Parting is such sweet sorrow

Today we met with the CDE from Dexcom to give the CGM back. Despite fleeting thoughts of not showing up and instead running off to Mexico where the CGM and I could hide out together for the rest of our lives; in the end I did the right thing and returned it.

Although we did stay up all night, just talking and cuddling.

All kidding aside, the trial went great. I am so surprised at all the abuse the sensor took, and STILL survived 6 days. Elise wore it in a wading pool, while using a slip n' slide, fell in some mud which coated the adhesive, and it survived three baths! Elise actually didn't want us to take the sensor off!

Here's my take on the Dexcom...

The Good

• Oh those lovely little arrows. Going up, or going down? With her regular meter, we never knew, but with the CGM we were able to determine just what her BG was doing. This was heaven-sent during the night, when we would see a BG of 100, but with an up arrow. No need to stuff unnecessary carbs in her.
  
  
• The trending. Seeing just what does happen to her BG after meals. Being able to feel confident in giving her insulin 30 minutes before her meals; knowing that it wouldn't drop her low before she ate, and would prevent a huge spike afterwards. Being able to see that her rapid-acting insulin starts working in about 30 minutes. Watching the N peak at about 3 hours. Confirmation that what I suspected (Elise's N peaking twice) was true.
  
  
• We found ours to be surprisingly accurate to her meter. I know a lot of people see big differences, but for us it was close. I'm sure it differs from sensor to sensor and site to site, though.
  
  
• The wonderful peace of mind at night, which leads to more sleep! The low/high alarms! We did not cut out night checks altogether, but did substantially cut down on them.
  
  

The Not-So-Good:

• How close the receiver had to be to Elise in order to pick up the transmitter. I swear, sometimes it went out of range if I even stepped between Elise and the receiver; which I think is just it's way of calling me fat.
  
  
• The size of the receiver. To an adult, it's no big thing. But to an almost 3 year old, it's a big piece of equipment to haul around. I think it's easier for boys, because most of their clothes have pockets, but for a little girl who loves her dresses and skirts, it was a hardship. She did pretty good at carrying it around in a purse, but more often than not, she would put it down somewhere and forget where it was.
  
  
• This may sound weird (and it's NOT a bad thing... just a bad thing for ME), but the information we were able to glean from the CGM. There it was in black-and-white, exactly where we were failing. Yes, we did see some sweet straight lines, but there was a lot of spiking and dropping. And for a perfectionist like me, it's a slap in the face. With her regular meter, most times we see nice even numbers because we're checking her at a time when her BG has already come back down from the spike. But with the CGM, you see that BG rise, then subsequent fall. And while that's nice information to have, I still can't figure out how to avoid the spikes. And it's driving me crazy knowing that it's happening.
  
  
• For some reason, baths made the number on her CGM show up as really high. Like last night, the CGM was showing above 400, but a quick check of her meter showed 270. I'm not sure if this is a common thing, or why it even happened (the same thing happened every time we bathed her).
  

So that's my report on the CGM. If you're contemplating one, I hope it was helpful!