It finally happened. Our son's Dexcom G6 was approved by insurance and was overnight delivered to us yesterday. So much excitement for this very expensive new piece of equipment. We paid our entire out of pocket maximum and deductible for this one device but we are thrilled and believe it will definitely be worth it.
Since this is our first ever continuous glucose monitor we are very unfamiliar with how previous models worked before. The only thing to compare it to is the finger pokes every three hours we've been doing and I am not going to miss those. With the G6 we don't need to do calibrations or finger pokes to check numbers before treating. So we read up and watched a video or two yesterday.
This morning we did a finger poke & bolus for breakfast then we were ready to give it a try. My son was VERY nervous anticipating that it would hurt or be uncomfortable and I was super nervous for him knowing that if it did hurt or was uncomfortable it wouldn't change the fact that CGM use is better at helping manage diabetes.
I sat him in front of the TV and distracted him with a show he likes. I took my time and prepped the site. I re-read the instructions, with pictures, provided with the inserter then placed it on him. I was very nervous to push the button but he didn't want a count down so I took a deep breath and pressed.
"Uh was that it?" my son asked.
I was so happy. He said it didn't really feel like anything. He said it felt "like a flutter". Two hours of warm up later and we were on. The monitor takes readings every few minutes and starts a little chart/graph so we can see if we are in range, low, or high. We were in range and had an hour before lunch and so back to his own entertainments he went.
Now today, of all days, dearest hubby decided he would bring home donuts from the grocery store. He figured our son could have one with his lunch cover. Not plain donuts, or small donuts, but a super fluffy, frosting covered, sprinkled donut. I looked it up as best I could and figured it was between 40-60 carbs depending on what site I looked at. So we bolus for 40g plus lunch figuring a high blood sugar later was better than low.
Here's where the dexcom is going to help us manage things.
Before, I would've checked his BG at 2:15 (snack time at school but at home he doesn't really eat a snack at this time usually). I then would've checked before dinner at 5ish. I looked at his number at 2:15 and his BG was 119. In range, but surprising because I figured I had not covered all of that massive donut. Interesting but okay. We refilled his water and chatted a bit then off to chores I went.
At 2:30 he came out with the sensor and said it alarmed and his BG was 182. That is out of range but he had his last insulin at 11:00 so I figure his lunch wasn't fully out but the insulin from 3 hours previous had done all it could. We double checked our CGM with a finger poke and it was high too. I had him drink a glass of water and said we'd look in about fifteen minutes; if it was still high we'd do a correction. So at 2:40 he was up to 256 and we corrected with insulin. He stayed out of range for the next few hours. His pre-dinner number was 290!!!
Normally I wouldn't have caught the high until the 5:00 dinner. I wouldn't have given the correction at 2:40 and who knows how much higher he would have been by dinner. I would've had to recheck his after dinner with a finger poke but because of the CGM we just checked every twenty minutes until it started to get back into range. By 5:45 he was back in range and had finished eating.
No surprise what happened next. At 7:30 he had another alarm but this time it was low and dropping rapidly. We gave 15g of juice. So NICE not to have to finger poke for that or again fifteen minutes later...checked the CGM we were back in range at 98 with a steady arrow. Checked again fifteen minutes later still in range holding steady.
So what do I think. I LOVE the dexcom already. I HATE donuts.
(Okay fine, I like donuts but I think maybe they are not worth it.)
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