Tag: sensor

Sensor Snapping by the Seashore

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Sensor snapping by the seashore…try saying that five times fast.

The past several weeks have been so busy that I completely forgot about an incident that occurred when I was away on vacation in July.

An incident that I’d never experienced in my decade of using Dexcom CGMs…

It was the second-to-last day of my trip. I was blissfully soaking up the sun’s rays – it was by far the best beach day of my entire week in Maine. That meant that the sun was strong that day…so strong that I was basically applying sunscreen every hour, on the hour, because I am as pale as Casper the friendly ghost.

During one of my sunscreen applications, I noticed that the Dexcom sensor on the back of my arm was looking a little off. I mean that literally – the transmitter seemed like it was jutting out at a weird angle. Upon further inspection, I realized that the grayish-purple prong that helps keep the transmitter in place was hanging on by a thread. I was pretty surprised to make that discovery, for a few reasons: 1) I didn’t know that could happen, 2) the sensor was only about 24 hours old and nothing went awry during the application process, and 3) I couldn’t remember bumping into anything that would’ve caused a plastic piece to break off my sensor. But the most surprising part was that it was enough to cause my sensor to stop collecting readings altogether – I was getting an error message on my Dexcom app.

My broken sensor prongs and me, sitting on the beach.

I didn’t know what to do other than carefully break the prongs off all the way – they weren’t going to do me any good now – and gingerly press my transmitter down into my sensor for several minutes to see if that did anything…and no dice. I resorted to plan B, which was to wait until I got back to the house I was staying at to do some more research into the matter.

Unfortunately, the internet had nothing helpful to offer me. I was somewhat relieved to know that this has happened to other people, but definitely bummed to learn that there wasn’t a real solution other than to apply a new sensor – which wasn’t an option for me since I had only packed the one sensor for my trip. Whoops. So much for me being the diligent, prepared T1D that I thought I was.

Ultimately, I decided to rip the sensor off and deal with finger stick checks for the rest of my trip; after all, I was going to be returning home the next day. I look at the whole incident as yet another example of why it’s important to pack extras of my extras, and as a reminder to expect the unexpected in life with diabetes!

How to Make Medical Adhesive for CGMs and Pumps Last Longer

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Something that all people with diabetes that I know – myself included – struggle with from time to time is the adhesive that keeps our diabetes devices stuck to our bodies.

Real talk? Both the adhesives for my pods and my Dexcom sensors can be lackluster. About half the time, the adhesives that secure them to my body begin to peel around the edges when I’m only partway through the wear time of both devices. And another (much smaller, though far more infuriating) part of the time, the adhesives lose their stickiness entirely, causing the device to fall off my body.

When the adhesive is the reason why a sensor or a pod doesn’t last the full 10 and 7 days, respectively, it’s practically like experiencing a slap in the face because at least a technology error or failure feels more out of my control…the adhesive, though, feels like something that should never be a real issue, and I can’t help but blame myself for not making a pod or sensor more secure when the glue completely fades.

On the bright side, my experience with less-than-sticky pods and sensors forced me to think of ways to get them to last their full lifecycles on my body. Here’s how I make them last as long as possible:

Protective barrier wipes: I use these wipes each time I do a pod change. When my new pod is priming, I wipe whichever site I’m about to place it on with a protective barrier wipe. (I use an alcohol wipe earlier on in my pod change process.) These seem to help with adhesion without adding a ton of stickiness like regular SkinTac wipes tend to do. They literally do what they say they’ll do, which is make a protective barrier for a piece of medical equipment to stick to easily.

Dry my skin: This seems incredibly obvious, but I make sure that new pod and sensor sites are as dry as possible before I apply a device. This is much more of a problem for me in the summertime when weather causes me to sweat more, but I’ve been able to navigate that by wiping my skin with a clean towel and making sure air is circulating well in the room in which I’m applying the pod or sensor so any excess moisture evaporates off my skin.

I may or may not have tried using Scotch tape in the past to get my devices to stick better…(Spoiler alert: It did not work and I do not recommend.)

Specially designed stickers: Both Dexcom and OmniPod produce stickers that customers can request for free. I get them mailed straight to me and I find that they are most useful when a pod or a sensor is hanging precariously off my body. The stickers are shaped exactly to fit around both, so I never have to worry about missing a spot, and they’ve definitely helped me save more than one pod and sensor in the past. I don’t like wearing them unless I have to, though, because sometimes the extra adhesive seems to make the underlying adhesive weaker (not sure how that’s possible, but I’ve always had more luck waiting to add a sticker on top of a loose pod/sensor that’s in its last couple days of wear than adding the sticker on top in the beginning).

The “circle and press” technique: Most people probably already do this, but I actively have to remind myself that when I apply a new pod or sensor, I need to take my finger and circle it around the adhesive firmly three times in order to make sure it’s pressing up against my skin as securely as possible. This method also sort of irons out any wrinkles that might have appeared when the pod or sensor was initially stuck on, so it’s a simple yet effective thing to do…which is absolutely something we could all use more of when it comes to handling diabetes.

Is a Bleeder a Reader? My Take on a Bloody Dexcom G6 Insertion

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This blog post probably shouldn’t be read by anyone who gets squeamish when discussing blood or when viewing photos that show any amount of it…my apologies in advance for a bloody gross blog post, but I thought this was a good topic for discussion. 

I placed the new Dexcom G6 sensor on my abdomen, hovering my index finger above the large orange insertion button. I pressed it, exhaling as I felt the minute needle pierce my skin’s surface. I looked down, and started to rub the adhesive in circles to make sure it was stuck, when I saw blood. Not just a drop, but a decent-sized pool forming beneath the sensor. Before long, just about the entire surface of the white adhesive was soaked in red.

Yeah, this was going to be a no-go.

It’s pretty rare for me to experience blood at the site of a Dexcom sensor. If I had to put a number on it, I would say less than 10% of my insertions draw blood. An even smaller amount – like, 2% – have caused me to bleed as much I did in the scenario described above. But I know I’m not alone in my bloody sensor experiences – it’s something that many other T1Ds who use a Dexcom have gone through.

There’s a bit of debate, though, that I’ve noticed in the past on Twitter threads and Instagram posts. What to do with a bleeder? Keep it and assume that it’ll read blood sugars normally? Or change it immediately and call Dexcom for a replacement?

Are bleeders readers? Or does it depend?

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Do you think that bleeders are readers?

I’m going to go with…it depends.

Obviously, in that situation I described in the opening of this post, I decided that it wasn’t a good idea to keep the sensor on my body. There was too much blood and I didn’t trust that it would adhere well to my body. I didn’t know how long it would take for the blood to stop (only a few minutes, but still), and I couldn’t be sure that it wouldn’t mess up my readings. On top of that, I wasn’t trying to stain my clothing, if I could help it.

So in that circumstance, I did change my sensor right away, and was glad that the second try resulted in a much cleaner, blood-free insertion. I called Dexcom, explained what happened to the customer support representative, and got a replacement sensor mailed to me.

However, just about any other time I bleed upon a sensor insertion, it tends to be a minuscule amount of blood. I usually don’t even notice until it’s time to replace the sensor, and there’s a bit of dried blood left on the site. Other times, I’ll see small beads of blood forming underneath the spot where the transmitter snaps in. And there’s been a couple of occasions that I’ve bled a fair amount and been totally unaware of it until I caught my reflection in the mirror and noticed the blood staining the white adhesive. And in all of those cases, I’ve kept the sensor on for the full ten days, without noticing any discrepancies in my readings.

All that considered, in my inexpert opinion, I think that bleeders usually are readers and that they’re safe to continue wearing. Of course, there will be exceptions, like when there’s just too much blood to salvage the sensor. But every time I’ve kept using a bloody sensor, I’ve had the same amount of success with its functionality…so yes, I think that for me, bleeders are indeed readers.