…the guy talking to you about running… 
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Well, that guy did recommend that she wear a pink and white watch.
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That had nothing to do with the pump… he earned every last ounce of whatever he got.
If said guy feels like he’s been emotionally harmed in any way as an indirect result of the pump’s use, I’ll give him a phone number where he can call and spend 2 hours talking with a representative who will try to convince him he’s wrong, it’s a result of user error on HIS part, but then will, ultimately, send him out a replacement sensor.
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So then paughling, when it happens to my friend, is…
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You guys are too much. 
I didn’t really aim my response at you, but rather at my adoring fan…
Now, off to find out who my fan is…
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In one of my few family friendly metaphors…
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The combativeness can absolutely be a side-effect of a severe low. A friend of mine had to battle with that while I am more the peaceful kind standing in front of the fridge and cannot make a decision to grab that OJ and end up with a jar of mayonnaise.
However jokes aside. I am usually extremely aware of my BG results and can tell them within 10 units dropping below 70 and going above 150 and act accordingly. Going below 50 usually “survival instinct” sets in and every thought turns to food, anything edible. Besides that I can almost follow the onset of cold sweat and loss of motor-functions being mentally fully aware until that fades in and out. I literally crawled out of a canyon on my knees on short spurts of consciousness. Scary and nothing I ever want to experience again.
Trying out the Dexcom 5 now and loving the amount of data that flows in I also want to give everyone a very clear warning. Dexcom has flaws and do not, under any circumstances get caught without an independent BG metering system to double-check the results. Especially troubling is during those warm weather events we are having that sweat and water seem to affect the results of the Dexcom in strange ways. But I don’t know that for sure.
Point in case: We started a 24 hour open ocean swim marathon as a fundraiser, starting at 8pm. I am fully prepared, results are perfect and my body should have enough of that emergency reserve. The plan is to swim for 2 hours, get out for 15 minutes, hydrate, sugar up, and go back in. I am starting out at a 119. Within the first hour I am getting the first low warning, clicking in at 60. This is kind of strange, experience tells me that I actually should be up slightly. Dexcom decides otherwise, even with a few quick snacks hanging with the support boat the results are dropping fast and I am hitting the ominous “low” that I just dropped below 40. In the meantime I feel bushy-tailed wide eye ready to go but what do I don’t have? That second meter to prove that I am ok. But of course, no matter how good I feel, I am out of the water. It really doesn’t help if you tell everyone that you are fine, probably around 140 now in your bg if they only see that flashing “low”. I am of course ticked off mostly at myself for not having the back-up meter and having relied too much on the Dexcom. And of course that Dexcom keeps bleeping beeping every obnoxious alarm for the next 2 hours while I am depleting every bit of sugar available until I ripped the sensor out. Damn, it was a pretty new one as well and I hate wasting money this way.
After getting access to another meter, it actually turns out that my frantic sugar consumption left me with unspeakable highs, crossing the 300 mark, which is unheard of for me. How the Dexcom read “low” and actually showing a very believable decline from the original 119 while my experience tells me the exact opposite I have no idea?
But we learn from every mistake: Know your favorite sugar source, especially if you are one of the “combative” severe low T1’s, something you won’t refuse. Oral glucose tubes/gels are imho the easiest to administer to get a reply before bringing out the big needle. Know your symptoms and trust them. Trust your friends, don’t fight them, when they tell you that you are not making sense. And have a back-up meter to your Dexcom.
I actually will wait a few more days before I contact Dexcom on this issue how it can report such obvious errors instead of going into “no signal” mode to be more on the productive side of myself instead of combining curse-words to complete sentences.
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Was the water really cold? Or maybe really warm so you dehydrated faster than usual without knowing it? Gotta love that about swimming…no sweat meter! Just wondering if something physiologic screwed with your subcutaneous tissue and/or intersititial fluid, basically. I assume you swim with a Dex all the time but curious what was diff than usual…
I am betting no matter how big the registration trial was the number of open water swim marathoners was limited:grin:. Sucks to be the statistical outlier. You need the CGM equivalent of the high performance $5k bicycle, most people just need the Schwinn!
Device shaming! Glad it doesn’t only happen to us! It is absolutely a mandatory prelude to the inevitable conclusion where they cough up the free replacement of whatever. We have not had a dexcom G6 make it 10 days yet even though my son used to get 2 weeks out of a G5, because they bleed and clog up the filament and every time my husband calls they basically say it’s cause we aren’t doing it right…IT IS ONE BUTTON PEOPLE! HOW MANY WAYS ARE THERE TO DO IT?? And if a kid with 3years experience with the G5, assisted by somebody who graduated med school and actually LIKES invasive sterile procedures can’t do it right, are not some troubling questions regarding usability in the general population implied?
Which is an illustration of why my husband calls and not me.
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This is commonplace with the Guardian, so I can tell you why it happens for me. It’s what a failed sensor looks like, and it’s confusing every time… until you figure out it’s not a real number. Last weekend I put in a brand new sensor, no bleeding or problems of any kind with insertion, and calibrated right out of the warm up. My blood sugar was excellent at 85. Within a couple of minutes, I hear the alert that I’m dropping fast. It shows me a 70 with arrows down, and then within minutes of that, my pump suspends itself. I did another finger stick, obviously, to see what was happening, and I was still at like 87. Because it was a brand new sensor, I decided to try to let it fix itself, but it hung at 40 throughout the night. At that point, I was just intrigued at how long it was continuing to run without alerting me of a failed sensor. It ran into the next morning, and I finally decided I was done with the game. As a Medtronic user, I see that sometimes twice a month. Look at that! It looks like it’s doing it now! 
Oooh, device shaming… that’s good. That’s my new vocabulary word for the week. In fact, I’m going to break that out on my next call for a replacement, which is looking like it’s going to be today. 
We’re on the second Dex G6 sensor that hasn’t made it 7 days. It was kind of comical to be calling at 3am and doing the whole song and dance about “did you insert into the belly? was the transmitter cleaned with alcohol before insertion? did you snap it into place” We’ve been doing this for 2.5 years now so it’s like, yep.
That said, if there’s some subtlety to G6 insertion i’d love to know about it. Because we’ve had two sensors that seemed to drop data way earlier than they ultimately failed.
I wonder if the “10 day” sensor wear will end up costing Dexcom in the long run.
I’m guessing there are kinks they can work out with respect to manufacturing, and there may be issues with getting people to insert properly or figuring out the best way to improve sensor longevity.
I don’t remember when the G4 first came out but maybe there were similar issues?
So far we’ve had one that made it to 10 days and we would have restarted but we didn’t plan with enough time, and two that conked out at around 7 days. But those last two were eligible for a free replacement, so, yeah, in the past we would have been out of luck. We’ll see.
You should be like, “oh…no… we did the armpit. Should we not have done the armpit?”
For OUR calls, we also have to answer what our current weight is. 
so we get all of that and THEN have to tell them how much we weigh. I get so mad at that question… and then find myself answering it anyway. 
Ok I was considering the switch until I read this. Lol
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In one of the conference calls this is something they were really concerned about with respect to their application for 14-day wear. What will they have to do if the sensor adhesive fails and it falls off after 12 days. That could line up with your comment about “the last sensor I will ever have to buy.”
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Why do you think they are moving in that direction?
To keep up with the other CGM’s, like the implantable ones and such? Is it because they know people wear them for more than 7 days, so they just make them last longer but raise the price?
That would have been an interesting conversation to hear!