I have a question and looking for some advice. Our son was diagnosed about a month ago with Type 1 so we are trying to figure everything out as far as balancing sugars anyway.
Next week he is going to receive a Dexcom and my question is where to all of the baseball players place their transmitters? He is a righthanded pitcher. Thanks.
Hi Lepage5397,
Welcome to FUD.
You came to the right place. There are a few baseball parents here - @Chris and @mlg, and a few others I think.
Also, there are many here who know about exercise and BG management.
Look forward to reading your posts.
Welcome @Lepage5397, my son is on the freshman team and plays catcher (mostly) but also pitches from time to time. To answer your question - he exclusively wears them on the back of his left arm during baseball season (he is right handed). Unlike pump sites which need to be moved due to the infusion of insulin causing tissue damage, the sensors work fine getting placed in the same area. With that said, we don’t place them in exactly the same place, but we have about 6 locations we rotate through that are all on the back of the left arm. During the rest of the year, we move between both arms. Placing them on the back of the arm we have never had one come off during baseball, weirdly we did have one ripped off this year in band…
Sorry about your diagnosis, my son was diagnosed at the same age, and the first year was a steep learning curve. His first baseball season was pretty good, but since we were still learning and experimenting on what would work we made lots of mistakes with his insulin, causing a few lows that he shouldn’t have had during games. The most important thing is don’t believe the only way to manage your son is to get his bg high to allow him to drop during the game. That is a very un-nuanced view of how to manage bg and exercise. Please ask many questions.
Currently my son pumps, but we use an un-tethered approach, so he gives approx. 50% of his basal insulin using Lantus every day, then uses the pump to provide the other half. Then during a game, he just unplugs his pump. That allows him to manage his bg between innings.
Please note that the CGM is great, but during games he won’t have his phone or receiver on him, as it will likely remain in the dugout, so the CGM only transmits to my wife and I during times he is in the dugout. Because of this, and also because my son’s bg is so variable during games because the effort can change significantly when a game is going well vs when a pitcher is struggling my son also does a blood stick every other inning to confirm the CGM, which can be 20 minutes behind his current bg.
If you or your son want to talk to my son about how he manages things, we can arrange that. My son is currently 15.
Oh, forgot to mention, we also place an oval Grif Grip over his CGM which helps keep it in place. We replace the Grif Grip usually twice during a 2.5 week sensor life.
But once in a while for a tournament he will sport a Blue Camo Attack Koala just to crack his team-mates up during a tough game.
Thank you so much for the information, I love the Koala!!!
That is fantastic to know I had no idea, that website looks fun for the tape too.
As your son’s insulin use ramps up and his natural pancreatic control goes down through the honeymoon process, the hardest exercise situation to control is when you have a high that needs to be corrected one - two hours prior to a game or exercise session. That is because the insulin is needed to get your son down, but the exercise will magnify the insulin uptake in his cells. At these times, we usually dose 1/2 - 3/4 of the normal amount of insulin and let the exercise do its thing, but please test often during these times and have plenty of carbs around.
@Lepage5397
My son is a 17 year old right handed pitcher diagnosed 9 years ago. He has had the Dex for about 3 years. We experimented with a bunch of different sites, but now exclusively use his left arm. He used to put a compression sleeve over, but now we just use Skin-tac when we apply a new sensor and he doesn’t need anything else. He has never had an issue with it coming off or loose in a game or practice and he plays 80-100 games a year. The Grif covering above is a great option to protect it though.
I recently got him an Applewatch, so he can see his blood sugar from the field when he he is not near the dugout. This has worked great for practices for him, although he would not use it in a game.
