We recently ordered, received, and used our very first GrifGrip to help secure Luke’s Dexcom on his arm. We were pretty excited when they arrived at the beginning of summer. Luke has swimming practice everyday, in addition to running around in the heat while playing. We both thought it’d be a good idea to have a little added protection in keeping his Dex on his arm.
The ordering process: The GrifGrips website is very easy to navigate. They have their products groups by device. So if you’d like a GrifGrip for your Dexcom, click on that. If you want one for your pump site, find your pump’s infusion set.
Once you’ve chosen your type, there are so many different shapes and colors to choose from! (Our next order is totally going to include the shamrocks (GO IRISH!) and the “Arlie Grip,” to wear for RedHawk swim season.)
Luke opted for ovals in the material made especially for sports, and “blob monsters,” which look a lot like Pac-Man ghosts, in the regular material. For both shapes he got a few red and a few blue. We also got them precut to fit a Dexcom sensor. You can opt to have other cuts for other devices or not cut at all and just wear it over the top of your device.
Checkout is extremely easy… and they accept PayPal! I love a website that accepts PayPal. It makes my life so much easier.
Another cool thing about ordering, as you can see in the bottom lefthand corner above, is the GrifGrips Rewards program. For every dollar you spend, you get one point. Once you’ve accumulated 50 points, you can redeem them for $10 off your next order. You also receive 10 points for each new customer you refer to GrifGrips who makes a purchase. (I actually just learned about the referral code as I was taking screenshots! So, of course, all of my hyperlinks are using my referral code!)
The application process: We did not immediately use our new GrifGrips because Luke was going to be leaving for camp the following week and was not going to be wearing his Dexcom. So we waited.
On June 13th, we finally put Dex back in his arm. Luke chose to wear a blue “blob monster” GrifGrip first, which is not the sports material. I was okay with this, even though he would be swimming everyday. I wanted to see how the regular GrifGrip material would hold up on an active 12 year old sweaty boy who swims everyday. So that’s what we did.
We really wanted this to stick and to stick for a long time, so we also used SkinTac underneath the GrifGrip. Being a GrifGrips newbie, I didn’t realize how sticky they are! After taking the backing off, you have to be really careful that you don’t let it stick to itself, and at the same time, focus on getting it around the Dexcom sensor without wrinkling it over the arm. This is probably a “duh” to most people, but let’s just say I had to concentrate pretty hard for this step.
Yeah, I got a wrinkle or two on it, but not too bad for my first try, right?
How did it hold up? Our goal was to keep the GrifGrip on the entire lifetime of this particular Dex sensor. And we did, but not without some assistance from tegaderm at the end.
This was the same GrifGrip on June 21st, one week and one day after initial application. The edges were starting to come off, but it was still pretty secure around the Dex itself. Keep in mind, Luke swims daily for an hour an a half. The color had completely faded by that point, most likely because of the chlorine in the pool. That didn’t really bother us, though.
This was on June 24th. It started coming off a little farther down the edges. In a few spots- especially the upper right, the Dex adhesive was starting to come off, as well. We couldn’t get the GrifGrip off of his arm without pulling the whole Dex off because the adhesive from the GrifGrip was securely attached to the adhesive on the Dex. At this point we decided to add a piece of tegaderm over the top of the GrifGrip.
On July 1st, his sensor needed replaced, so the whole thing was removed. We are letting him take a week’s break from the Dex. When we replace it, we’ll put a sports oval over the top and see how that does. He will be doing a triathlon and have his swimming practices… it’ll be a true test!
Were we satisfied? Absolutely! We got over a week and a half’s wear with one GrifGrip. This was a regular (non-sports) GrifGrip and he swam everyday, was active outside and it’s SUMMER. I’d say that’s pretty impressive!
We give GrifGrips two thumbs up!
And don’t forget… if you use my referral code below to make your first purchase, you will receive 10% off your first order!
Smells Like Insulin 
Hi! I’m a college student that has created a 7 day waterproof solution for Dexcom tapes and I think they would solve your problem well! Message my facebook page and I’ll get you a sample!
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To clarify, my company is called Expressionmed 🙂
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I’m curious how you do you get over 7 days wear with one sensor? After 7 days, to the hour, our Dexcom sensors expire, and a new sensor is required.
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We restart it, like it’s a new sensor, except we don’t actually change it out.
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