Now on our second sensor with Silesse. This one has been in for 5 days and still no problems. It is hard to believe actually what a difference it ha shade so far. WIthout it she tore the sensor off after three days.
Hi, Terry. I've been slacking on blood testing and decided to try the Silesse. I just ordered it yesterday - shipping is ridiculous. But I'm hoping it works. After your praise, I thought it could be worth a try. My CGM seems to be my biggest motivator to actually checking. Crossing my fingers and hoping it works!
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
i am about to put another site on my daughter. She too the last one off yesterday after 10 days. Still no rash. There was an imprint of the site into her skin but that is all she could complain about. This last site I use a wipe and it was still okay.
Just throwing this out there because I'm sure my daughter isn't the only one with this problem. Her rash with Dexcom got progressively worse with each site. We tried many times, many different things. Well, a few weeks ago she decided to get her ears pierced, and she got the EXCAT same rash all over her body within hours of the piercing. Diagnosis, metal allergy. So she's allergic to the actual Dexcom sensor, and there's nothing that can be done about that.
Michelle - Mom to Sarah, age 13, dx 3/18/10
www.pawsforsarah.com
The metal in the jewelry in nickel causing the problem. It is fairly common to have an allergy to nickel. Inexpensive jewelry has a thin layer of gold over the nickel. The gold isn't thick enough to provide a good barrier from the nickel.
The sensor in the Dexcom is made of platinum and silver. They are fairly hypoallergenic.
My daughter's reaction is the exact same shape as the adhesive so I think there must be something in the adhesive causing the problem. If I put a good layer of Silesse on first there is no problem.
Well, it's possible that she's allergic to nickel and silver, but from my research it appears that most silver contains some nickel. It's hard to say, but we tried everything under the adhesive with no positive results. Also, metal allergies are progressive, so each reaction gets worse - and this was "worse". And oddly, when she got her ears pierced, her worst areas of rash (besides her poor ears) were at her former Dexcom sites. She had a clear rash on her stomach, back and upper arms, right around where the Dexcom site had been months earlier. The only conclusion I could come to was that the sensor was causing her allergy because she doesn't have an allergy to adhesives that we've ever seen (her pump isn't a problem), and when she first started using the Dexcom she didn't get an allergic reaction at all. It started out very slowly, and progressed.
I'm just throwing it out there in case anyone else has a Dexcom rash that doesn't seem to be adhesive related. Sarah can't be the only one.
thisiscaleb.wordpress.com/.../dexcom-adhesive-irritation-allergy
Check this out. I tried what this mom did and it didn't help. I also found it very difficult to accomplish at all. After 3 days the rash was back. One of the comments suggested Silesse. I ordered that and had success.
Stainless steel has nickel in it but pure silver has no nickel. Nickel is what prevents rust in stainless steel.
I think the Dexcom rash is very common. Dexcom can't help or make suggestions for legal reasons. The device hasn't been tested with any of these solutions so they can't suggest them.
In our case it's the metal, it's possible that she's allergic to mutliple metals, but even Dexcom couldn't guarantee me that there's no nickel in their silver. We tried everything, and it wasn't a rash under the adhesive, though that area was red all around. She also got a rash on her arms, legs, stomach, back, and between her fingers. I'm pretty sure we tried about everything. Some people are just very sensitive to metals, even high quality metals. I was just throwing this possibility out there in case others have the same reaction as my daughter.