Does anyone use a continuous glucose monitor? Do you find it easy to use? Can you recommend a brand? Mr. Star has been having shaky hands and headaches lately, and his blood tests show his fasting glucose level to be 49. The doctor thinks it is unrelated, but we wanted to check on our own just to see if his symptoms match up with times when his blood sugar is low. He had chronic malnutrition as a kid, and I know that can often affect the way the body processes sugar.
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I use the Dexcom G6 but they have a Dexcom G7 that is better but it does not yet pair with my insulin pump.
You can wear it on upper arms, belly or thighs so it doesn’t show. You download app onto phone and it uses Bluetooth. You have to be within a certain distance of phone at all times to read. It doesn’t hurt to insert on skin for me.
I change my sensor every ten days. You can get it wet like swim and shower with it on. However you can get labels or stickers to put over the sensor sticker so it doesn’t fall off the skin prematurely. The sticky strength of the sensor is strong but on the 8th to 10th day it is more likely to peel off accidentally.
The transmitter itself is grey and it inserts into the sensor part. It expires every three months.
Here’s a picture of mine. The purple is an extra label over the sensors label.
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My mom tried one and she didn’t like the co-pays. We were having to co-pay about $200 a month and she didn’t like that so she went back to test strips. Which were 100% covered with no co-pays. also she had an old iPhone and it’s operating system wasn’t compatible with the G sixes requirements. But my phone did work. And the phone has to be kept about 20 feet around the unit to pick up readings visually. But the unit still stores readings every five minutes and it will display once the phone is brought around the unit on the arm or wherever it’s placed on the body.If your phones operating system is compatible it will save some money to because it will require a unit to get the readings if the phones operating is an older one. You can also set it to alert when the blood sugar goes below like 70 or above like 350. But to get these alerts I believe the phone will have to be kept around the persons body about 20 feet to get the signal. yeah every 10 days you have to replace the unit on the persons body and re-calibrated that’s how it was for my mom. And type in serial numbers to pair it up with the Bluetooth. I really liked it. It also will display a graph and you can see if the sugar is on the upward trend or a downward trend.
my mom uses dexcom g6. they make a g7 now. she likes it a lot. she can check her blood sugar anytime. i gave her an apple watch so she checks it on there. and it has low blood sugar alerts. which wake her up at night which is good cause sometimes she would get down into the 20s at night. high 20s. before she would wake up. her blood sugar has been better using it. it also tells u if ur headed up or down and how quick.
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Oh, I thought you could just go buy one at the drug store, like the regular ones. Is that not how it works?
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This is a picture of the Dexcom G6 transmitter chip thingy that snaps into the beds that are called sensors that adhered to the body which have a needle that goes into the skin. It cost $300 and it last three months and has to be replaced every three months. With insurance it cost $40 co-pay for three months. For us.
The beds the transmitter snaps into are called Dexcom G6 sensors, which adhere to the body and last 10 days and then you have to remove it and Take the transmitter out of it and put a new bed or called sensor and put the transmitter in the new sensor every 10 days and those cost $468 without insurance per month for three of them as each one last 10 days for 30 day supply. with our insurance we had to pay $179 co-pay per month for three of these beds which the chip snaps into. As far as I know these constant glucose monitors are prescription only. And a doctor would have to write up a prescription for it.
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its precription. my moms insurance fully covers it. no copay.
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Diabetes does not sound like fun 
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I dont have a continuous glucose monitor, but 49 is a scary number. I had a couple close calls where my blood sugar dropped low and I got shaky and confused and I dont think I dropped below the mid 50’s. 49 might be enough for me to pass out, but everyone is different in this area, I would guess.
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He has had an intermittent tremor in his hands for a long time. He’s never had his glucose levels checked before, because doctors only check that if you’re overweight. He just finally got it checked, and that was it. My ER nurse friend said if she got that result she would be sprinting for the orange juice. His doctor said it was “probably nothing.”
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Sounds like it’s time for a new dr. The diabetes class I recently took said that level is dangerous.
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