My Magical Disappearing DexCom

Last weekend at the race in Milwaukee I tested the durability of my DexCom SEVEN Receiver. It was completely unintentional but still worthy of a good story.

So it was the first practice session of the race weekend and I was building up to speed and starting to push. (Omitting how it happened as I would rather not relive the crash- you can read the whole story here) When all had come to rest after the crash, the safety crew arrived to make sure I was ok. I assured them I was, other than my pride and budget having been dented. When I climbed out of the car, I reached in to grab my DexCom Receiver. What I pulled out was my empty carrier! So I looked into the seat thinking it had just fallen out as I climbed out. Nope. Not there. Not anywhere I could see. At this point I am starting to get a little more panicked that I have lost it. The Delphi Safety Team notice and ask what’s up. I explain that I have lost it and it’s important and it looks like a pager and it fits in here and blah blah blah. They put me in the back of the SUV off to the medical center to get checked out sans DexCom. They look me over, make sure I fine (I was!) and then ask about the sensor on the back of my arm. I then go through the CGMS explanation and the medical team gets very interested and asks to the see my graph. I explain that I lost the receiver in the crash and could they keep an eye out for it. Of course.

So then it was back to the team and my car which was badly in need of some major TLC. We got to work on taking the bent and broken pieces of the car off and putting new stuff on. I was only entrusted to running the vacuum and a rag to get the dirt out of the car and the rubber marks off the bodywork. I am sure that when I pull my seat out, my DexCom will be sitting in the car waiting for me to get in range so it can give me readings. But no…not there either. We get the car finished just in time for qualifying. And by ‘we’, I mean my awesome mechanics and engineer! I just tried to stay out of the way. So after qualifying was over and I had thanked my team as much as I could, I went looking for my DexCom again. I had an autograph session in a couple of hours so I didn’t have long. I checked with the Delphi guys again and nope- they hadn’t seen it and none of the workers on track reported it. Checked with the medical staff and nope they hadn’t seen it either. I checked with the team of the car that had run into me in the crash and they didn’t see it either.

So my last chance (and a slim one at that!) was to go walk around the wall where I had hit it and see if my receiver had flown over the wall. My dad walked along the top of the wall and I looked into the gap between the SAFER barrier and the concrete wall. There is a gap of about 18-24 inches between the barrier and the wall that it could potentially have dropped into. My dad was looking through the fence to see if it had made the one in a million shot through the chain link. We started where I first hit the wall (where there was first green paint) and worked our way around the track. After about 100 feet I figured I was going to be getting a new DexCom.

And then after 150 feet from my first impact, I saw it. It was lying face down in a couple of collected leaves in the corner of the gap between the SAFER barrier and the wall. I jumped in, grabbed and held it triumphantly over my head. I am sure I looked like a complete tool, but it was the first success of a very hard (and expensive) day! I hit the button thinking, ‘Yeah I’ve found it, but now it won’t work.’ But no, it turned on and there was the antenna logo in the corner saying I was out of range (and had been since I so rudely left it out there all on its own!). Within 5 minutes, it was back to reading my numbers and giving me a graph. It has a couple of small scratches on the side of the receiver and that is it!

I can’t think of a better product endorsement- I hit the wall at 160mph, my DexCom went flying out of my car, ended up by the wall and worked when I found it! I’m a fan.

(And yes I was so overwhelmed that I had found it, I forgot to take pictures of it either in situ, or before I had cleaned it off and put it back into service.)