#dexcom

[simswithdisability]

OMG! Look at these! Dexcom and Omnipod accessories for TS2 by cfranck8 on MTS.

As a diabetic who is currently wearing a Dexcom G6 (the one in the last two pics) this makes me so happy!

Get them here!

[needlepokes]

how to write a diabetic character: CGM edition

is your diabetic character wearing a CGM? do they have to? CGMs these are Continous Glucose Monitors that can detect how much sugar is in your bloodstream.

How are they different than tradtional fingerprick (blood) tests? they take blood sugar readings 24/7, and provide you with how your sugars are doing at all times, rather than just at that moment. This leads to tremendously better control over blood sugar.

The way they work is that they can "sample" your blood sugar by testing your subcutaneous tissue for sugar levels then adjusting that value.

However, they're less accurate than a fingerprick (blood) reading and will often "lag" behind by about 15 minutes.

SO if you have a character who is expereincing low or high blood sugar - they'd get an alarm on their CGM, and then they might take a fingerprick reading to make sure. CGM false alarms DO exist and it can cause some very annoying situations.

A less careful/depressed/struggling/burnt out character might A. not care or "sleep through" alarms B. not double check with a finger prick C. not care that they're wearing a CGM - pump into stuff or just rip it off (although they are very expensive!).

can you mute them? yes, and a character might choose to do this while they're sleeping, having an exam, or if they know they're about to fuck up their blood sugar.

how long do they last? the libre ones last 14 days. the dexcom ones last up to 10 days.

can you shower with them? yes

can you swim with them? yes

can you have sex with them on? yes, and i've read very funny anecdotes from diabetics having to pause during sex because their cgm was beeping

are they expensive? yes! sometimes, they're covered by insurance, but not completely. If a character is in poverty, or do not have insurance, they likely would have to rely solely on fingerpricks.

Who usually uses CGMs? they are very widespread between T1Ds and are increasingly being used by T2Ds as well.

can you share the readings on multiple devices? yes! your character might share their info with their SO, parents, roommates, close friends...etc. It is genuienly one of the most telling signs of a close relationship between people - because those people will see your "mistakes" and decisions.

where do you stick them? the libre ones (circular ones) officially just go on the back of your arm. The dexcom ones can go on just about anywhere that's "soft" - stomach, thighs, back of arm, chest...etc.

does putting them on hurt? sometimes! the way they are installed involves a needle going into the skin then sitting in the subcutaneous tissue. This can sometimes cause some bleeding, and soreness for a few hours.

Often times the process is completely painless, but this is not the case for everyone. A thinner character might struggle to find a place "cushy" enough for a cgm.

can you put them on your own? yes the process is made for one person to stick it on, but i've seen some couples on instagram act all romantic and sappy about applying it together, so that should give you some ideas for your diabetic characters' budding romances ;)

Some CGMs are just naturally faulty, i'd say about 4 sensors is a busted one, and in that case you'll have to replace them - which most companies just do without any hassle.

do they work with insulin pumps? some insulin pumps can work in tangent with CGMs and provide feedback for the user to automatically generate the correct doses of insulin, depending on their current blood sugar.

do they come off easily? depends on who you're asking. some people swear up and down that they never last and have to put on patches, which are admittedly very cute. Weather, clothing, and how clumsy a character is all factor in this. For me personally i just put them on raw and keep them together by sheer willpower.

CGMs can cause anxiety in diabetics. The constant flow of information can easily burnout people, and this can possibly be the case for any diabetic character you might write. Seeing arrows going down or up can be very distressing, especially knowing how painful some of the consequences are. I personally take breaks for both myself and my wallet from using CGMs to avoid burn out.

nonetheless, CGMs are WONDERFUL pieces of technology that have personally made me much happier as a diabetic, freer and a lot more independent.

does your character want their CGM to show? lots of people, including myself don't like revealing their CGMs - but your character might like showing them off!

and lastly - my favorite thing about CGMs - taking them off and having a "naked" shower once a month where i dont have to worry about it coming off. - They look like this:

[thatbitchwhohyperfixates]

Hello all diabetics out there I wanted to bring to attention these beautiful websites curated for people with diabetes who are struggling to afford their supplies and or lost insurance recently

This first one is a program dexcom offers to t1d's who need help or can't afford their cgms

https://assistance.dexcom.com/pap_selfservice/

This second one is a $35/m for insulin coupon for people who have no insurance or their insurance is shit

For Lily⏬

Www.insulinaffordability.com

For sanofi⏬

https://www.admelog.com/savings

Please spread this so all diabetics are aware it exists and is available

[zurko48]

[sagescented]

Getting stabbed is not pleasant. Getting continuously stabbed by a Glucose Monitor is even worse. I'm finding the entire experience of applying and wearing this thing both unpleasant and discomforting.

For bonus points, my first reading came in at a whopping 40 mg/dl. And absolutely nothing is quicker to remind you that you used to be Hypoglycemic in High School and that your body's apparently somehow developed superhuman coping mechanisms as an adult, than your initial reading being a 40. Lemme tell ya.

For those concerned: I do not actually have most of the symptoms of Diabetes other than the lethargy / fatigue (started after Covid R2), blurry vision (recent development), neuropathy (got better after we took me off Lyrica last year and doesn't occur much anymore), dry / itchy skin (lifelong chronic issue for me which's made worse by multiple medications I'm on), and craving for sweets (recently increased after I started drinking Soda again). I'm missing the vast majority of other symptoms. My GP's just being thorough because I'm so tired all the time, and it's not improving- and we're coming up on 3 months shy of the year mark now. Diabetes is an easy one for us to test for out the gate. If my blood sugar levels are too high more often than not, then it's a yes. If they're not, then the answer's no.

[walterfartzroy]

beautiful women named "dexcom g6 app" keep texting me on my phone

[imaginingmoonlight]

Sooo for those of you that don't know I have type 1 diabetes and I wear a dexcom (a lil thing with a filament that sits under my skin to measure my blood sugars). I just ran up the stairs and whacked it on a picture frame and it really hurt so I checked it and like- I ripped the whole thing out my arm?!?! Just had to put a new one on but I'm dreading tonight cos dex change nights always go really badly and I get no sleep AND I HAVE A GCSE PAPER TOMORROW. So that's super fun 😻

[the-vegan-muser]

Just found out that the CEO of Dexcom (the company that makes my constant glucose monitor) made $15 million last year. I’m glad my incurable disease is funding his yacht.

[randomthoughtsnoorder]

Happy diabetes awareness month . Some of you may know I'm a type 1 diabetic and this month i plan on making several posts about living with diabetes. If you wish to show your support for diabetics this month wear blue and grey. And if you yourself is a diabetics reblog this post with your diagnoses story.

[agambleaday]

[mzhydes-funtimes]

Very frustrated because my stupid dexcom wont connect after i tried it TWICE the first time was using the box at cosco and it failed to connect the second time was here at home so now the transmitter has basically not worked, period. So ive ALSO wasted 2 of the sensors so i have 1 to last me 20 days (they only last 10) and no working transmitter so i HAVE to use a stupid fucking needle even tho it has never failed to connect before.

Unless they just... discontinued g6 without telling anyone

Im just pissed because i onely get 1 transmitter every 3 months and 3 sensors every month (and i had an extra which i had to use) so i dont get any new stuff til like december/january

And i hate needles, period.

[blindgamermisadventures]

I am wearing a glucose monitor to test for hypoglycaemia. It’s been a few hours and I’ve already had 2 critical lows with one being 40. Currently my glucose is a bit high, but I’m also on my period and running feeds. It’s when I’m off my feeds that my glucose plummets. This is very interesting data.

[sillysaurus]

[sagescented]

This Glucose monitor is the bane of my entire existence. I have never been so completely and thoroughly annoyed by a piece of technology before in my life. This app is so incredibly obnoxious. I will be singing and jumping for joy when this is finally over.

The Fibro experience of having one of these in, too, has also not been particularly great. I'm in constant burning pain in that arm, and hyperaware of its continued existence there. It is, frankly, very unpleasant to wear.

Just glad the only thing it's shown in the last 3 days is that I basically have chronically low blood sugar while being asymptomatic of it. Which, like, isn't the best thing. It's equally bad, actually (and probably yet another disastrous holdover effect from my early days with Eating Disorders). But it does significantly reduce the possibility that I have Diabetes. So yay? I guess? I have no idea.

[itsraining-honey]

its the second anniversary of my type 1 diabetes diagnosis.

i know i dont NEED to write these out, who wants to relive bad experiences, right? i like writing these because i can reflect back on the two years ago today when i was in the hospital and see how much i've grown from then.

this happened way before i've gained new friends and followers, many are in the dark of what happened. short story, i was sick and now have a life long condition.

its extremely serious. everyone hears diabetes and goes "its all that sugar". in some cases but not all. well, now i NEED all that sugar to live.

two years ago, the week of halloween, i was extremely sick. i didn't know why. i thought i had gotten COVID at first but i realized it wasn't really a respiratory problem so the next conclusion was the flu.

unbeknownst to myself, my mother, and brother, i was dying for a whole week. my pancreas failed, shut down and i was dying. my bathroom floor would have been where i died if i never went to the hospital. on november 1st, i was told what was happening to me. i was in DKA and needed to go to the ER immediately.

i had no idea what DKA was. for those who don’t know, it stands for diabetic ketoacidosis. i was mostly throwing up, trying to rest (which i hadn't for an entire week/ ended up hallucinating on halloween night after everyone went to bed which i find highly ironic lol), and drinking up as much water i could.

my stay in the hospital was filled with agony, lessened from the medications and insulin they gave me. at that point, i also found out i had air in my chest due to a hole in my esophagus from throwing up constantly and violently. it was scary.

at some point, i knew i was gonna die. i was scared at first. my mom had me shower and i couldn't even move. i couldn't get up. i was so shaky and light (again, ironic since im a fat girl). when i was in the shower, i sobbed and sobbed over the past. my relationship with my father, my friends and my family. i couldn't take it.

when we got to the hospital, i accepted i was gonna die. i was so sure of it. and then i didn't. i survived and i am continuing to survive. no matter how high my blood sugar will spike from eating or when i'm fixing a low, i think back to that week and think about how proud i am.

there are points i want to give up. throw the towel in and throw away my insulin, my CGMS, my pumps, all of it. i want to give up all the time. i want to stop taking insulin and just be normal, like i used to be. now having this condition, i don't want to be normal anymore. it took me a long time to accept my diabetes, it's apart of me now and i've learned it up and down, side to side and in reverse.

no one understands diabetes like someone with diabetes and even then, everyone else's diabetes is different. somedays are bad, somedays are good.

i'm happy to be alive. i'm happy to be online and still making art, listening to new albums, reading comics, making new friends on tumblr and twitter, seeing my oomfs talk about huntress or just their interests in general.

i am SO happy to be here and experience my life past 17. i'm 19 now and got to experience halloween and fall again for the second time without dying. so thats cool :D

thank you for reading and being here along with me on my journey, my friends💜

[asteralpine]

This continuous glucose meter changed my life, man.

I was diagnosed relatively late for Type 1--at the very start of 9th grade (so I was like 14 or 15 years old). I was a gold-star diabetic patient for a few years: I tested all the time, I was dedicated to carb-counting, my A1c was pretty damn good. Every time I saw the doctor, she gushed with praise for me.

(Once, there was a nasty snowstorm on the same day that I had an appointment, and when my dad and I got there, the nurse told us that they'd been calling a lot of patients to cancel their appointments because of the weather, but they didn't want to cancel mine because they knew it'd be fantastic or something.)

But then other stuff happened (depression came rushing back) and I started to neglect that stuff. I didn't test very often, so I was mostly guessing about how much insulin to take, which made my numbers all fucky, which made me want to test even less because the highs felt like a failure, and so on.

And then CGMs. Once my depression and anxiety had been sort of dealt with (better living through chemistry!!), I brought up the idea to my doctor, and it only took a couple of months before I had my very own Dexcom. My A1c is in a good range now (at my last appointment, I was still in the habit of pushing praise aside, so when my doctor mentioned how good it was, I said "I know I can still get it lower" and she straight up said "Uhh, please don't. If we get much lower, it's going to be putting you in dangerously-low ranges for too long, and I don't like that") and I'm way less wound-up about what the numbers mean.

When I did finger-pricks with a regular glucose meter, I usually hesitated. In the few seconds before it showed the results, I would have to brace myself because ugggh it's going to be high because I'm the worst, but this morning I did a finger-prick and it was just...nothing.

I've still got a lot of work to do to get back into carb counting and doing better about exercise and making better snacky choices, but so much of the weight of diabetes has been eliminated just because my Dexcom has allowed (forced) me to be very familiar with my glucose levels on a constant basis. Wonderful!