IS PRETTY DARN AWESOME!
If you don’t have any idea of what I’m talking about, let me sort of give you a little run-down. There’s this group that I found on Facebook a couple of months ago after seeing a parent’s photo of a Pebble watch with their child’s Dexcom CGM data on it and they linked to the group in their reply. It was all comprised of an Android phone, Dexcom, a few cables, and some web programming. It was pretty awesome and intriguing to see how these parents were able to get this system set up so that they could monitor their kid’s sugars from a far – whether they were at work and the kid was at school, or even while the kid was at summer camp. It’s been an exciting thing to see happen and to also see the parent’s joy when they finally get their own “rig” set up. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to give you a better job than Kerri did of interviewing the creators, so you can hop over here (part 1) and here (part 2) for her posts about these wonderfully awesome guys.
Then I got to thinking. Okay, I really want to do this… but what is my justification other than I’m a glutton for anything diabetes tech related. I was green with envy and wanted it too, but for what reason? I couldn’t justify in my head spending a lot of money on a setup that I don’t need 24/7 like these parents do. I’m the one who takes care of my diabetes, so I really didn’t think it was necesssary, but I reeeeaaally wanted to see if I could get it to work. Then it hit me…. all I needed to buy was the cable to connect my Dexcom to the Nexus tablet I had… if the Nexus tablet would be compatible with the system (it has to be an Android device, and it has to be OTG compatible). After reading into everything, I realized that this would be a bit over my head to learn quickly ( I admit, I’m a slow learner ), and since I’m married to a tech genius (well, he may not technically be a genius, but he is to me) I figured I’d let him tackle it for a project. He had it up and running within a couple of hours.
Now, for the real question… does this really have any value to those of us who are the people with diabetes? The ones who are adults? My answer? YES. And here’s why:
- If you’re someone living alone and having issues with your sugars and want someone – a parent, best friend, etc – to help you keep an eye on your sugars for a while, it helps them be aware a bit more easily than asking you every 5 minutes how you feel or calling every hour or so.
- If you’re married, and just say your spouse (or you) travels a lot, it’s cool to be able to have way they can set up their phone and open the webpage where your CGM Cloud is, set the screen to never go off, and turn the sound on. Then they have a CGM alarm at night as well as you so that way both of you can still keep an eye on your sugars while they (or you) are out of town.
- And (the most valuable one to me) at work, I can keep the setup in a drawer or in my purse and just have a separate window open to my CGM cloud site and if I’m with a client, I can discreetly just click the tab, check to be sure everything’s okay, and click back to what I was working on. No need to fish out the receiver and look as if I’m inappropriately checking a text message or changing a song on my iPod (to which I’m not wearing any earbuds to).
Currently, I only have my setup available to use over WIFI. I really don’t have a need to have it going on a cellular data plan to upload all of the time, so I’m okay to unplug it every now and then. Though, when I do, I have a widget on the sidebar that you’ll be able to see what I see as well.
The CGM in the Cloud is pretty awesome, and I’m so glad these guys have worked so very hard to bring us this wonderful setup. I know it has helped to ease a lot of parents’ minds, as well as my husband’s and my own.
Sugabetic 
Howdy, I’m one of the core developers of Nightscout. We had an interesting call with the FDA, and there is a way for the community to help. We would like people to visit http://www.stripsafely.com/sample-page/comment-on-mdds/, which has some instructions on how to comment on FDA guidance that impacts Nightscout. When I submitted by comment, I also uploaded some pictures, so they could see how important and practical it is. Hoping other people will feel free to add their voice for the FDA to consider.
This was a very helpful post for me, Sarah. Thanks for sharing it. I’ve been watching and mulling all of this, working out in my head whether it’s something that might be needed or wanted in our life. I see the obvious benefits for traveling PWDs and those at work, but for me I’m not sure it balances out. I don’t travel as much, and in those times that I do I’m not sure it’s worth it; not biking as much to need it, and really don’t have the same issue of being discrete or fishing out my receiver since I don’t carry it in a purse and wear it on my belt/or leave on table while mostly working from home. And we talk about my CGM data enough as it is, and she has access to it enough, so it doesn’t seem as needed. There’s also that whole psychosocial part that concerns me, as I feel like I’d get worn out even more by all this data-sharing. So, yeah. Interesting, to see all the many perspectives from D-Community on this. Totally awesome to see so many people benefiting, and I am with you — excited about it, no doubt, and kind of want to try just to experience it. But logically, not sure if it’s worth it in my world. That kind of makes me sad…
I’ve been trying to trial a CGM for a while now. (Off & on, that is.) Here we have one more reason to do it… If I had this setup, I could let my parents have access to it (I live alone, & they worry a lot about me having undetected lows & nobody to help if I can’t help myself… They live in a different town (about an hour away), and work in yet another even further away) but they don’t want to get in the way of my independence, but this would give me & them both more confidence… I’ve also been saying for a long time that there need to be more open standards & interchangeability between different components of available diabetes management systems… (I’m big on mix ‘n Match… It’s all gotta do WHAT you need it to do, but it’s all gotta do it the way YOU need to do it…)