I biked to work this morning, as usual, but about 1 mile into the ride I felt something tickling my right elbow. I knew right away that the Navigator CGM transmitter had slipped off the back of my arm. No idea why it slipped out then and there. It was still fairly dark out so I pulled off the road and onto the sidewalk in front of a house to retrieve the transmitter.
It was 38 degrees outside, and although I was warm enough in a base layer, wool jersey and windbreaker, I didn’t want to stick around long after taking layers off. I stripped off the jacket and jersey and wrestled around in my shirt to reattach the transmitter to the sensor that was still plugged into my arm. A guy stepped out of the house and approached, then asked me in a quizzical way if everything was ok. I joked that I was stripping off my clothes, which is a sure sign of hypothermia. “Umm, really - what are you doing? Are you ok?” he asked. I assured hiim I was ok but was just “adjusting.” I wiggled around with my left hand down the front of my shirt and my right arm up in the air, so he must have thought I was adjusting a bra. As soon as I got the transmitter clipped in, the CGM in my back pocket began beeping. I pulled it out and began fiddling with it as the guy suspiciously watched me. It was so dark that I had to hunch over and read the display with my bike headlight. With the Navigator and its 10-hour start time I knew I had to be careful about how I answered the series of questions on the screen.
"NEW SENSOR DETECTED. Did you insert a new sensor? Yes - No"
I clicked the button below “No,” because “Yes” would mean I would get no readings for 10 hours.
The CGM began beeping again, then displayed "DID YOU REMOVE THE SENSOR? Yes - No"
Wow, this was a tough one. Well yeah, I did, but I decided to try fooling the CGM and avoid a 10-hour loss.
I clicked the button below “No,” and the screen went blank. I cursed under my breath, then noticed the guy was still standing there. I pulled my jersey and windbreaker on quickly and told him I was "completely adjusted."
I’m not sure if the guy was a Good Samaritan or concerned home-owner or both, but I don’t think he ever figured out what the stripping cyclist was doing in front of his house at 7:15 AM, adjusting and playing with a cell phone-looking thing. Telling the truth would be too much information.
Oh yeah, and more important than confusing this guy, I did manage to fool the CGM. It has worked fine the rest of the day.
I posted a video on how to re-start the sensor. I trick mine, too. Well done, my friend.
Sorry about your neighbors. lol