Dexcom Graph Interpretation

It's been so long since I published a post with a picture or video of me, I figure none of my current readers were reading the blog then. So, here I am. I wanted to show how I'm wearing the sensor in a more forward part of my arm than usual. I also wanted to show why; that the backs of my arm are all red and bumpy, but the sensitivity on the webcam was frustrating me so I didn't. I guess it's not that bad but every time I ask my parents where to put a new sensor they let me know that the part of my arm that's hard to see still looks really irritated. But this location is feeling fine so far, despite being a place where I generally wouldn't even do a shot on account of it is not exactly fatty.
Anyway. I also wanted to illustrate how the Dexcom graph looks. The current sensor was inserted pretty close to 24 hours before the picture was taken. So you can see a little area where there's no data in the warm up period. You can see the overnight data, which doesn't make the most perfect of lines- the trace is not really good at the beginning. Those little horns on the top of the mountain blood sugar at the beginning are probably the Dex's imagination. When I got up at 6 AM, the Dexcom read 226 and my accu-chek aviva said 202, which is in the ballpark and not too shabby. The trace for the rest of the day is much better with no weird shapes or sudden bumps. I next tested my blood sugar just over twelve hours later, when the Dexcom had already been telling me that I was low for close to an hour and I was a little suspicious. Dexcom said 57; my accu-chek aviva said 52. Once again, about 10% off.
This graph is interesting for a third reason. When I woke up in the morning with a high blood sugar, I thought maybe my Lantus dose was too low. But a review of the graph suggested to me that that hadn't been the problem. Because right around 1 AM, when I was asleep (I went to sleep within half an hour of the initial calibration), there's a low, and then within that hour, there's a rise in my blood sugar of about 150 mg/dl. That may indicate a rebound (that fabled beast which some claim is only a story) or it could be the last of my supper or something; in any case, it's not basal drift. If I had no Lantus whatsoever on board, my blood sugar wouldn't rise that quickly (if I have no Lantus at all for the night, my blood sugar rises about 50 mg/dl/hr). So I didn't raise the Lantus dose tonight- thank you, Dexcom.

By the way, in the picture I'm wearing a purple t-shirt that says BYC for Broadway Youth Center, which is one of the only spaces for queer youth in Chicago. It particularly caters to street youth, and offers stuff like showers and toiletries as well as a drop in center and programs. I've been going there for six years. However, almost nobody has seen me in this shirt because I almost always wear long sleeves in public.