Hi:
I would strongly prefer to wear the sensor on my hip, but when I tried it once, it did not send/receive well. (It seemed to stop anytime I sat down).
Does anyone have any advice on how to do a hip site that works well?
By the way. . when i say hip, I mean BELOW the pants level, not the top of the hip/side of the abdomen.
I still am not sure where you are inserting other than apparently you are not doing it in the so-called "love handle" area.
How far up or down is it from your belt line? If you placed a clock dial on top of your head with your nose directly underneath 12 noon position, what "time" would your sensor be positioned at? Would it be directly under 3 or 9 o'clock?
When you sit down does it put any pressure on your sensor?
-iJohn
All I can provide is that the sensor in the Dexcom was made to read a VERY specific enzyme in the body. That enzyme resides mostly in the fatty tissue below the skin. For most the most focal area for this tissue is the abdomen. Especially the sides of the abdomen. Many have found that they can get good readings from other areas of the body where enough fatty tissue exists, but it's a gamble. Try to ensure you find enough "fat" for the sensor to be inserted. The buttocks area really doesn't have a lot of fat on a person who is in moderate shape. In fact it's quite a bit of muscle and other tissue. Anyway, this falls deeply into YMMV areas....
I don't understand the sun dial analogy.
I want it on the side of my hip so that underwear and bathing suits would cover it.
1) YMMV ???
2) It's my understanding that the Dexcom is approved for the abdomen and the button (that's what my Dexcom rep told me), so apparently there's enough fat there.
3) I believe CGM systems measure interstitial fluid, not enzymes.
All I can provide is that the sensor in the Dexcom was made to read a VERY specific enzyme in the body. That enzyme resides mostly in the fatty tissue below the skin.
Really?? That's the first time I'd ever heard a claim that the Dexcom does not work similarly to the Medtronic sensors.
Unless Medtronic has made some very fundamental changes to their technology ... which I doubt ... the Medtronic sensors work by detecting glucose reacting with glucose oxidase integrated into the sensor probe. This is outlined in a very general way in (old) Powerpoint docs such as this one which appears to be from Medtronic Norway: "How the Glucose Sensor Works".
The process described in this presentation is essentially
- Glucose and oxygen in the institual fluid come in contact with the glucose oxidase enzyme in the sensor probe.
- This causes the glucose and oxygen to be converted into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and gluconic acid.
- The hydrogen peroxide reacts with a (platinum?) electrode in the sensor probe and decomposes into hydrogen and oxygen and 2 free electrons. The electrons generate a current in the electrode.
- The magnitude of the current is proportional to the amount of glucose present and is used to determine (educated guess) what the glucose level is in the institular tissue.
I had always assumed that Dexcom used essentially the same high level approach. But you seem to be saying they use another method to determine the glucose level in the institular tissue. Could you provide more details?
What enzyme in the body does the Dexcom depend on? And how is it used to determine a glucose level?
-iJohn
I was trying to get an idea where you were positioning the sensor relative to the front and back of your body using "clock position". Maybe the Wikipedia article will explain it better than I did.
-iJohn
I'm a lawyer, not a scientist, and I would like people to answer my question about if they have had any experience placing the Dexcom sensor on the hip area below the belt -- places where it can be covered by underwear/bathing suits. However, in answer to your question, I have used both Medtronic and now Dexcom, and both companies make it very clear that they are not monitoring actual blood sugar levels. They are monitoring trends of blood sugar through measurements of interstitial fluid (the fluid in between cells). Both the Medtronic website and Wikipedia state that the measurement is "blood glucose levels in interstitial fluid," but neither one says exactly how that process is done (that I could see).