Flatbottom with every my excitement about diabetes information-sharing and the real cool CGM in the Cloud hacking project, I've not been positive this is the time for me personally to embrace that technology.

In other speech: in these times of #WeAreNotWaiting, information technology had pretty much been in the mind-set that I Am Wait and non sign language connected to this data-craze myself impartial yet.

That is, until one day very recently when a severe hypo kicked me in the gut and altered my whole outlook on this. That experience pushed Pine Tree State over the edge up determinant that I am going to move forward with CGM in the Cloud.

Yes, I think I'm going to jump into this cloud-universe, straight though I still have concerns and don't know how long it will take me to suffer 100% up and running.

CGM in the Cloud, For Dummies?

Earlier I stab into the small that changed everything, let Maine explain that when I first started shadowing all the blabber about this supposed Nightscout project this  summer, I hardly understood the basics of what it even was. Huh? A smartphone neighboring away mini-cables to your Dexcom G4 continuous glucose admonisher receiver, in regularise to transmit that CGM information to a cloud server and so to whatever display gimmick you want — whether it's a smartphone, tablet, browser, or smartwatch for easy D-data viewing? That complete sounded complicated and expensive — because yes, there's a cost for all of those items including Internet connection so the data rear end be shared seamlessly.

So even though I 100% support these data-share-out options — without any hesitation Beaver State dubiousness — I just wasn't convinced that for an adult typewrite 1 same me, information technology was really worth the fuss mighty now to install, and may even beryllium more of a burden than a benefit.

Don't get me wrong: I'm thrilled to see so many Do-IT-Yourselfers innovating on their possess and creating new options for those of us who want to use them — specially parents, WHO pauperism bettor ways to keep their T1 children safe.

It's just that I thought, well… some of us father't beware waiting.

Because setting improving Nightscout at home, arsenic this D-Logarithm Cabin Emily Post soh eloquently explains is "really non quite as simple as buying a Pebble watch from Best Purchase and downloading a CGM app that sends data to the watch… Non to mention it isn't cheap. So, this setup… comes in stages."

She goes on to explain all the pieces you need to buy, and: "You have to pushcart about a phone-CGM frame-up, which put up be incredibly bulky. Your Pebble is kind of wedded to the iPhone, which is why that has to continue (although you can see it on whatsoever other phone… this is the most convenient way for a parent/SO to see the data.)"

Gotcha, it takes many science. Time and energy required. OK, so be it.

Yes, there's a whole Facebook community of 6,400+ people who are always willing to answer questions. But hey, I'm the type of guy WHO doesn't like to connect a new printer or DVR player, and sometimes gets stressed out away things the like installing a recent iPad app operating room computer program. So looking at through the CGM in the Cloud guides made my brain hurt.

I was apprehensive that I was just tempted to "jump on the bandwagon" because it's a cool, shiny new tool that's all the rage at the moment, but that I might quickly drift rearwards into D-slacking manner and it wouldn't do any good. That's the balance I was struggling with — is it really worth spending the time, energy, and money to get this luxuriant data-hacking tool set up? Or dress I have enough going on already with my tools available?

My Concerns & Motivators

Ironically, I invested a good act of time outlining my Pro's and Con's. In part, I made note of the reasoning some CGM in the Obnubilate users have expressed A to why they use it, then added my response to apiece.

Con's:

  • Easier to Look At? Stacks of common people sing the praises of being able to see your data instantly with a quick glance at the wrist joint, or fifty-fifty at a smartphone or pill or figurer screen rather than a Dexcom G4 receiver. Wellspring, this is not a big deal to ME. In earnest, I don't mind glancing at my G4 receiver that's typically clipped to my belt in its flip-hospitable case or sitting nearby on my home-part desk.
  • Data Fatigue: Furthermore, if my data were connected a Pebble watch, I revere that I'd become obsessed with glancing at my wrist and wasting more time than I need to on diabetes. And at some point, I'd start experiencing serious data fatigue and would constitute straight-grained little motivated to ameliorate my D-habits.
  • No Thanks, for My Wife: We already talk about my blood sugars as often as we deman or want to. She has an open invitation to check out my CGM and beat whenever, because honestly that kindly of spot-checking keeps me accountable. And I invite it, except in those moments when I'm really tired of being hassled and questioned about my stoc sugars. #ItMakesSenseIfYouHaveDiabetes
  • Happening the Caper: Related to the above, I work from internal, and rarely travel without my wife. So I impartial set my G4 receiver happening the desk just about years. Even thinking hindermost to when I did employment in a company office, I preceptor't believe looking for at my receiver happening my desk would be a problem there either, so do I really need more?
  • Sci-Fi or Reality? OK… this one may look slightly off-the-surround crazy to some, but information technology is severely in the back of my mind: Terminator and Sound judgement Sidereal day. Movies in which the machines in essence used cyberspace to hack into everything and eventually contract over and wipe off out the man race. Along those lines, it makes Pine Tree State a trifle nervous to trust all my info to "the cloud." I am by nary means a Doomsday Prepper, yet I like the comfort of knowledgeable that I can plainly unplug and aim off the grid if I ever want to. Or you bon, more realistically: I go around to the middle of nowhere and lose every Wifi or cellphone data access and the rug is pulled out from nether my CGM in the Befog.

Pro's:

  • Better Understanding and Communication: We all know how complicated the multi-lead-colored spaghetti charts and graphs hindquarters constitute, you said it looking at little dots squeezed together can cost nearly impossible to decipher. OK, so if this tech keister provide clearer brainstorm into your glucose trends Oregon a better way to talk about blood sugars with someone else in your life history, then that's a big draw for Pine Tree State. Like D-peep Melissa Lee has written, having that second screen door for better insight equally a way to better understand what my information is singing me… that could be huge!
  • Accountability: This is worth repeating — I get lazy with my diabetes quite a bit and having the additional accountability of seeing my CGM data finished the place (our sizable screen TV?) might supporte me focus more and want to stay more on top of my D-Management.
  • Amazing Personal Security system . D-parents like to supervise their kiddos from afar, whether it be at school, a sleepover, during a card-playing event, or if the child is outside playing or napping in another room of the house. Makes perfect sensation. Some adult PWDs pointedness to this reason, likewise — those who live alone and are disturbed about going Low and some married D-peeps who give those same fears and want their partners to interpret their information, whether they'rhenium traveling operating theatre in the next elbow room. Or maybe we adult PWDs power sleep done the Humiliated alerts on a pump or CGM, or maybe we're hypo unaware. Then in perfect contradiction to what I listed as a Con above, having this accession could indeed help my wife keep me safe. And when I think about that, it becomes the biggest reason for my interest in this tech.

So you can see that if you weight the items along proportional life-impingement and discount my irrational Sci-Fi fears, I was pretty evenly split for and against.

The Hypo That Changed My World

Now, to get pertinent: I had a BAD hypo stopping point calendar week that made my final Pro bullet point stand out above all others.

Along Wednesday first light, I dipped into the 40s right afterward my married woman Suzi left for work, and even though I saw the CGM data, it didn't register with my hypo-psyche and I ignored it. Relevant of laying set and falling asleep, causing me to plummet even lower and continue to disregard my deficient alerts for more than an hour! I uncomprehensible a tooth doctor appointment thanks to that Low-spirited, but thankfully I was lucky plenty to catch a stray thought of cohesiveness long enough to puzzle out what was needed and treat my low.

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If Suzi had known what was going on from afar (or the few miles away at her office), there would've been a way to catch this. After boozing my weight in Orange River succus and going through the Emily Price Post-hypo hangover, I began to feel powerfully that CGM in the Cloud is something I need to get along on board with… sooner quite than later!!

And then, the side by side day as I was dynamic interior from a merging nearly an hour away, Suzi and I were playing ring tag and she suddenly sent me a text message asking, "Are you OK?!" This made Pine Tree State think that if we'd been using CGM in the Cloud, she wouldn't have had to ask and worry that I was lying in a ditch someplace attributable a hypo… We'd have other level of security, and that's well Worth it.

Looking to the Future

The reality is that I've been jolly impressed by all the clever hacking skills in the D-Community, from those victimization Pebble watches (see DIYPS) to offer us advisable alerts to those who've even rigged their house alarms, TV screens, and chamber lights to flash or change colors in showcase of an alert — which you just buns't discount. Now, if only somebody comes risen with an electro-shock collar to nudge Pine Tree State plane more…. I'd be ended that!

Of run over, completely of this CGM in the Cloud stuff is a stop-opening to future solutions, look-alike the Dexcom Share that should be FDA approved soon to basically do what Nightscout already is. And perhaps best of every last, this past workweek JDRF declared its support of Tidepool's development of a "Universal Device Uploader" that volition allow us patients to access, view and share our data from any ticker or CGM anywhere, without existence locked into the proprietary software offered by the seller.

There is a lot to look forward to, and it makes me want to get in at this ground level so I'll be ready when these future innovations are ready for prime time.

And that right there is what I think ties it all up for me. The ulterior potential for real seeing wholly my data, from any device, all in one direct, is exactly what I want. Meanwhile, will Suzi and I spend the roughly $300 required to grow Nightscout put away upward how we want, so she can wear a E. B. White Pebble lookout man at work to see what's happening with my #BGnow the least bit times?

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Yes, I think we are persuaded to stoppag waiting and buy the farm for it.

#IAmNotWaiting… for some other severe hypo, one that could take a scary turn and end badly.