My Dexcom G5 arrived this week! It was a 3 month battle of wits against the medical machinery and victory is so so sweet.

My thoughts are a jumble. I could go into details on how it was to first setup and use. I could show you some graphs of my first few days, and over-analyze them. I could go over the pros/cons of using the receiver vs. my iPhone and all of the tech in-between. But that’s not what is sticking in my mind right now.

You can pry my CGM out of my cold dead hands

This is how I felt after just one day with a CGM. Having access and insight into the beast that I have been fighting for six years… I have no words. Wait, scratch that!

Every diabetic should have access to a CGM

Full stop. Regardless of of age, type, or treatment. To know that a device exists which tells you exactly what your blood sugar is, every minute of the day and night, and shows you when it is rapidly charging in the wrong direction, and gives you a nudge when your blood sugar requires intervention, and then deny a diabetic access to it… it does not compute. But that is a rant for another day.

For the moment, I am sticking to my usual routine, eating and injecting just as I would have without a CGM, just to see how it was working and establish a baseline. So far what I am learning is that my puny seven tests a day were painting a very incomplete picture. There are a lot of high swings that then camp out for hours, with me thinking that my insulin had done the job. It is impossible to tease out what’s due to a weak basal, poor carb counting, conservative i:c ratios, delayed protein spikes, dawn phenomena…

Over the next few weeks I plan on performing a series of controlled tests to replicate and isolate troublesome patterns. Also rereading Think Like a Pancreas and Practical CGM are in order. It’s tempting to just get really strict and overachievery to force my graphs to look pretty, but that won’t help me in the long run. These tests will identify my basal requirements, the proper i:c ratios, insulin duration (hint: it ain’t nowhere near 5 hours), sensitivity factor throughout the day, etc. With this info I can manage things day in/day out, instead of only when I am intensely motivated.

Wish me luck!