Dexcom SHARE with Bluetooth Thingy.
(This post title only includes highly technical terms and viewpoints from an analytical mind. Also, please note that the contents of this post include opinions and feedback on the Dexcom SHARE receiver, and I have a sponsorship relationship with Dexcom. So there’s bias involved. Kind of a lot of bias, too, since I’ve been a fan of the company since 2006 and have been receiving support from them for years. Read the following with that lens firmly in place.)
Last night, at 3 am, my Dexcom receiver sent up a wail.
It was the kind of middle-of-the-night low blood sugar where my brain and my 
body are entirely disconnected. I heard the noise from my receiver and acknowledged it with my brain. “Yes. You’re low. That’s the low alarm. Get your ass out of bed and eat something.” At this point, my brain must have nodded smugly, with it’s due diligence firmly in place (and brain-hands on brain-hips, if such a mental image exists).
My body? Nope. My body reached over, hit the buttons on the Dexcom receiver to clear the low alarm in hopes of it shutting up, and even though a jar of glucose tabs was sitting right there (foil seal removed, ready for grabbing), I rested back into the pillow, my forehead damp with sweat.
Stupid body. Frustrated, my brain went for it again because this time, my body to switched on the lamp and pulled out my glucose meter (the meter being entirely unnecessary because I was low beyond a shadow of a doubt). But the low fog was thick enough to keep me from following through on what should have been obvious: EAT SOMETHING.
Thankfully, this is where the Dexcom SHARE app made a difference. Last night, I was home with my family and not alone, but even in their presence, the regular alarms of the Dexcom weren’t loud enough to rattle anyone awake. The Dexcom SHARE app is loud as fuck (not their official slogan) and once it started alerting through my phone, my brain and my body were jolted awake enough to actually grab the jar of glucose tabs and slug back a handful of them.
Loud matters, especially when you’re tumbling down the hypoglycemic rabbit hole.
I don’t have a lot of use for remote monitoring on a regular basis (I’ve written about this before), but it’s useful when it’s useful. I personally do not want my friends and family having access to my numbers during the course of a normal day at home, but when I’m traveling for work, I like that my husband will receive alerts on his phone via the Dexcom SHARE app on the overnights. This makes sense to me, as nighttime lows freak me out a bit. I liked having the amplified alarms through my phone, especially last night, when it seemed to make a difference between treating the low and sleeping through it.
While I used the dock in the past while traveling, having Bluetooth in the Dexcom receiver so that it automagically uploads without me having to plug that sucker in an lug around the plugged-in-sucker is a definitive plus for me. The receiver does what it’s always done – provided glucose data – but now it sends that crap up to the cloud for my family to see as needed. (And, from what I’ve seen on Facebook, the Nightscout app will soon be able to simply scan the barcode for my Dexcom SHARE receiver and populate the cloud from there, without the need for the to-me-cumbersome Nightscout rig. For someone like me who doesn’t use Nightscout regularly, this makes the option more appealing because it doesn’t require a whole bunch of stuff to lug around. I’m anti-stuff-lugging. But clearly pro-hyphen and en dash.)
When I’m on the road next week, I will be SHARE’ing my data to my team back home. Because even though I don’t want my family peeking into my diabetes data window all the time, there are moments when it matters. Even to a stubborn bird like me.
Waiting to see how it meshes with the MS Band – already have cloud access to my meter via HealthVault, if one day I can have Cortana tell me my BGs on the Band it’ll be quite cool indeed.
“Not their official slogan” – LOL. Yet!
Yes the share alarms are loud as fuck, I kinda feel like a weirdo out in public with all these crazy ringtones going off. wish I could shut off easily when out. 🙂
I’m looking into getting a Dexcom and curious why you don’t set it to alarm at say, 70, in the hopes of catching the low before it hits 47? I’m hoping to avoid the low-lows. Thanks for a splendid blog!
I have the alarm set at 80 mg/dL. I didn’t hear the alarms until I was deep into the low. I wish my body followed the plan. :\
Whole bunch of stuff to be plugged into with a variety of buzzers and alarms to warn of lows, highs and impending doom. I understand the need for prevention and would definitely want to use this during travel, but not so sure about at home.
We use the Share technology in a layered system with the Nightscout technology for our 4 & 8 year old. The Share DEFINETELY has loud alarms which I LOVE and my wife HATES. I love having options. T1 has limited certain aspects of life, so it’s nice to have a buffet of technology from which to choose. Thanks for your blog Kerri, we know we have at *least* 3,000 members due to your blog (that’s why we gave you a shout-out at our SXSW presentation ; ) Regards. Wes Ton @WeAreNotWaiting
I can’t wear a CGM due to extremely sensitive skin (adhesive reaction) but if I could I would certainly have an alarm that shouted
” GET UP AND EAT SOMETHING NOW !!!!!”, when low
I Wonder why they haven’t developed that type of device yet
It’s called your mother…
Great idea, Tim ! An alarm that sounds like your mother ! =)
I had the share cradle before but wasn’t using it regularly. I just got the new share receiver this week and downloaded the new app but I’ve yet to have any alarms go off on my phone. Does this only occur if your follower is also set up? I’d love to get the alarms on my phone as I often ignore or turn off the dexcom alarms in the middle of the night.
I’ve been recently trying to find out info on being able to share with my Medtronic pump/cgm….. Either that or I’ll have to try to wait patiently till they catch up 😉 My hubby travels a lot and he said he’d be very nice to get alerts like that, especially if I’m not answering my phone. I agree that I don’t necessarily need/want anyone seeing my daily numbers, but there are times when it’d be super handy. I’ve had to have the talk with my 7 yr old more than once about how to call 911- and that’s just not a fun conversation to have with a child. But it’s necessary when sometimes he’s the only other person that can make the call for me. The twins would just babble, so they wouldn’t be helpful at all. HAHA
Still like Night Scout better. It works on my Android, PC and iphone. Dexcom share 2 has really hindered our families ability to monitor my son’s BG.
I’ll echo my constant mantra about this stuff: I like options. 🙂
Hey Kerri ..love your blog
our 4 year old daughter recently diagnosed Ti .. so is good to read real life diabetes
its tough after 6 months we manage her , the right food, finger pricks etc we are looking at a sensor , no pump ,,she’s only on two injections a day at the moment ..
Dexcom looks the best the G6 is coming soon so ..we are planning analysing etc..
thanks for your honest , funny words ..
cameron