Ok, just heard from Dex Com, they are shipping my unit tonight! I sent paperwork to DEx sales rep, don’t know if endo had a change of heart, or whatever, but he signed forme, and insurance approved!
I am so happy, now, since I’ll have all this great info at my fingertips, maybe I can get my A1c’s <6.5 with less lows and hopefully not starting with the hypo unawareness that a <6.5 Ha1c used to mean!
Should I continue to endo shop? Are there endos that are really helping their patients use this technol;ogy, or are most of you guys doing your own adjustments based on the info the CGMS is supplying. There was recently a CGMS seminar near my home, now I wish I had signed up, I really didn’t think I would be able to get one though.
A DexCom trainer will contact you and assist you. I thought that using the 7+ couldn’t be that difficult and skipped the training. Looking back this was not a good idea. Spend the time and listen to what the DexCom trainer has to say. You might also want to scan through Rickst29’s posts. Rickst29 has posted a lot of valuable information about the 7+.
Jacky – That’s great news. Maybe your endo reconsidered as a result of looking into the recent medical literature regarding the CGM. My view of the patient/endo relationship is that the patient is the most important factor in good outcomes.
The doctor, as a professional, must be respected for his knowledge but in the end you are the one who is the expert about your metabolism. A good endo, in my mind, is one that you can bounce ideas off of and one that can give you a perspective that you might not consider on your own. I don’t see it as a relationship of equals but one where the diabetic is the senior partner. This rises from the inherent fact that it’s your body that is on the line.
If a doctor can respect this then s/he makes a good endo. In a recent visit with my endo ( I just changed endos this year) he asked my opinion, “Well, you’ve lived with diabetes for 25 years, what do you think is the cause of these unexpected BG excursions?”
Learn all you can about the Dexcom CGM, whether it be from the trainer, the user’s manual, or the internet. I encourage you to use the software to look at your patterns. Managing diabetes is definitely a forest and trees thing! I’ll be interested to hear what your endo says when he sees real improvement in your numbers due to the CGM. Good luck.
It’s also great to get to know your DexCom trainer as they’ll be your best resource in educating your Endo to use the info from the Dex properly. My trainer has actually been in contact with me each time after he visits my Endo to let me know what she wants to see from my downloads and to check in and see how it’s going. Without him I think my Endo visits would be much more complicated and less productive. The trainer is a great resource to have on your side!
Terry, that is so true. I’m about to change my endo because she gave little value to my personal observations and had a “cookie cutter” approach that I felt did not fit me. Patient and endo need to be a team that has mutual respect for each other.
Thanks you guys. I wonder a lot about my endo, ihe is a bit confusing to me. I find it hard to get a word in edgewise sometimes, and am occasionally perplexed at some of the advice he gives, and refuse to accept the advice. I think the thing that makes me the most nuts is, he has office people call me back with lab results and pump tweaks. A lot of times, I don’t agree, or want to disguss his recommendations, and dealing with an in between person who doesn’t have all the history, just the paper in front of her is frustrating. Last time,I couldn’t see what his goal was, he wanted me to lower my lunchtime I:C ratio from 1:10 to 1:8. I’ve been considering raising it back up to 1:12 because 3-4 hours post lunch seems to be a tough time for me, I’m often low. And he recently restarted my back on a statin for cholestrol issues. I was at 109, not below 100 as they want for the “bad” cholestrol;, and he wanted to double the dose after 5 weeks of taking the med. All my other numbers looked good, maybe we could try giving a lower dose of a med a bit more time before doubling the dose and possibly accelerating side effects of taking higher doses of statins? .
I Hope I can find a doc that is a bit more communicative and maybe current with the newer options available to people with D. I was ready to leave this one a year ago because he did not like my electronic logs from Cozmo pumps, so I was hand writing them in his forms. He still can’t deal with downloading my pump or meter, they seem to be a mini-med only office, and I pump with an animas.
Do you guys have Dr’s that will take e-mailed info? That’s another pet peeve of mine, downloading, to print and fax reports. I even brought my laptap last time to try to schow him some of the different reports I was able to get, he was only interested in the log book.
I know they are busy, and have a lot of patients, am I looking for too much? I had this really great endo back where I used to live that started me on a pump. She always called back personally with adjustments, and I felt like she really listened and helped me learn, there were things she advised that didn’t always make sense, but at least I could talk them over with her. This Dr seems to have a pretty impressive staff, they are very good at shuffling the discussion between me and him back and forth, but it’s hard to have a conversation through a third party.
You’ve brought up your old endo a few times in this thread as an example of what you would like. The reasons that you liked this endo, listens well and open to real back and forth dialogue, are valid.
I started with a new endo earlier this year. He isn’t up with the latest technology either. He requests that I bring in hand written BG records for one week. Last visit I brought in hard copies of 7 one-day BG graphs that the Dexcom DM software outputs. I added some hand written notes for meal carbs, bolus doses, and the basal rates. He was OK with that.
He told me that he found that asking his patients to keep hand written logs one week per month was effective in getting the patient to look at their numbers. Once a person monitors the BGs it’s natural for them to take action to make them better.
Ideally, I would prefer an endo that takes all of my data electronically and following some study and analysis, give me his recommendations. I’m happy with my current doctor, however, since he listens well and respects my experience.
I’m thinking that generally speaking, if you could look for a younger endo, one under 40, you would increase your chances of finding one that is comfortable with all the new and emerging technology. You’d still have to screen to find a good listener.
It sounds like your current endo is minimally acceptable to you (he did enable your CGM) but you want more of the characteristics of your former endo. Good luck.
LOL, If I had it my way Terri, I would still be with my entire Dr team where I used to live. Too bad we couldn’t afford to live there : )
I guess the bottom line is, I am going to have to put a bit more effort into using my CGMS effectively than I was able to when I was just doing finger sticks, I’m going to have to learn how I react to things based on the feednack the CGMS is giving meand after all that, when I talk to Dr, make a decision if I think he’s listening to me and offering advice I hadm’t thought of, or just using a cookie cutter approach.
I think I am going to see how this Doc works after I get a better grip on using the CGMS, he did sign for it, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to devlop a better relationship with him.
Thnaks for the advice. When you do talk to other people with diabetes, you rarely talk about their relationships with their Dr’s, this is a very unique forum that I appreciate having, and hearing about everyone else’s experiences.
Her Dexcom trainer set her up, showed us how to use Dex, but the majority of my questions were answered right here, believe it or not. Before even using Dex, I read all the posts. You can see how to insert Dexcom and restart it on YouTube. There are a few experts on this board that will leave nothing to the imagination; no question is left unanswered. Just ask
