This is my first day (about 10 hours) on the MM CGMS—Does anyone know…does this stuff stick to itself…I would experiment, but have to make this 10 peices last until I get a box here.
So my trainer had me cut it in half, put half over the sensor, the other half over the transmitter, so that if you need to take the sensor off, you only waste half.
But from what I read if you are going to go swimming or such you need to cover the whole thing…can you just plop a whole peice on and then take the whole one off leaving the other, or will it peal it all?
Hi Denise, I have always placed the entire piece of IV3000 over the sensor and transmitter. It just made more sense to me, keeping all of the water out all of the time. If there are any openings and water gets in, you need to stick a q-tip in there under the transmitter to draw out the moisture. But from your question, if you are asking if you put the full piece of tape over another piece of tape, pulling any part of it up will definitely take off all the attached tape.
Side note – if you find that IV3000 doesn’t stick so well every time, there are other kinds of tape out there, so you can definitely experiment if you would like.
Thanks, took a shower w/o adding another peice, no problems (they do say it is waterproof for showering w/o covering)…and I guess because our shower is glass enclosed I didn’t even lose the signal
Ordered a box as I am not allergic to it…and sticky things I am not allergic to are hard to find…but they are freaking pricy! Such is the D-life…unexpected expenses everywhere
I am amazed at my data, and so far the most that a finger stick has been off is 10pt–during a double arrow up (no, I don’t know why), most readings being between 3-5 points off my ultralink meter
That’s great! Just remember that there is a 15-20 minute difference between what the sensor is reading and your BG, so if there is a greater difference between the two numbers it is okay.
The biggest hurdle for me in the beginning was figuring out when to calibrate – you should get in 3-4 calibrations per day, but they recommend not doing many more than that. And one other quick lesson I learned when they first shipped me the ultralink was that I let it automatically update the BG results to the pump – and since I still test a lot, it ended up making my sensor readings very erratic. I realized it was because it was auto-calibrating so many times per day, even at non-optimal times. So just a piece of advice: make sure that you don’t have the ultra-link sending your BG’s to your pump to avoid having that happen…
yep–they both come off…but bought a box and it arrived quickly–they are just over the “hill” from me
So MM said that not necessary to shower—but for bathing and swimming it is preferred, and helps keep the main adhesive dry to ensure it stick for 3 days…ha ha
I generally use two pieces, one for the front, and one for the back. This is partly because I am no good at figuring out where to place the tape so that it covers the whole thing and I want to be extra sure that I will cover the whole thing. I also used to use the IV 3000 on my infusion set, but stopped using it when my insurance decided to no longer cover it for plain old pumps - I keep about a box around in case it’s really humid and the tape on the set starts to come up. It will be interesting to see if they cover it for the CGM, since you really can’t safely keep it attached without the tape. I found, in general, that this tape worked best when I put it on right after a shower in a cool dry room. Even a little bit of humidity meant it wasn’t going to last, and I would be trying to trim away the curling edges before the end of the day. This is another reason I use and extra piece on the CGM - that way if it starts to peel, it won’t just come up and I will have some wiggle room to work with.
I cut one in half and use one piece front and one peice back–for the restart of the old sensor trick.
Bought that, looks like I am one of those who is going to have to change about every three days, not becuase I can’t trick the thing as a new sensor–my body doesn’t like the thing being in much more than about 4 days…so I am really glad I have good insurance that pays for the bloddy sensors (yeah it was a LARGE, STUPID fight).
My insurance doesn’t cover the IV 300 or the tagaderm–as it is not considered “necessary”–but next year I am setting up a medical flexible spending/saving to cover all the “incidentals” that the insurance doesn’t cover–like sharps disposal, IV dressings etc…
I’ve been using the sensors for about 4 weeks and the tapes/dressings are driving me crazy in the summer heat. I’ve been using 2-3 pieces, making sure the whole thing is covered. I started a new sensor yesterday morning. Went for my usual walk after lunch, 70 minutes in the heat, working up a sweat. Got back to work and there was a puddle of sweat under the dressing - yuck! I used a push pin to poke a hole to drain it. The sweat loosens the sensor tape so if I have to pull up the entire dressing for any reason, the sensor is going to slide right out. With my last sensor I had to keep putting more & more IV3000 on because the edges kept peeling up. I was even using paper tape to seal the edges. It looked horrible and when I tried to carefully remove it, the sensor popped right out.
I can’t wait for winter.
Oh, and today I got a roll of something called Opsite Flexifix. It’s 4" wide X 11 yards long and you cut it to whatever size you need. I’ll try that with my next sensor.
The MM transducer and sensor are waterproof even without tape. The IV3000 helps to keep the entire unit stuck to you better. I use one whole piece over both units and this works well. By using two pieces there is more chance of water getting under the tape and loosening it. If one piece of tape is pealed off, the other will come too because tape sticks best to tape so they will come off together. Hope this helps.
