Dexcom Sites

Hi everyone - where are your best Dexcom sites? I typically use mine on my upper thighs (more towards outside of leg) and the back of my calves - I have one there now and it’s spot on.

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Nice. My 5 year old usually has the best numbers on the love-handles or upper arm (preferred). The thigh is usually delayed a bit more and the love-handles have higher incident of pressure lows. He doesn’t have enough fat for the tummy yet–so site real estate is hard to come by.

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We use our sons upper arms only and rotate between the two of them.

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Will have to try upper arms more often. I used to wear my OmniPods exclusively on my arms and wanted to give them some time with nothing there. Now that I’ve been off the pump for a little while maybe I’ll try my Dex sensors there.

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I marvel at you folks who use alternate Dexcom sites. The only site rotation I’ve ever done is between my right and left abdomen. I don’t think I could reach anywhere else😊

Funny cause I’ve never used my stomach for Dex. YDMV as always!!!

Upper arms are very easy to do alone and very easy to reach.

I’ve been hesitant to try the front of thigh and I just gotta ask… doesn’t that location get in the way with certain activities?

Thus far im a back of the arm guy… my only complaint about that is that if I roll around while sleeping I can get false lows if I lean on it… and the Bluetooth doesn’t seem to transmit around my arm very well but it works fine with the receiver, just not to my iPhone

I’ve tried a few alternates but have always had best longevity of sensors on belly, right and left.

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I have the same false low or dropped signal issue with my calf (it happens now and then but only when sleeping). The rest of the time, love the calf or back of the arm.

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This is my son’s favorite site, the only one he can use, really, given all the sports he does, with the possible exception of the back of the arm.

Because of his age, he can’t respond to your question… For the rest – we get in general 2 weeks of sensor time, no more. He does not have much fat in there, and by about 10 days it becomes noisy, then the signal starts dropping. If you use an area that is well circumscribed and does not expand too much to the outside, you won’t have trouble with sensor pressure lows – you must be careful though.

But - the belly is more flexible, has more sites, and gives us more sensor time. We just can’t use it :slight_smile:

We have been wanting to try the back of the arm but have not yet done so.

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We use back of the arms almost exclusively. We tried a thigh site, but it was a bleeding failure, so my son has shied away from this one. We did do the stomach once, but he prefers his pump sites in his stomach, and so uses the arms mostly.

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LMAO - I can understand the concern, but trust me, it doesn’t get in the way!!!

At first I was confused by this, because doing it on your arm means you have to use one hand. Pinching the sides of the sensor when you are removing the insert needle is tough with one hand.
:slight_smile:

On my arm when using one hand, I have to use a door frame to remove it.

Like the part here with the “Dexcom lady” removing it:

But then I realized, you meant alone putting it on the little guy, not on yourself. :slight_smile:

Sorry, I actually meant by yourself, on your own arm. I’ve done it on my own arm (experimentation to see and feel the process for myself when I first started caring for our son.)

Here’s the video of the process I used and it was VERY easy…(hint: gravity helps remove the needle). The actual insertion process is around the 16 minute mark, but the whole video was great for me. I’ve spoken with her several times as she helped me initially with Liam, she’s a wonderful lady. I will invite her to our forums after we go live. BTW - hers is the process I’ve adopted for Liam because it’s been the one that works best for us (as far as the use of uni-solve, skin-tac, tegaderm, template for CGM, etc.,)

That’s interesting. You think it’s easier on your own arm than on your abdomen or leg?

For me, the further back you go on the arm (tricep side instead of bicep side) makes it more challenging. The bicep is not too bad.

My son does back of the arm by himself. Just places his arm on the back of a chair or table and gets it done. I wouldn’t say it is easier, just doable.

I must admit, I only did the test on the back of my arm, but it was extremely easy using MammaDuks process. I would think leg or abdomen may be easier since they’re easier to access, but the arm was very easy to reach and access when I did the test on myself.

Just stuck one on the side of my left arm and working great. Had on the back of my calf and it got yanked off by mistake. Hate when that happens.

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So how long did you keep it on? I’ve never seen a CGM trace from a non-D. Do you have it to share?