Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS)and If you think it’s a GREAT TOOL or NOT SO GREAT TOOL for day to day use in controling mg/dL’s and combat your daily grinds of managing your Type I Diabetes.
This includes your CSII (Continuous Subcutaneous Insulin Infusion - Sensor-Augmented Pump Therapy)All are welcomed and encouraged!!! All elements of CGMS including and #1 Medtronic’s CGMS systems!!
Thank You
Dean 
It took a while to work out the idiosyncrasies of the CGM (I have an MM), to get used to inserting the sensor, and to know when the sensor was going bad. But now, after 5 months, I have gotten used to it. For example, I know that mine usually reads 20 - 30 mg/dl lower than I actually am, so I don’t get freaked when it shows BGs in the 50’s. I also know that it sometimes goes up very high for no particular reason, so although I test to be sure, I don’t get freaked out by that, either. In the middle range, it is usually spot-on, and that’s where I try to stay, anyway. I like seeing the trends, and can make corrections that I didn’t use to make on MDI, and so although my A1c is not really different, I’m seeing far fewer highs and lows.
I also really like the pump, because it takes a lot of hassle out of daily life with diabetes. The biggest one is that I never have to wonder where my insulin is! If you don’t mind having stuff stuck into your belly, the pump and CGM is a great way to go!
I have a MM CGM integrated pump (Revel) and I love it. It works for me very well. It help me to manage my D on a day to day basis and alerts me to oncoming lows with the predictive alerts and allow me to treat them before I get too low.
Pump therapy has also changed my life dramatically. We are trying to get pregnant, so my endo would only allow me to use NPH as a basal - I was doing 6-8 shots a day and feeding the NPH all of the time. I was consuming way more calories than I was burning in order to work out, etc.
I am blessed to be on a pump and a CGM and I count my blessings every day because I know many people with D don’t have access to such technology.
I started using the Dexcom 7+ last November. It has really helped me with the lows. I drive 90 miles a day for work on big highways and was getting very anxious because I would always wonder where my blood sugar was. Now, I can see the trends and feel good about driving. That is my number one pro to the CGM. Even if the number is not perfectly accurate (which it actually is pretty good the majority of the time), the arrows (raising fast, raising steadily, steady, lowering slowly, falling fast) help me the most. Even if there was no number that came out and it was just the arrows, it would be helpful. I still check with my monitor pretty often, but I like my cgm for running and snowboarding…now when I am working out I dont need to bring my monitor, i just bring glucose and my cgm.
As for comfort–it doesn’t bother me at all.
Cons-
-The 12 hours with my cgm after changing a sensor is almost worthless. I get a lot of “???” readings the first 12 hours…but I have learned to just change it before bed and stay a little higher for that first night.
-I have to carry it everywhere, so its another thing to have…but I got used to it
-Now that i have it, i cant imagine not having it! (dont know if thats a pro or con!)
I have the Dexcom 7+ (in conjunction with the omnipod) and love it! I’ve had a few occasions when I’ve been on my way to ski or something and accidentally ripped out my sensor (hasn’t happened too often thank goodness) and didn’t have a spare on me, and found it so frustrating to not have that ability to just “glance” to see what my BG was how I was trending! Was frustrating to have to stop and take out the ole glucometer and check over and over again to make sure I did a proper temp basal for the level of activity, time of day, etc. I honestly can’t imagine not having it, now that I have had it for a while! The only drawback really is that when i have to change the sensor there is a couple of hours of no readings while it calibrates, and of course I’m so anxious to have it start working again! The readings are a little off–there is a scale–(but the closer I am to normal BG, it seems to be right on, which is what Dexcom communicates.)
Hi Lauren–I haven’t noticed the ??? right after changing the sensor- at all—I would contact Dexcom to report that. I had an issue with either my CGM or the sensor about a month ago—one (or both) got fried somehow, and they replaced them both for me. I was getting the ??? a lot out of nowhere (had never really had that before) for like 2 days, reported it, and now I have new stuff that is working perfectly. Just a suggestion
Hm, thanks for the note! I will mention that to them…After looking at the manual, I saw that ??? can come up unexpectedly, so I thought it was normal. I guess it’s not! Haha! Thanks though!
Totally. I don’t think that’s natural! When I change my sensor, i have to wait the couple of hours for it to calibrate, then I enter the two startup BG’s and right away it shows a BG reading and then within like 10-15 minutes, it starts showing the trend arrows! When mine fried I looked up the ??? in the book and loved the description of “your CGM is not reading for some reason.” Well no crap, right!? That’s why i pulled out the manual in the first place, b/c I KNOW it’s not reading! haha. I was hopeful for more of an explanation as to potential causes, but they must like to point out the obvious Good luck!
Thank you soooo much for this great feedback keep it coming from all the PUMP/CGMS users!!! This is absolutley awesome feedback and + an educational session also little Nuances to help me!!! Again, keep all this awesome info coming!!!
Another Dexcom 7+ user. I couldnt manage my D as well as I do without it. Also, if you have a look at the flatliners group you can get an idea of how much we use the CGMS in our daily lives. They are prettyindispensable.
Dexcom 7 and pump user…love them both
Dexcom7 and Omnipod for me. Love my Dex. It has helped tremendously in my BG control (A1C 5.4!) I might be opposite most people on a CGMS I never had a problem detecting my lows but the Dex has been huge in catching my Highs and helping me mitigate them.
MM CGM = Great tool. I agree that it takes a while to get used to get accustomed to it, but it’s totally worth it!
I’m running a MM722 and love the pump. I have a MM CGM am not a big fan, within a year the CGM went bad and a 800 bucks a pop with a 8 month warranty I wasn’t impressed enough with its performance to buy a new one. I think it has potential but a long way to go yet.
I use the dexcom and the omnipod- the dex is a lifesaving tool.
Woke me up in the middle of the night, bg was 23.
Also helps me see if the pump site is a good one or not by watching bg trends.
Dexcom - GREAT TOOL.
Learned: I had to reduce my carbs. Learned that the snacks had to be < 5 grams, not 15 grams. Learned I needed 1.5 grams to raise BG 10 mg/dl. Learned what happened when I used the 15 grams glucose - 15 minutes - to pull me out of hypoglycemia. Learned how to go to sleep at 95 and wake up at 95. Learned how to have no lows and few highs. Got my awareness back with it. Learned I didn’t have to swing.
Dexcom 7+ and Omnipod.
Both are great Tools. If I have to be a diabetic, I’d rather have the tools.
I use the MM pump and CGM and I am in love with it! I use it for trending to see where I need a change of basal. I use it to watch how foods effect me and also how my bg deals with exercise. It is truly a blessing and It has saved me from low lows that with out its warning I would have never felt. I love that it is all in one with my pump so only one piece goes with me and I love that I can do things with more freedom. My 2 yr old also wear it and the pump and it has caught her lows for me and impending highs as well. I love that I can go about my day and not have to test her every five mins to see where she is at!
I’m probably one of the fewer CGM + MDI users, but I love the CGM. It’s given me a lot more knowledge, which builds confidence. It’s allowed me to better understand when food/insulin tends to hit my system, which has led to many more mostly flat days and less swings-even on MDI ;). I also loved having it when training for my first 1/2 marathon and helped me distinguish between physical tiredness vs. no energy from being too low. I use it mostly for its trend aspects so I’m not as bothered when it doesn’t match up though after the first day it tends to be within 5-10 points of meter readings. One of the things I noticed is that the more time the receiver and sensor spend apart, the less accurate the numbers are (seems obvious) but even short 10-20 minutes can throw it off by 20-30 points.
CGMs are great and I wish that my insurance would cover the cost. I had a DexCom 7 for a while but when the insurance did not come through I had to stop using it. If possible, I would have one as I found them very helpful. However, my insurance finally decided to cover an insulin pump - will be on it soon; still in class.