Dexcom Seven system - the most annoying feature
Something else that came up in my chat with Andrew a couple days ago was the single most annoying thing I find about the Dexcom:
It will display a "???" on many occasions where I very much want to see the suspect number even if it's wrong.
It's actually a combination of things:
1) the Dexcom has thresholds that are too narrow for rapidly spiking or dropping levels. Blood sugar changes of over 15 points in 5 minutes will generate a "???" result, presumably because most diabetics don't experience such rapid changes. Well, this is not true for brittles. As I've proven before, I can drop or rise 100 points in 15 minutes.
2) the Dexcom has no facility to show the number anyway on request. You see a "???", you're stuck.
3) the Dexcom also has no facility to show you what the presumed issue is, and "???" can be caused by a number of problems.
4) the Dexcom only measures blood sugars every 5 minutes. If you get two "???" in a row, for example, you may end up missing 15 minutes of readings - and when 15 minutes can be 100 points, this could mean trouble. I've actually shown a live example of this to Andrew during the party, when my blood sugars rose 80 points in 15 minutes (probably because of my excitement speaking to him - brittles' blood sugars are funny that way) and the Dex simply didn't show the rising trend.
Please don't try to "protect" me as a user of the device from potentially bad readings. At least give me an option to display a suspect reading if I want to display it (maybe by some button combination). Put a big warning around this or whatever. But this one little problem is the main source of aggravation for me using the Seven, and it's a pretty regular one.
In fact, it creates a pretty nasty feedback loop - when I start getting those "???" and am suspecting that I am trending fast (either high or low) it makes me quite anxious. Then I have another problem to contend with: if I use my regular meter to test, I'll screw up the Dexcom (remember, Dexcom states quite firmly that you should never, ever calibrate a meter result during a "???" measurement, and calibrations are performed retroactively so the next time I hook them up it will mess things up). So now I'm screwed; the Dex won't show me the result, and if I use my meter, it will screw up the Dex so I can't use my meter. That, my friends, is a vicious cycle. And guess what? for a brittle, stress is a big inducer of blood sugar changes (it makes them rise or drop faster than they would otherwise). So now the Dex is actually contributing to the problem. This specific issue will be resolved as soon as I can decouple the meter from the Dex and choose which calibrations to perform - when is that update coming, Dexcom?
The one big appealing thing about the Navigator is the 1-minute intervals. This way, even if a reading or two is missed, you're still only losing a couple minutes, maybe a gap of 30 points in my blood sugars. This one feature alone is extremely tempting, but the downside of having a 10-hour calibration time coupled with a 5-day sensor life is too big. Otherwise I'd be switching over.
On a related note, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that the Dex should not display the last few "good" measurements somewhere on the screen, or with a button combination. The graph is nice to look at but I'm a little anal - I want to know if the last one before the "???" was 126 or 131. Don't ask me why, but it matters. Just let me see it even if you won't let me see what the "???" means. Don't force me to estimate based on the graph. That's cruel.
It will display a "???" on many occasions where I very much want to see the suspect number even if it's wrong.
It's actually a combination of things:
1) the Dexcom has thresholds that are too narrow for rapidly spiking or dropping levels. Blood sugar changes of over 15 points in 5 minutes will generate a "???" result, presumably because most diabetics don't experience such rapid changes. Well, this is not true for brittles. As I've proven before, I can drop or rise 100 points in 15 minutes.
2) the Dexcom has no facility to show the number anyway on request. You see a "???", you're stuck.
3) the Dexcom also has no facility to show you what the presumed issue is, and "???" can be caused by a number of problems.
4) the Dexcom only measures blood sugars every 5 minutes. If you get two "???" in a row, for example, you may end up missing 15 minutes of readings - and when 15 minutes can be 100 points, this could mean trouble. I've actually shown a live example of this to Andrew during the party, when my blood sugars rose 80 points in 15 minutes (probably because of my excitement speaking to him - brittles' blood sugars are funny that way) and the Dex simply didn't show the rising trend.
Please don't try to "protect" me as a user of the device from potentially bad readings. At least give me an option to display a suspect reading if I want to display it (maybe by some button combination). Put a big warning around this or whatever. But this one little problem is the main source of aggravation for me using the Seven, and it's a pretty regular one.
In fact, it creates a pretty nasty feedback loop - when I start getting those "???" and am suspecting that I am trending fast (either high or low) it makes me quite anxious. Then I have another problem to contend with: if I use my regular meter to test, I'll screw up the Dexcom (remember, Dexcom states quite firmly that you should never, ever calibrate a meter result during a "???" measurement, and calibrations are performed retroactively so the next time I hook them up it will mess things up). So now I'm screwed; the Dex won't show me the result, and if I use my meter, it will screw up the Dex so I can't use my meter. That, my friends, is a vicious cycle. And guess what? for a brittle, stress is a big inducer of blood sugar changes (it makes them rise or drop faster than they would otherwise). So now the Dex is actually contributing to the problem. This specific issue will be resolved as soon as I can decouple the meter from the Dex and choose which calibrations to perform - when is that update coming, Dexcom?
The one big appealing thing about the Navigator is the 1-minute intervals. This way, even if a reading or two is missed, you're still only losing a couple minutes, maybe a gap of 30 points in my blood sugars. This one feature alone is extremely tempting, but the downside of having a 10-hour calibration time coupled with a 5-day sensor life is too big. Otherwise I'd be switching over.
On a related note, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that the Dex should not display the last few "good" measurements somewhere on the screen, or with a button combination. The graph is nice to look at but I'm a little anal - I want to know if the last one before the "???" was 126 or 131. Don't ask me why, but it matters. Just let me see it even if you won't let me see what the "???" means. Don't force me to estimate based on the graph. That's cruel.
posted by Blinkered at 7:26 AM
2 Comments:
Good post, I agree completely with you.
They've enough room on that screen to display the last reading, or the estimated value that triggered the ???.
There's several usability issues that Dexcom could easily resolve if they spoke in detail with those of us who think about these things. This is one area where Dexcom is the same as many other device vendors. They continue on their development way without stopping to check in with users about ways in which they could really help.
You're right, although as my most recent post shows, some persistence does seem to work with these folks. I know for certain that they read our blogs, though, because when I was trying to work through the USB issue I'm having (the whole VM problem) they already assumed I was complaining about Windows vs. Linux, which was a little funny.
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