Plastic Plea

I’ve been kicking it old school* with my transplant-related diabetes for going on nineteen years. I’m type 1, which means I’m insulin-dependent. That has required me to check my glucose levels by pricking my various fingers about twenty-seven-thousand times** over the years. Yes, ouch. High glucose readings (generally, above 180) usually mean I need to compensate for my pancreatic insufficiency by injecting insulin. Despite how onerous it all sounded back in 2004, I got the hang of it fairly quickly. My A1C, a measurement of average blood sugar over a three month span, has mostly remained under 7%, the generally accepted baseline for diabetes.  I consider myself both lucky and proud.

I saw my endocrinologist today and he gently suggested, for the fourth or fifth straight visit, that I join the 21^st century (my words) and graduate from all that finger stickin’ to a Dexcom G7 Continuous Glucose Monitor. A GCM, a sensor that is a disc about the size of a quarter, attaches to my belly with a plastic applicator and, through apparently some sort of witchcraft, sends continuous glucose readings to my phone.  Each sensor lasts for ten days, and then you just pop it off and attach another. How can you beat that, right?

Well, mostly. The problem isn’t with the GCM, which works very well. The problem is with the delivery system. Each new sensor comes packaged inside the applicator and after the sensor is applied, Dexcom says on their website, “throw out the sensor and applicator following local guidelines biohazard waste.” That big hunk of plastic, the size of a urine sample cup?*** I was so disappointed to find that to be the case, that there isn’t a program to return those for sterilization and reuse. This world is drowning in plastic, and more than ten million Americans tossing out those cups every ten days, well…

I tried emailing Dexcom to discuss this subject. If they answer I’ll tell you what they said. 

* The first and last time I will ever use that expression.

** I did the math.

*** See?

                 

Song of the Day: Mike Campbell, from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and his new band, the Dirty Knobs. They already have a second album, but this is the title track from their first. Kinda like Tom Petty meets the Stones.: