :) But it does make it really easy to keep track of his stuff!
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