I’ve got all sorts of new stuff… unfortunately no new pancreas

I’m posting yesterday’s blog today because my yesterday did not go as planned and I feel like I’ve been chewed up and spit out. I sincerely needed my latte from Starbucks this morning. I’m still scratching my head as to whether the barista thought I was a high schooler, college student or teacher when she told me to have a good day at school today. I was not caffeinated enough to respond properly.

Fly like a G4

I’ve had my Dexcom for more than three weeks now and pulled my first sensor after two weeks. 14 whole days (do as I say… not as I do) so here are some thoughts:

• They either manufactured the G4 Platinum with a duller insertion needle or I turned into a big baby during the few months I was without it. I feel like insertion hurt more, but I’m setting myself up to fail because I stop pushing the plunger when it starts to hurt and rebuild my nerve to finish sticking the sucker in. In reality if I just push through it a little, it’d be in all the way.
• Is the adhesive oval wider? I had to tape my sensor down with everyone’s favorite FlexiFix tape on day #7 (yay!) and it seemed like the oval was a wee bit wider.
• The sensor wire is heads and tails better than the Seven Plus! It’s much, much thinner and when I removed it, there was no super itchy bump where the wire had been in my skin. In fact, my skin didn’t look punctured at all! I also felt the sensor wires presence less often than with the Seven Plus.
• The transmitter is thicker than  my old one, which I expected. What I didn’t expect is that because it’s marginally thicker… it shows more. For example, one of the most comfortable/accurate places I put it is my butt. The old Seven Plus was basically undetectable in pants… not so much with the G4. So I guess I’ll know if someone’s been looking at my butt if they ask what’s going on with the bump thing.
• Holy accuracy! More often than not, my fingersticks and receiver were close, if not matched. This makes me happy. There were a couple of 20-point differences but not many.
• The range has greatly improved. I left my receiver downstairs and went upstairs to take care of a couple of things. Brad brought the receiver up to me and said, “I don’t know if it’s reading you, but it says you’re low.” I was. And I hadn’t felt it… see insurance company? It’s doing what it’s supposed to!
• I saw ??? only once in the first seven days, and it wasn’t for long. Days 8-11 were pretty good, I started getting it more often on day 12.
• Alarms… maybe I’m too quick to press the button, but I have it set on the “Normal” profile and it seems like it only vibrates. I’m considering switching it to Attentive but don’t want to give any of my coworkers heart attacks if it’s too loud.

Tiny Pods

I got myself set up on the new OmniPod system last night so this is first impressions only. I’ll post more on this later, but since I was the absolute last OmniPod user to be transitioned, I doubt I’ll have anything new to add.

• I can’t decide if I prefer to black PDM, but at least my D-gear matches.
• The pods are significantly smaller which is fantastic, but also I feel the pod I’m wearing less, causing minor moments of panic thinking that I’ve ripped it off and not noticed.
• Confirming that I’m Rachel is going to get old. Fast.

Can anyone direct me to a place to get a belt clip for my PDM? Or tell me how much the one from OmniPod costs (I have no desire to call unless I’m buying one).

Know what’d be great?

• Unit marks on the sides of insulin bottles. It can’t be that hard to do… in theory each bottle of my Apidra has 1,000 unites (100 units/1 mL x 10mL per vial). It’d be an easy 10-fill cycle is I put 100 units in every pod, but I don’t. I put 80-90 depending on what my next three days look like. Yes that means I use the bottles for about 33 days instead of 30. When you get closer to the bottom, it’s tough to guestimate if you need a new vial out of the fridge. Unit (or mL) marks would make that so much easier.
• A pedometer feature in my Dexcom receiver. I take that sucker with me everywhere, without fail. I almost never remember to grab the iPod nano that I sometimes use as a pedometer and when I do it usually needs a charge. I have an app on my phone but carry it with me less frequently than Dex… and I wear Dex a lot. That’d be an easy way to track my steps.

What are some simple alterations/additions to everyday things that you think would make life easier?