CGM in the Cloud: An Update

As you may know, we recently hooked our Dexcom up to the "cloud" and started monitoring Sweet's blood sugar from our phones and wrists in real time.  You can read about our original set up here. 

Since then, we've had some new experiences so I thought I'd share and give you an update!

Sweets went back to school last week.  We decided that we would just leave the rig in her bookbag during the day.  We knew that it would not work when she was at lunch, recess or specials but decided that was ok.  Then we found out that the third graders would be switching classes!  So she's spending half of her day in the classroom next door.  We didn't think there was any way it would pick her up through the cinder block walls!

Still, we decided to stick to our original plan.  For us, it works.  We trust our school nurse and the plan we've had in place has been working well.  We decided it was just easier to leave it in her bag.  She has less to carry around, less to worry about, and less to possibly lose!  And guess what?!?  It DOES pick her up when she's in the classroom next door!  So we can still get her bg most of the day and we know that even when we can't, she's in great hands and our plan works well!

I wish you could have seen our school nurse's face when we showed it to her!  She also has access to the website.  I'm not sure how much she's used it yet... but I can see it coming in handy when she's wanting to make sure she's come up from a low, during testing, or just for a quick check in during the day. 

I have to say, it's pretty amazing to be able to see her blood sugar while I'm at work.  Instead of wondering about what is going on or if she's spiked from breakfast or if she's ok after recess and PE, I can just look at my wrist and I know! 


Having used it for awhile now, we have also been able to see it work in other situations like when she's with my parents or during gymnastics class.  Again - awesome!  I think it gives everyone more piece of mind.  I can really see it being wonderful for play dates and during dance class when I'm not there or not in the room! 

We did have one little problem. 

Ok, it was a big problem. 

The port on our Dexcom broke!

I don't know what happened.  I had heard that they were fragile.  I don't know if one case was too tight and put too much pressure on the cords or if the other case was too loose and it moved around too much or what.  But it broke.  And then it died. 

To say that I was sad would be an understatement.

I had gotten used to seeing her bg no matter where I was.  And seeing it on my wrist.  Which is way convenient.  I missed it immediately.

Luckily, we were able to take advantage of the one time replacement offer and get a new Dexcom. 

But I knew that I had to find a way to make it more stable. 

So here's what we decided and have been using since then...

We used Sweet's old DS case.  She never plays with the DS anyway, so using the case wasn't a problem!  It's fairly hard on the outside to keep the pieces more protected.  And it has two different kind of pockets to hold the pieces in place. 

This is the outside of the case:

 

And this is the inside of the case:

If you notice, I've also added something new.  That white stuff on the Dexcom is called Sugru.  It's a kind of clay like substance that hardens into a plastic when it is exposed to the air.  I heard about it from the CGM in the Cloud group on Facebook!  I put it around the cord that goes into the Dexcom.  So it holds the cord in place and it isn't able to wiggle around as much.  The pockets also really keep it safer.  The Dexcom hardly moves around at all.  We never take it out of the case.  It's easy enough to switch out the phone when it needs charged without moving anything else. 

So, after a week of school, this has been working quite well!

I can't wait to see it in action once her fall schedule of activities really kicks into gear!  It's not perfect.  There are definitely things that could be tweaked.  BUT... it's an incredible piece of technology to add to our arsenal of tricks!  I'm so grateful to all the super smart people who worked hard to make this technology a reality!