I'm having surgery tomorrow (a vitrectomy) and wondering whether I can take acetaminophen for pain...I thought I remembered reading somewhere that they've adjusted something in the sensors to make them not as reactive to acetaminophen. Is that just my wishful thinking?
Yes, people have reported that tylenol hasn't affected their sensor. It is not officially approved for use with the G4.
I decided to risk the interference and to go to multiple tests a day for the few days post op that I would need pain relief. My experience with vitrectomy was that I only needed pain meds for a day and the drops pretty much kept it all under control and just a little bit irritating.
I did talk to my doc about alternatives, but, she indicated that there shouldn't be much pain. I assume that NSAIDS are off limits due to kidney involvement?
Overall I found the pain from the procedure to be pretty minor, though lots of drops 4x/day and it took a while for everything to get back to normal. I hope you have an easy experience with this, I know it can be a little scary.
It is my understanding yes. Also there is new information about the use of acetaminophen and dosages that for me personally have caused me to re-evaluate it. I am not a doctor just a T1DM patient.
In all cases decisions related to your care are best addressed directly with your physician.
Thanks so much, Brian. Yes, I can't use NSAIDS because of my kidneys. Good to hear the pain wasn't too bad for you...I'm pretty hypo-unaware, so I've come to rely on the Dex. I'd almost rather be in pain than not have it!
Can you tell me what information you found? You've re-evaluated because it's harmful in some way?
You may have seen my past postings on this subject. I was the one (among others, perhaps) who has discussed this with Dexcom. My G4 seems to be impervious to Acetaminophen. I use it all the time now, whereas with my 7+ I avoided it like the plague.
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Ah yes, I'd heard about the possibility of liver damage, but it looks like this is only for high dosages. Hopefully won't need that much. Thanks!
I thought I'd remembered reading about it from Dexcom themselves, but maybe I did read it here. Thanks, that's good to know! I guess I may be trying my own experiment soon. :)
It has affected my G4 readings temporarily, but once it wore off they were back to normal. You may just have to manually check more often while on it.
I use the G4 and haven't had any issues with false readings while taking acetaminophen.