Anyone else frustrated with their sensor and pump?

I have been on the sensor now for about a month and I can’t decide what irritates me more:

the low blood sugar, vibrating/siren that continues even after you’ve addressed the low blood sugar with juice and/or peanut butter

or

the high blood sugar alert every five to ten minutes after you’ve taken a bolus to address it.

What’s more is these aren’t in any way distracting in say rush hour traffic, because you certainly cannot ignore them, they just progressively get worse or when a pipe bursts in your house for example and you’re trying like hell to get the water off but your pump will not give up telling you," high/low/calibrate, right now, I don’t care what you’re doing, I’m going to drive you insane until you address me."

I guess these things are fantastic for people who live like a monk and do very little daily. This is THE most high maintenance piece of anything I’ve ever been around in my life. My A1C wasn’t bad before I got on this thing, granted it’s improved but Idk, does anyone else share my frustration?

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live with such a system. What pump and continuous glucose monitor/sensor do you use? How long have you been on this system? Have you been sufficiently trained on its use? Have you reached out to any customer support service about your unhappy experience?

Venting frustration with diabetes and/or diabetes tech is useful in this forum. But problem solving and trying to make it better will turn out to be better for you in the long run.

I’ve lived with Dexcom CGMs for the last nine years and have experienced very little frustration with the product’s performance. Alarm fatigue is not something I’ve often experienced. I set my high alarm at 140 mg/dL and if my blood glucose is hovering just above and below this alarm threshold, I will turn the alarm off to avoid repeated alarms about something I’m already dealing with.

If you’re using a Dexcom, you can change the settings so that the alerts only go off every 30-60 minutes.

I have my high alert at night set to go off every 60 minutes (after I’ve cleared it the first time). I used to have it set for much sooner, but it was super annoying and not helpful at all. It takes my blood sugar time to come down after treatment, so 60 minutes is a lot more practical. If it hasn’t gone below the high threshold within 60 minutes, then I may need more insulin.

With the Dexcom, you can set the alert thresholds and timing so that they help you, rather than aggravate you.

If you’re using a Dexcom, let us know the specific alerts that bother you, and we can help you come up with some workable solutions. If you’re using a Medtronic sensor, then I feel a lot of sympathy for you. I’ve heard that they’re a huge hassle.

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Thanks for reminding me about this feature. Even though I’m a long-term Dexcom user, I’ve not taken advantage of this setting before. As a result, I’ve spent more time in hyperglycemia while sleeping than is necessary. I’ve just set my “high snooze” time to 45 minutes. These circumstances don’t happen very often but I think limiting every minute of high blood glucose as you can does make a cumulative difference.

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katers, I’m using a Medtronic sensor. The Dexcom seems to be a lot less of a hassle to you.

With this Medtronic even if your blood sugar is coming down from a bolus it’s still hammering away, you’re sugar is too high. As much as these cost you’d think they could program something in for it to account for a bolus when you’re blood sugar is high.

Thank you for your response.

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Terry,

I’m using a Medtronic. I’ve been using their pumps since 1999. I’ve been type 1 since I was nine. It’s incredible; I’ve shared my frustration and there’s nothing they can do except go back to the drawing board and they’re not going to do that. You and Katers both use Dexcom’s and seem to really like them. This is helpful because I’m going to bring that up at my next Endo appointment.

Thanks!

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There are lots of people with Medtronic equipment who participate online. It would help if you listed the model number of the pump and the version of Med-T sensor you’re using. I’m thinking that you may be able to discover some tactics that could make your use of your Medtronic kit more satisfying and less irritating.

You can use the TuD search function (the magnifying glass icon at the upper right of your screen) and use search terms of your pump model number and actual sensor name. Believe it or not, I’ve read many comments of people who are happy with their Med-T pumps and sensors. Unfortunately, I’ve also read comments like yours.

I just started using XDrip+ on my phone as a secondary receiver to my Dexcom, my pump being the first. I wanted to use it because the Dexcom app isn’t available for my model of phone (dumb rules make it so they have to qualify different hardware separately), and also I had heard many good things. My pump loses signal a lot, and so did the receiver, and I don’t mean 5 ft away, I mean like right next to the transmitter. I haven’t had that issue with my phone yet. I have issues with night time lows and not waking up, so I wanted something that I could set to annoy me more if I was dropping really low, and that had a louder alarm, and didn’t lose signal (therefore not providing any readings to know that I was dropping).

I think XDrip+ has support for Medtronic sensors. You should give it a try. It has a feature that will disable alarms if your BG is headed in the right direction. It has a lot of features that the Dexcom receiver and pump don’t have. It is an open source project though, and says it is not for treatment of any illness, so they can avoid the FDA rules and issues. A lot of the reason why the official software and hardware are the way they are is due to requirements the FDA demands, and on top of that, features that are allowed just make it harder and take longer for approval the more of them they have. As far as annoyance, I could set the alarms on my pump to be the least annoying I can, but the one problem is that I can’t silence an alarm on it without pulling the pump out, unlocking the screen and clicking on the prompts to acknowledge it. The physical button on top of the pump doesn’t work to clear any type of warning message. You can imagine that that is quite annoying in the middle of the night or when driving and you can’t dig the pump out of your pocket…

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