I use an OmniPod and am wondering how beneficial adding a Dexcom would be. Would like to hear pros and cons if anyone is doing this.
Thanks.
I have both. The pod since 12-1-11 and the Dexie since 1-10-12. Love them both.
I use this combination. I moved to the Dexcom after my Freestyle Navigator got bought back by the company. Aside from much, much lower accuracy in general than the Navigator, the Dexcom is nice for catching blood glucose trends, especially overnight.
I think anything that you can do to flatten out your blood glucose levels is a helpful thing.
The only cons are having to carry around another device that can be dropped, run over by a car, knocked into a pool of water, etc, and having to make room on your body for another thing that pokes through your skin.
I wear my Dexie in a www.spibelt.com. Works great and I hardly notice it until it beeps about something.
I wear both. I got my first pump (The Omnipod) last February and the Dex in June. Since being on the pump, I can no longer sense my blood sugar going low (I was able to before going on the pump). I usually can't feel any symptoms until it hits about 40, then it hits all at once. So I love the Dex for being able to provide me the low glucose warning brfor it gets too low. Most of the time it is fairly accuratem but I still dont dose according to the Dex. I always finger stick first. Don't know what I would do with out it.
You will wonder how you ever lived without it. I constantly consult my Dex throughout the day and night. It has alarms so you will know immediately if you are too low or too high with arrows to give you that additional info as to whether your numbers are on the rise, level or headed downward. Gives you good data to analyze trends over time to see where your challenges are. I still do finger sticks to make sure it’s calibrated with my Omni but have probably cut back by half on how many times I have to stick my finger. I find it fairly accurate. When it isn’t, you just calibrate more often to bring it back in line.
I got the O'pod in 10-08, the DexCom in 11-09 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy and chemo. My endo thought it would be necessary to handle the nausea problem with chemo. It's not perfect (Dex) but it's quite helpful. It's cut my finger sticks from 8/day to 4/day. It tells you never to make a dosing decision on the readings and to use your BG monitor to determine that.
If I HAD to choose one or the other (Pump vs. CGM) the CGM would win. Can't feel lows and it has saved my #ss on more than a few occasions. Although, in reality, I wouldn't want to give up my Omnipod either!
Wish they would hurry up and combine them!
I tried this initially. The Dexcom failed continuously - I didn't have a single working sensor. During their limited life the sensors did show trends, sort-of, but they had to reset continuously and the reset cause them to go into 'abort' mode.
I suspect Dexcom is only useful if you don't test your blood sugar as a matter of course. I test before every meal, whenever I feel cranky, whenever my wife asks (since she is far more aware of my blood sugar than I am), whenever I feel light headed, morning and evening, and so on. I found the Dexcom disagreed wildly with my BG meter results and it drifted consistently.
When I informed the Dexcom controller of my BG readings is simply had a fit. It can't take criticism; it's perhaps the most self-centered computer system I've ever encountered. So I got my money back.
If you do try a Dexcom, remember to pay with a credit card.
John Bowler jbowler @ acm.org
my 11 year old has had similiar experience, now she won't feel a low till 50 or so, then she's got a headache and has to miss school. our endo is not recommending dex since she's thin and she thinks it will be hard for her to wear it, but I sure would like to give it a try when kennedy's ready
yep!
I have the Navigator over here in Europe and the pump. They are great together. The biggest issue is when they go wrong, it reminds me how difficult things can be !!
Interesting how many people have cut back on testing with their Dex. I am still testing 10 times a day! sometimes it's right on and sometimes it can be off by 20,30 or 40pts. and to take a bolus with that kind of difference is a little scary for me.
I am interested in the number of times you guys are finger pricking to test when wearing the Dex. On Navigator I only calibrate 3 times in 5 days. It’s very accurate. Is it because the Dex is not giving a true reading sometimes ??
The Dexcom 7 Plus asks you to calibrate twice a day. My educator said she does it 3 times a day. Any time I have reported very "off" readings (anywhere from 40 to 100 off a finger stick BG), I have been told that the solution is to "calibrate more."
I miss my Navigator.
I have said the exact same thing. I love my Dex.
I'm going on OmniPod in 4 days (finally!!). I've been using a Dexcom since September and would never give it up.
Using a Dex has almost completely eliminated lows for me because of the ability to see the trend line. If I'm trending down, that's my cue to be more alert and finger stick more often to avoid a low. It works.
Yes, sometimes the readings are spot on and sometimes it's a little off, but it's saved me more times than I can count in the middle of the night from both highs and lows.
I am also hypo unaware and have a tendency to drop fast, so the Dex has been a lifesaver for me.
I still test with a meter just as often as I did before (10-12 times per day). I made the mistake early on of treating or correcting based on the cgm and that can result in a rollercoaster ride...been there, done that, not again. Always fingerstick before treating or correcting.
Started on dexcom back in 2008. Before pumping with the pod, and it is amazing the difference it can have in your day to day life. Pods are wonderful, but the CGM is a lifesaver. Literally IMO.
I just changed from medtronic to Omnipod Yesterday.. The Dexecom I have been using for over three years and LOVE it... it is annoying at times... especially in the middle of the night..., but without it I would never have survived my pregnancy with a 5.2 A1c. It's weird having two things taped to my body now.., but it beats the wire that came with medtronic.
Most of you have had the opod and then recently gotten the Dex. I have had it in reverse. When I got my Dex in 11/10 I loved only testing twice a day. Then I started realizing how on the first day and last day the Dex can be "off" by quite a margin of error. The reason I stayed with it was the trending. However Since starting opod just this week, I am testing before every meal (which I wasnt doing with Dex alone, upon waking, after meals and before bed. I am testing at least 10 times a day. I seem to be back to where I was before Dexcom. How are you ladies and gents getting away with only testing a couple of times a day with opod? I feel at this point other than trending, Dex is redundant.