24 hours into the Dexcom trial

So 24 hours in… what to report?

Well, he hasnt had a low… at all. Not one, in a whole 24 hours. That hasn’t happened for a couple of months, at least. Having said that, he has been higher than normal too, but not overly so. Whether this is because of the Dexcom though is hard to tell.

I have been tweeting everytime we tested him along with the comparable Dexcom reading. If you are on twitter, follow me at @curesam and you will see from my timeline what happened.

The insertion process was quick and easy (dare I say it, possibly even better than the Roche, which we think is very good???). Two hours after setting up and inserting the sensor, it just worked. My concerns about not having a training session proved to be unfounded (so far). Having used the Dexcom website’s online tutorial, we just got on with it.

It’s too early to say how much we can trust it over ACTUAL Bg tests but it is fascinating to see a plot of his bloods on a screen. We didn’t really pay too much attention to the readings last night because he ended up going high. Not sure if that was because of the stress involved in going onto the CGM or not. Coupled with the fact that it was new, we just did a normal night on conventional finger pricks when it came to corrections etc.

The Dexcom’s default alarm for a low Bg level is set at 4.4 and it woke Samuel at 4am. This is good because we know that he hears the alarm. Having said that, I tested him with a finger prick and he was 7.5, so it had got itself confused!

Every time we do a finger prick test, we have entered it into the Dexcom and it adjusts slightly, although it doesn’t take it as gospel – not sure why!

Overall though, it has to be said, it’s quite impressive. I’ve downloaded the data for the last 24 hours from both his Roche pump and the Dexcom. When you compare them, it’s amazing how close they are….

The conventional tests look as follows:

and the Dexcom plot looks like:

When you compare them, you get a lot more data from the Dexcom. But the overall shape is not dissimilar.

Which takes me to data. I installed the software that comes with the Dexcom. Do you like statistics? If you do, you’d be in 7th heaven with this software. Talk about information overload. I didn’t get time to even scratch the surface, although it did annoy me that they dont do a Mac version – I had to install it on Windows, talk about going back to the stone age!

I think information overload is probably going to be a well used phrase over the next few days. The temptation to just believe the number and not look at the trend for the Bg’s is strong, especially when we are so used to taking a conventional Bg as gospel as soon as we prick Sam’s finger.

The trial continues, and as I have been saying over the last couple of nights, we shall see…