Rumour has it that I can bring my Dexcom sensor back from the dead.
Sensors are supposed to last for seven days and I started my very first one last Wednesday evening. It didn't come as much of a surprise that, yesterday afternoon, I started getting warnings that my sensor would end in x hours. And then in x minutes.
At precisely 4:45pm it ended. And at 4:45pm, I started a new sensor.
Only it was an old sensor. A technicaly dead sensor.
In fact it was the same sensor that's been hanging on for a week already and, with my new Tegaderm recommended by Jeff, the same sensor that will be hanging on for a while yet.
Rumour has it that I can tell Dex that I have put in a new sensor, he'll do his two-hour new sensor warm up dance and then I should be good to go for another seven days. Dex may be cute and very helpful but he is apparently not that hard to fool.
I've been doing some reading online and some people can drag these puppies out for twenty days or more before they start to really fail - sputtering to a halt or recording some wonky numbers.
Being a frugal, waste not, want not kinda girl, I'm all for it.
My question is: if the rumours are true and I can bring my sensor back from the other side, does that mean I now have a zombie Dexcom?
And, if so, does that make me super cool or really creepy?
Tell me that's not creepy. Go on, I dare you.
I, too, am a frugal, waste-not-want-not kind of girl, who is totally down with using sensors as long as possible. However, be aware that a moment will come with each sensor when it starts to give weird results--maybe the trace is a little too wiggly, maybe it's hard to coax back toward the actual value--and you're going to think, "Hey, it's been doing alright so far. Why don't I give it another couple hours to see if it comes back?" Don't give in! Think fondly on all the times you and your soon-to-be-the-bad-kind-of-undead sensor have had, and then put it out of its (and your) misery.
ReplyDeleteI find that my Zombie Dexcom works better the second week and often well into the third week. I used to be very meticulous on keeping track of when I inserted sensors. Now I can't remember whether I'm on the second or third week of my current sensor. I have great insurance so I don't extend sensors to save money. I do it because I can't stand to remove a sensor that is working well.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you T1's north of the border are getting to use Dexcom now. It's life changing:-)
This does work well, and sometimes the "afterlives" are the best ones. I used to worry about infection, but I've done this enough times to factor that out too.
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