I am Christel from Diabetes Strong this video will be talking about
what I love about my Dexcom G6
I did this video titled Why I Hate My Dexcom
and you guys really, really like that one
but as I also mentioned in that video
I’ve been wearing Dexcom for quite a while I have no intention of giving it up
so it does warrant the question what do I really love about my device
what do I love so much that despite hating quite a few things
I’m not willing to give it up
first thing I love is that because of my Dexcom I rarely have low blood sugars
and especially I rarely have really low blood sugars at night
if you live with insulin-dependent diabetes, like I do
you've had low blood sugars and you know how awful they are
there's everything from the
slight discomfort maybe being a little disoriented
to the full-on sweat, shaking, not necessarily knowing where you are
and the only thing you can focus on is emptying the cupboard
and I really don't have those awful ones anymore and that is a lot to do with me
wearing the Dexcom during the day I will check in with my blood sugars
meaning that I see my blood sugars on the app on the phone
I’ll look I’ll see where I’m at
also I have alarm sets so that if I dip too low again the device will alert me so that I
can do something about it before I get to that point where I’m sweating and wanting
to eat everything in sight, but at night when I’m sleeping
of course I can't check in with my blood sugars because I’m sleeping
so during the night I have my low alert set to 70 mg/dl
that means that the device will alert me if my blood sugars
get to that level I don't have any symptoms at 70
and yes it's annoying to be woken up but I’d rather device wakes me up I can treat
I can eat some glucose and I could go back to bed
low blood sugar averted and again no symptoms
and even if I for some reason don't hear that alarm for the 70 mg/dl
the device will go off again if I get close to the 55 mg/dl
which is considered the urgent low alarm that is an alarm you cannot turn off
per FDA mandate that will always sound so I find that to be really reassuring
because again it will wake me up before things go completely haywire
the second thing that I really love about my Dexcom
is that it allows me to be proactive in my diabetes management
so because I do check in with my blood sugars throughout the day
and I have my alarms set, I can react before things get to that point where
the blood sugar is too low or too high so during the day let me just share my
settings with you you can see them up here during the day I have my high alert on
I’ve set that at 160 mg/dl that means I’d be alerted whenever I hit that level
I have my low alarm at night set to 70 mg/dl again that means I’ll be alerted when
I get to that level also the 55 mg/dl urgent low is on for both night and day
so those settings I found really worked for me those allow me to be proactive
and also won't give me alarm fatigue so
you might need different settings it's completely individual
so I would just play around with it so I utilize the alarms
I check in with my blood sugars in the sense I look at that trend line
and I also look at the arrows that combined helped me assess
whether or not I need to act
or whether or not things are as they should be
I would like to add that I also look at my active insulin on board my IOB
and I can see that in my InPen which is a smart insulin pen
that together with my blood sugar numbers and the arrows gives me a really
solid foundation to assess whether or not for example my blood sugars would go
totally bonkers if I went to the gym right now whether or not I should eat a small
snack to stabilize blood sugars or maybe give a correction for a high blood sugar
I just think that's brilliant and it really gives me confidence in my daily management
and then there's the reporting
which would be the third reason why I love my Dexcom
so it's really cool that you can go back and see 90 days of data
okay, I know who says that? I think it's cool but it's not just cool
what's really, really neat is that I can go back and I can look for trends so let's say
for example that I’m looking through my data and I can see well there's a consistent
pattern that I for example go lower at a certain time
or that I go higher at a certain time
based on that information I can then go in and I can make a meaningful
data-driven change to my care for the thing is to be completely honest here
if I just try to remember what's been going on
even a week back, let alone 90 days back most likely I won't remember it
entirely correctly or I might not remember it at all
it's like when you go to the doctor's office and they start looking at your diabetes
management they're like so what did you do two weeks ago at 2 p.m.
nobody can remember
unless you keep like very detailed notes but that's the cool thing about the Dexcom
you can actually add little details to your blood sugar numbers
so you can add exercise, you can add you know carbohydrates, you can even add
insulin so there's actually a lot of information that you can collect there
and then you don't have to remember you can just show it to your doctor
since I use the InPen, the smart insulin pen, I don't manually log my insulin doses
it automatically pulls that in and I can see my insulin doses side-by-side with my
blood sugar numbers and it's absolutely brilliant
it allows me to see okay what happens when I take different types of doses
for example different types of day it also allows me to make data-driven changes to
my diabetes management rather than just well guessing
another thing that I really love about my Dexcom is how it has significantly reduced
the need to do finger sticks so it hasn't eliminated it just to be clear
there's still the two hour warm-up period where the sensor starts up still have to do
finger sticks then and sometimes the sensors are just bunkers
and I will still have to confirm with finger sticks
so some days I don't even poke my fingers at all
and not only you know is it helpful not to have to poke your finger but also
you don't have to stop poke your finger measure your blood sugar
you can just glance at the app or on your you know for me on my watch
and I can see not only what is my blood sugar right now
but I also see the trend line so what was it an hour, two hours before
where is it going
and finally I love how my Dexcom has helped me gain confidence
in my diabetes management being able to see my blood sugar patterns
and how I react to different type of for example activity or foods
has just it's made a world of difference for me and yes I also had information when I
did finger sticks but Dexcom is just different
Dexcom is a 24/7 feedback loop about what's going on in your body how are your
blood sugars right now where are they going where they've been
seeing my readings has allowed me to learn and thereby implement strategies
so I can be proactive in my care and I can do that with confidence because I
know based on my data what usually happens so not based on a textbook or
based on what my doctor told me might happen but based on me
you know I can see okay this is what happens most mornings
gives me confidence that that's probably going to happen again tomorrow
not every day but most likely and then I can start again implementing strategies
and I can be confident about those strategies and I don't necessarily think that
you need to have an analytical mindset to benefit from a system like Dexcom
I think just having a device with you that will alert you before you go too high or too
low can help build confidence
thank you so much for watching this video where I highlighted
5 reasons why I love my Dexcom
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