Medpedia

If my DexCom and I were listed as “in a relationship” on Facebook, it would definitely be “Complicated.” I love my DexCom dearly. We have a history together, and it’s completely changed my life and my d-management. I truly believe it’s made my A1c better, made me feel safer, helped me be a better athlete, and all around been a positive influence in my d-life.

But just like with other relationships, you can have too much of a good thing. The DexCom’s main job is to provide constant feedback in the form of continuous blood sugars. And while that’s great for accountability, it can also be…a little excessive. I’ve noticed lately that I’m suffering from a bit of constant-surveillance burnout. You can’t hide from the DexCom and it’s steady stream of numbers, but you can most certainly ignore them. Like when my bedside table starts rattling at three in the morning from the “HIGH” vibrate alert of the Dex, it’s been all too easy lately to just hit “ok,” and go right back to sleep. Which is exactly what you’re not supposed to do in that situation. I should get up, test, correct, and then go back to sleep. It’s just that there always seems to be something beeping telling me to test, refill, re-insert, check in on, change the batteries of, interrupt whatever I’m doing be it sleep or a movie or whatever and PAY ATTENTION to diabetes. And for some reason right now, I’m just…over it.

I haven’t lost my diabetes motivation – I absolutely want to take the best care of myself as possible, and I’m committed to micro-managing this disease for lifetime. And I’m also completely amazed and grateful for these devices that help us manage diabetes with such incredible technology. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because there’s thousands of people out there who deserve a DexCom and can’t get one because of cost or other barriers. It’s just that sometimes, there’s a little too much feedback with all these beeping things. Sometimes I’d rather not know how I’m doing so I can just have some peace. I’m not suffering from diabetes burnout right now, but I am suffering from device burnout. Which means I need to find an opportunity for a device-free weekend soon, so I can take a beeping vacation (not to be confused with a “bleeping” vacation. I’m not that upset).

I love you DexCom, it’s just that you’re always…there.