Using the Medtronic CGMS Continuous Glucose Sensor
It was a little tricky at first with a two-hour in-home training session, but it seems to be working fairly well. The CGMS provides a very similar function to doing fingersticks to get a drop of blood to test your current blood glucose level. The CGMS doesn't replace a regular glucose meter. Since the CGMS measures the glucose in the fluid that exists between the cells under your skin and not blood glucose directly, you still have to do a few fingersticks a day to calibrate the CGMS to your blood glucose. The great thing is that the CGMS measures your glucose levels constantly and will alarm if the level drops too low or goes too high without having to do extra fingersticks. Joan was sticking her fingers 8 to 12 times per day with an average right near 10. Hopefully as we become more familiar with the CGMS that number will decrease by half. We can't wait to look at all of the reports and once settled in using it to tighten up her blood sugar control! Wish Joan Lots of Luck! |
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Good Luck Joan!  |
| Crossing my fingers, wishing on a star, and saying a prayer that this works for Joan. I can't imagine sticking your finger 8-10 times a day. OWCHE!!! |
 Best of luck Joan. |
| Well, finally!!!!! Congrats on the new system. I have family members and friends with it and they all have done really well.  |
| Yeah, it took years to get an insurance company to approve it. Aetna refused until the last, and only the changing of health insurance companies made it possible. |
| That is the situation my Mom is in. She is on Medicare and they won't cover the continuous Glucose Sensor. My Mom is a brittle Type 1 diabetic using a pump and like Joan, checks her blood about a dozen times a day. it would be such a lifestyle improvement for her, if she could just get it approved. I am glad Joan finallygot it approved. Anything not to have to stick your finger that many times a day. Kathie |
| Yeah, too bad under that medicare plan you don't have the opportunity to find a new provider... and under healthcare reform all reimbursement decisions will be made by that same "decider." In fact Aetna kept referring to the fact that HCFA wasn't covering the CGMS so they wouldn't either. This worries me greatly. |
| So how did this work for you? I tried it but it doesn't keep up with sudden drops. I got into a terrible car accident in April 2010 with a blood sugar of 32 (no one was hurt thankfully) but my constant glucose monitor read 86. I never used it again after that!! |
| I hope this works for Joan! |
| Good luck Joan! |
| Older post here guys....but yes, how has it been working?? |
| Sorry to have posted on an older thread....... |
Lisa&Brian wrote: Sorry to have posted on an older thread....... Hey no problem...in fact I thought you were bringing a good (bad? - seeing it caused and accident  ) point up.That is big discrepancy, and at those low of readings, so dangerous!  I hope you weren't badly hurt...very scary. |
| Funny this has just popped up. It has worked fairly well for Joan. She is a verrrrry tolerant person (she IS married to ME, after all) and deals with the constant flood of "false" positives (where her sugar is only below 90). It does tend to give warning in very many cases that she is in fact going low. It has probably alerted her/us to impending lows in many many cases. Every night at 2:30AM Joan is roused by a couple of alarm clocks and she tests her sugar and sends me a text message. If she is low, or worse misses a text to me, I leap into action and check on her. This system is designed to work whether she is at home or on the road in a hotel. Up until this past week (January, 2012) Joan has not had a critical low where I could not rouse her with juice/gel/other means since wearing the CGMS. This past week I had to check on her. I found her with a sugar of 24, but she was able to drink 2 juice boxes and a glucose gel tube. 10 minutes later she was 23 so I had to call for the paramedics to give her IV D-50, which they did around 3AM. She roused very quickly with no apparent lingering issues. The main issue with the unit is it is not loud enough to wake almost anyone. In this day and age it should be able to send a text message or alert a standard external device of some sort. In a cynical money grab, Medtronic has created and just release this month the "MySentry" product, a remote screen and alarm for the pump/CGMS. It has a 50 foot radius and pairs with only one single pump. It costs (are you sitting???) $2,400. @#$%@# bastards. And they market this with overwhelming emotion to parents who are worried about their children. Arses. I have never been so intellectually angry at a company in my life. The pump is $7,000 and monthly supplies are somewhere around $600 or $700 or some such. PLUS the cost of the CGMS system of $1,000 and monthly supplies for that of $450 a month, give or take. We are VERY SERIOUSLY looking at the other CGMS that is on the market because of this. I REALLY want to vote with my feet (and pocketbook) and let them know exactly why they've killed this cash cow that we have been over a stooopid one-time raping of their customers. Bastards. Oh, was that out loud? |
| So happy for her and jelous at the same time. I have been trying to get one for a bout a year and the insurance company refuses to pay any of it. And, I work for a major hopsital (not going to say the name but, one of the biggest in the country.)that self insures. Leaves no question about how they feel towards the health of their employees. Hope it works well for her. |
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