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Category: Dexcom

We Chose to Use Dexcom Immediately!

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

One of the first discussions that we had with our Pediatric Endo was the plan to start using a Dexcom almost immediately. Unfortuantely, the insurance requires 90 day of blood sugar logs, so we couldn’t get started for at least 90 days.

I know that for people who may be new to diabetes, learning the basics for 90 days and having logs for 90 days is beneficial before jumping right into using a CGM, however, with my 10 years of CGM experience, I was adamant that I wanted a Dexcom as soon as possible.

Our endo was OK with that, as long as I promised not to make rash decisions and quickly give a correction just because I started to see a CGM arrow somewhere.

I agreed with her because we were still figuring out how insulin worked in our daughter’s body. We didn’t know exactly what her ratios and correction factors should be set at, so I didn’t want to make quick decisions to stop an arrow (like I do for myself) and then cause a quick drop in her glucose level.

Why Did We Choose Dexcom

I knew that I wanted her to use a Dexcom for a few reasons.

Ease of Insertion

I had previously used a Medtronic CGM and I hated it. It was primarily because I didn’t like the insertion process. I actually hated the old Dexcom insertion process even more, which is why I used Medtronic for some time. But, with the new Dexcom insertion device, it’s a breeze and much easier and doesn’t look as scary, so I knew that was going to be part of the decision of being able to get her to let us do this every 10 days.

Not as Painful

As compared to the Medtronic CGM, the Dexcom is not as painful of an insertion. For myself, I don’t even feel it going in and sometimes wonder if it’s even in properly. Of course not every insertion is painless, but majority of them are. Pain was obvious a huge decision factor because what kid is going to want something super painful every 10 days being inserted into them?

My Comfort Level

I use Dexcom and I trust Dexcom. There is a comfort level like no other with Dexcom

I literally trust my own life with it. I check my blood sugar with test strips maybe once a month, I’d say in the last 12 months of using Dexcom G6, I have tested manually less than 10 times. I don’t feel the need to test, that’s how much I trust it.

Now, when it comes to our daughter, we still check her blood sugar on her finger about 3 times a day. We have become a lot more comfortable bolusing off of her Dexcom, but we still do check several times a day.

Future Compatability with Omnipod

I also knew that we would be putting her on an Omnipod as soon as we could also. So, I wanted to use Dexcom so that when the Omnipod and Dexcom are fully compatible and working together for a semi-closed loop system, we would already be ready with the Dexcom.

Why CGM So Quickly

The reason why we wanted a CGM as soon as possible was pretty obvious. We wanted to know as close to real-time glucose levels as possible. The thought of not knowing what our daughter’s glucose levels were drove us insane.

We went to Target one day and she said that she felt wobbly and dizzy, so we checked her. She was 42. This was only about an hour after eating lunch. I ran to the front of the store with her and grabbed an apple juice and just had her start drinking.

With a Dexcom, we could have spotted that low coming before it was freak out time. That was when my wife knew she did not ever want her to not have a Dexcom on at some point. Those 2 hour warm up times are still the most stressful 2 hours for my wife.

I know, we could do it without a CGM

I know that there are plenty of people without CGMs and do perfectly fine and when I was first diagnosed, we didn’t have CGMs and I made it through. They also didn’t have showers 100 years ago but I’d prefer running water and showers over using a bucket to wash myself.

But, I digress, back to the story.

My endo worked with us to ensure that on day 90 we were able to submit all of our logs and get started on the Dexcom. We used her diagnosis day as day 1 of starting her logs so we could get approved a few days earlier.

It took a few days for the supplies to come in and then we did a training in the diabetes educator’s office and that was a nightmare. Our daughter freaked out and cried a lot, however, it was a good sensor and it made it all 10 days. It took her a little while to get used to it, but the second one we inserted, we did from the comfort of our own home and she was perfectly fine.

Now, a year later, she gets a little nervous right before we put a new Dexcom on, but we let her watch a video or watch a cartoon on TV and she is good to go.

Distraction is the best method of diabetes device insertion for us.

What kind of distractions do you use for inserting Dexcom or Omnipod on your children? Comment below or join the conversation on Facebook.

patient device rights featured image

Patient Device Rights

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

It’s unfortunate, but our healthcare is primarily controlled by insurance companies. If the insurance companies are acting nice, then it can be our medical team. What about the rights of the patient?

I live with Type 1 Diabetes. This means that I live with a disease that does not go away. It takes zero breaks. It is working on me 24/7/365, so the only way to combat it is to fight back 24/7/365.

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Highest A1C Since Diagnosis

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

At my last endo appointment, I already knew that my A1C was going to be high. How did I know this? My Dexcom Clarity report told me what my 90 day average was.

Knowing this information going into the appointment, I knew it was going to be a topic of discussion, so instead of trying to delay that discussion or hide it, I started the appointment off with it. I simply said, “just a heads up, my A1C is going to come in as the highest since my diagnosis and here’s why..”

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patient privacy from using wearables

Despite Patient Privacy Risks, More People Use Wearables for Health

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

A recent Deloitte Survey of US Health Care Consumers found overwhelming numbers of people who utilize wearables in their health management despite the patient privacy risks.

I am one of those people. I wasn’t surveyed, but I wear a CGM and an Apple Watch at all times. There is a lot of things that I give up some privacy for in order to have the convenience of what that product gives me.

The interesting part of this study is that:

Sixty percent of the 4,530 respondents said they are willing to share PHI generated from wearable devices with their doctor to improve their health.

I’d think that number would be higher. If you’re going to use wearables, why wouldn’t you want to share the data with your doctor?

I’d assume the main reason is because you don’t want the doctor to judge you from an unhealthy or for being a “bad” patient.

I use wearables because I want the real-time data to make short term decisions and then when I visit my doctor, that’s usually when I discuss long-term decisions and strategies.

diabetes heart rateWearing an Apple Watch and seeing that my heart rate is way too high tells me right away that I need to calm down and get my heart rate back to an ideal level.

Then, I will share this data with my doctor because if there is a pattern of high heart rates, we can figure out what that pattern is and how I can try and avoid whatever is causing that.

The main issue of the study and article that I am writing about is that once the data from a wearable is uploaded to your healthcare professionals system (EHR), HIPPA regulations now apply and this is where their could be privacy issues.

There are a lot of numbers and stats in this report that I found interesting, so I recommend checking it out.

Another one is that 31% are interested in connecting with a live health coach.

That’s one feature that I love about mySugr. Live health coaching.

What are your thoughts on all of this?

Do you use wearables?

Would you share your data with your doctor or keep it for yourself?

Share this article on Facebook or Twitter now and keep the conversation going.

Like what you read? Then sign up for The Life of a Diabetic newsletter to get all the week’s posts delivered directly to your email every Saturday morning.

novo nordisk connected pens mysugr

Novo Nordisk Connected Pens – mySugr Updates

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

This post is almost a double-header if you will. Partially about Novo Nordisk and part about mySugr.

The first part is about the connected pens that Novo Nordisk is planning on releasing in 2019. These connected insulin pens will be “connected” to data systems, which currently seem to be Dexcom, Glooko and Roche (mySugr).

I am excited about this because I switched over to insulin pens earlier this year and I NEVER track my insulin intake now. I think I have maybe 10 times in the past 6 months of using Dexcom and mySugr. These connected pens will help me with tracking my insulin dosing.

Here’s a quote from Novo Nordisk on the partnerships from a recent press release:

“Our non-exclusive partnership strategy allows us to integrate with the various digital platforms that people are already using to help manage their diabetes,” said Camilla Sylvest, executive vice president of Commercial Strategy & Corporate Affairs at Novo Nordisk. “We firmly believe that this will help more people realise the full benefit of our innovative medicines and begin to ease the mental burden of diabetes treatment for those individuals.”

When the news broke that mySugr will be part of this integration, I was ecstatic. I test my sugar and then I correct based off of that. My blood sugar levels are automatically sent to the mySugr app, but I have to manually input how much insulin I am taking, which I am just not good at. Same goes with the Dexcom Clarity app, I don’t typically open up the app and input my insulin dosage. Hmm…I’m starting to hear a new 2019 goal!

If you would like to read more about this, check out the press release here.

Like what you read? Then sign up for The Life of a Diabetic newsletter to get all the week’s posts delivered directly to your email every Saturday morning.

accidental super mom guest post

T1D: A Mother’s Perspective – A Guest Post by Erin De Boer The Accidental Super Mom

Chris Stocker

Today I am sharing a guest post from someone that I have met recently. Last year my wife received an order on her Etsy store for our “because Diabetes“coffee mugs and my wife recognized the city where it was being shipped to. 

erin de boer accidental super mom

She asked me if I knew and I said, absolutely, I played football against some kid with that same last name. Well, wouldn’t you know, this person was his wife.

From there, we found out that she had a T1D diagnosis in her family and that she started writing a blog called The Accidental Super Mom. I was instantly hooked.  I love her writing style, her sense of humor and I feel that her content needs to be shared. So that’s just what I am doing today.

So, let me introduce you to Erin De Boer. Below is her introduction and beautiful article.

 

Who is Erin De Boer?

I live in a world of carefully calculated chaos, where three kids under three and type 1 diabetes rule my life. My writing has been featured on Scary Mommy and marriage.com. Read more about our circus at AccidentalSuperMom.com.

T1D: A Mother’s Perspective

“We need to go to the ER,” I quickly told my husband, who was just walking through the door from working night shift. I stood there, cradling our 21 month old son, who used to be a chubby little ball of energy, but now I could feel every bone in his tiny, lethargic body.

I knew he was sick weeks before this. He was throwing up, constantly crying, endlessly thirsty, and losing weight at a terrifying rate. I shared my concerns with friends and family, and they tried to ease my worries with, “He’s just going through a growth spurt.” Of course the people close to us didn’t want to believe something was wrong. I didn’t want to believe it either.

We took him to see our pediatrician. She told us to “keep an eye on it,” and set us up with an endocrinologist appointment for eight days later, because his symptoms pointed to diabetes. I don’t have to tell you what would have happened if we waited those eight days before seeking out medical attention on our own.

We were silent on the way to the hospital that day, except when I whispered, “Do you hope it’s diabetes and not cancer?” “Yes,” was my husbands hushed response. I didn’t understand enough about diabetes to know if it was worse or better than cancer, but now I know it’s just different all together. My whole body was buzzing with nerves, and my stomach kept tightening at the thought of my son being seriously ill.

Diagnosis

When we walked through the emergency room doors, they took us into triage immediately. We rattled off his symptoms, and the nurse hastily grabbed a blood glucose meter and tested him. “His blood sugar is very high. They will take you back quickly.” Those words meant very little to us then. Now they mean everything to us.

Once we were taken back, the doctor came in to speak with us. He was calm, and said a lot of words and acronyms that we never heard before. It all felt like a blur, and I think we were both looking for some kind of confirmation. Through tears my husband stated, “Childhood cancer runs in my family.” The doctor gave us a direct answer, “No, he does not have cancer. Your son has type 1 diabetes.”

And then I sobbed. Just for a minute, but I let myself feel the wave of relief that he wasn’t terminally sick, and the suffocating fear of this diagnosis that I knew nothing about. That was the last time I cried over T1D.

The next week, we stayed in the hospital and learned everything we could possibly cram in about T1D and our new lifestyle. It was a lot, but I felt confident to take it on.

I know what you’re thinking, “They are going to take care of this little boy with everything they have, and he is going to be the center of their world, and everything is going to be just fine!”

Three Under Three

That’s true, but PLOT TWIST!

At home we had two little girls.

One was 2 years old, and the other 2 months.

There is already so much anxiety associated with having a newborn, and I had to leave her for an entire week, to care for our other baby who we almost lost.

And if I’m being totally honest, I was also struggling with postpartum depression. I had three kids under three, and I felt like I was drowning in the weight of keeping them all safe. I was throwing myself pity parties pretty much every day after the baby was born.

But when my son was diagnosed, something changed inside of me. I no longer had room to feel sorry for myself. My son needed me to literally keep him alive, with my full attention, 24 hours each day, with no breaks or vacation.

You’d think this would have tipped me over the edge of full blown depression. And, believe me, my mind has danced around the topic, but I didn’t let myself go there. It actually pulled me out of the baby blues fog, and gave my day-to-day life a clear purpose.

Sometimes I think back to those first few months, and honestly don’t know how I did it. He was just a baby, not even two yet, and we didn’t have any of the amazing technology we do now.

Nighttime terrified me. If I let myself, I could have allowed my anxiety to totally consume me. The thought of losing him in his sleep just wasn’t an option. So, for six straight months, every night was the same routine.

7pm – Put the two older kids to bed

7:30pm – The baby was still sleeping in our room, so I’d lay her down

8pm – Test my son’s blood sugar. Treat high/low if needed

10pm – Test again. Also, I’d set my phone alarm in two hour increments to test throughout the night.

10:30pm – I would go to bed, only to have the baby wake up to eat

12am – First alarm would go off, which would wake the baby. My husband would test our son, and I would console the baby

2am – Repeat 12am

4am – Repeat 12am

6am– Everyone would get up for the day

I was exhausted, which created a haze around those early months. I’m not so sure this was a terrible thing. It makes the scary nap time lows, our first stomach bug, and all the other negative memories fuzzy around the edges.

But one thing that stays crystal clear is how tough my little guy was through everything. Because of my anxiety over needing to know his blood sugar constantly, I was pricking his finger 15-25 times every single day. We were on a continuous rollercoaster, either low or high, and he’d just suck down another juice box, or accept another shot of insulin.

Never complaining.

Never crying.

Our diabetes management looks a lot different now. He wears a Dexcom G6 and an Omnipod, which means very few to almost no finger sticks and no more shots.

My anxiety levels have dipped drastically, and I’ve even slept through the night a few times!

But there is a constant nagging in the back of my mind that never goes away, of all the “what ifs?” I’m on constant guard in case I need to diffuse an emergency, that could happen at any time or place. I am addicted to knowing his number, but being able to just glance at my phone and see it has created a peace in me.

Of course, it is easy to slip into a downward spiral of wishing life could go back to what it was before, but there is no point in dwelling. I made a decision immediately after diagnosis that I would take this on from a positive standpoint, and harness all the angry, worried, scared feelings, and use that momentum to bring awareness to type 1.

And that’s when I decided to write about it.

I began blogging, and sharing our stories. Some are about T1D, others aren’t, but something incredible happened. I started forcing myself to take time to do something I loved, and it healed open emotional wounds I was carrying with me. And I’ll let you in on a little secret. I lure readers in by mostly writing humor pieces that appeal to the general public, but every Tuesday BAM! Type 1 Tuesday, and everybody’s getting an education on the disease that turned our world upside down.

Thinking of how far we’ve come makes me unbelievably proud. Each day, my son is able to enjoy his childhood, because I put the weight of the entire disease on me, and that’s fine, because I can handle it

I truly believe being a type 1 parent is not just doing what you have to do, it is realizing you’re capable of doing anything.

I Need Your Help – Dexcom Sensor Tapes and Tricks

Chris Stocker 3 Comments

I’ve been using Dexcom for about 6 months now (has it really been that long?). During this time I have been using the Medtronic sensor tape, which I had a lot left over from when I was using the MiniMed 630G and 670G.

I personally think this tape is amazing and I absolutely love it. I’m just unfortunately running out of it and I’m looking for new options. I do believe that they sell the sensor tape individually now, but I always like having multiple options.

My sister-in-law has used a bunch of different brands with my niece’s Dexcom and she has her favorites, but I want to find out all the options out there. Partially for myself, but also so that my niece can have the best possible tapes out there.

So, here’s my call out to the community.

Can you please, please, share this post so that I can get as many responses as possible to find all the different options and hacks people use to keep their Dexcom sensor on.

Thank you in advance.

How Entrepreneurship Saved my Diabetes Management - new size

How Entrepreneurship Saved my Diabetes Management

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

As many of you may, or may not, know, I own my own business(es). I first started my own business back in 2009, but still worked full-time and just ran the business at night. During this time, I was not sleeping a lot. I worked until about 2 am and then woke up at 7 am to go back to my day time job.

During this time, I was hustling my ass off to grow my business on the side, while keeping my day time job. The day time job was important for two reasons.

First, I needed the money.

Second, I needed the health insurance.

There was a third reason, life insurance, but then I found a place that specialized in life insurance for type 1 diabetics.

This was back in 2009, so this was back in the day when pre-existing conditions were an automatic denial.

I wasn’t sleeping well at that time. I wasn’t eating healthy at that time. But I was hustling and growing a business and at that time, that’s all that mattered to me.

Fast-forward almost 10 years, I am still running that same business. It’s changed a bit, but not much. I own and operate an SEO and Social Media Management agency.

I also help my wife in running her Etsy business (soon to not call it an Etsy business, because we are launching our own site and adding more categories).

I also run an eBay / Amazon re-sellers business that takes up most of my weekend time.

Why am I talking about all of this?

Well, I made the decision a long time ago that I wanted to own my own business. I wanted this so that I am in control of my own income, my own future, and most importantly in control of my own time.

Time is the most valuable thing in this world and it’s something that we can’t buy more of or return and get back.

Entrepreneurship has allowed me to use my time how I see fit.

This is not only important for my family, but also for my diabetes.

In the last decade, I could schedule doctor appointments whenever I wanted. I could change an infusion set or a CGM sensor whenever I wanted. I could go exercise at any time that I wanted. I could eat lunch whenever I wanted.

I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

This is important to me. This has helped me manage my diabetes because I can take breaks when needed, I can be flexible on my appointment times, and I can also take the time to make a lunch during the middle of the day and prepare a healthy snack.

Now, listen, I know you can do that all when you work for someone else and work in an office or a typical 9-5.

However, when I was working a 9-5, I didn’t do those things. I ate out all the time. I didn’t exercise. I didn’t drink water.

Entrepreneurship has done wonders for my diabetes management.

I was always scared that I could never be an entrepreneur because of having diabetes. I thought that needing insurance would hold me back.

Well, it hasn’t and I’ve been able to do this for nearly a decade and I don’t plan on stopping here!

If you want to hear more about diabetes, entrepreneurship and the combo of both which I call my life, then subscribe to the Type One Entrepreneur Podcast. I tested the waters with this podcast earlier in the year, but I’m going all in on it. The scheduled re-launch date is August 13.

morning walks lower stress levels

Why Walking in the Morning Has Lowered my Stress Levels

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

I have never been someone who could wake up early and exercise. When I wake up, I am always dehydrated. This could be from:

  1. Having higher blood sugars all night long
  2. Going to the bathroom a bunch throughout the night

Going to the bathroom a bunch throughout the night, may not actually be related to the high blood sugars throughout the night. A lot of the time, this is because I drink coffee at night or iced tea or water at night which makes me having to use the bathroom a bunch during the night.

Then, when I wake up in the morning, my muscles are cramped and I’m not able to go to the gym or workout.

Well, I’ve been making changes to this and so far, I absolutely love it.

I’ve been waking up at 6 am and going for a 1.5 mile walk in the morning. The pace is slow to moderate. It’s not just for the exercise, but it’s also a mind clearing and stress relieving walk as well.  I am able to just walk by myself, while the sun is coming up and be able to clear my mind and think about being in the moment of nature and breathe in the beautiful air and think about where I want my life to be and what are the things that I need to do to get there.

I am big on mindfulness and visualizing my goals and my life. I do this while I am walking and also at night before I go to bed.

How to Fix Dawn Phenomenon

Another reason for walking in the morning was to try and stop the morning spikes that my blood sugars do to me every single morning. As soon as I wake up and roll out of bed, the Dexcom graph and arrows just start to go up.

I thought that maybe by walking early in the morning, that this would help bring down these spikes (you know, because exercise is supposed to help reverse your diabetes).

Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case. My blood sugars continue to spike and actually end up going up a little more afterwards. I’ve been having to still take insulin as soon as I get back and correct. I’ve yet to correct before going on the walk because I don’t want to carry more things with me during my walk.

Even though the morning walks haven’t fixed my dawn phenomenon, they have definitely helped lower my stress levels and have made me more alert during the rest of the day and become much more productive.

I will continue to try and test different ways to help fix the dawn phenomenon and get rid of these morning spikes.