This is my fifth day using the DexCom 7+ and also my first simultaneous diabetes equipment fail.
I posted this story on my blog (http://sugarbump.wordpress.com) but thought I’d post it here as well. In short, I woke up feeling all sorts of weird. My DexCom receiver and transmitter had somehow lost communication (or rather, I had ??? on the screen and no readings for the past hour or more) and was unable to alert me that my bg had been climbing (I have the high alert set to 200). A fingerstick said bg was 361, and as I gave myself the bolus, I felt around my OmniPod and realized there was a leak. A pod change revealed that the cannula was bent (I had changed my pod 3 hours prior).
Double fail!
I realize I won’t know the cannula is bent or otherwise not delivering insulin properly until my bg climbs like that, but I’m more concerned about the loss of communication between the Dex parts. The sensor is on my lower back, and I sleep on my stomach, so the only things in between it and the receiver are my shirt and blanket.
Any ideas here or on my blog would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Sorry it took me awhile to comment on this. Sounds like your BGs were rising too quickly for the Dex to keep up. If you download the data into the software you can see what your BG was when it went to ??? and how fast the rise was. It’s good data to see so you can learn how the dex works for you and your body. Another factor I have found at night is the distance between me and the receiver makes a huge difference if my BGs are changing quickly. I now sleep with the receiver on my pillow, rather than my nightstand and I rarely get the ??? anymore, even with rapid changes in glucose. I have also found that some areas on my body work worse than others for placing the sensor. I get more ??? signals if the sensor is in my outer thigh or upper butt area than if it is in my tummy area. You will figure out what areas work best for you pretty quickly.
I looked at your blog and yes, the Dex will definitely help you figure out what foods just don’t work well for you! I have figured out lots of foods that I won’t eat now since going on the Dex in April. Things you wouldn’t even think would make crazy BGs totally can!
Thanks so much Suzanne! I have found that putting the receiver on the pillow and not the shelf on our headboard works better (even though it’s literally a 2-inch
difference; go figure). Haven’t had a ??? since.
I started my second sensor yesterday, but I placed it on the other side of my back. Hubby and I are visiting family with a bunch of kids, so I didn’t want to risk having the sensor ripped off of my arm. Haven’t tried
tummy yet…might be a little uncomfortable because I always end up on my tummy when I sleep!
I’m going to download my receiver data when we get back home tomorrow. I’m curious to see how high it went.
Isn’t that weird that a 2 inch difference makes such a big difference? Maybe it has to do with interference from stuff on the nightstand or shelf, who knows? You could try the outside of your tummy area near your love handles. That way you can sleep on your belly and the sensor is not squished under you. I put a sensor on my left thigh, forgetting that I sleep on my left side and I had a hard time with getting lots of lost sensor messages at night. So if you know you end up sleeping on a spot, avoid putting a sensor there.
When you look at your data for that night you went high, if you see that the dots are really spread out while they are rising, that is part of what the ??? came from. It will be interesting to see what it looked like, sometimes looking at the data tells you very little, sometimes it tells alot
I sleep on my stomach and found that as long as the sensor isn’t too near the middle (maybe the center 4-6") of my abdomen, it doesn’t actually bother me, so you might want to just give it a try!
I’ve had my 7+ for just over a week. Yesterday, I picked it up off my desk and the vibrate went on and would not stop. I contacted DexCom and she pretty much knew it was a death knell. She advised that I poke the little hole on the back with a paperclip to restart it, but it did nothing. I’d now dying a slow death, as the battery loses power.
They are sending me a new one, which I should have tomorrow.
