Those of you who never, ever, go anywhere near Facebook, just move along. There’s nothing for you to see here.
Maybe this belongs over in the humor section? Not sure …
Medtronic recently made the choice, perhaps now somewhat regretted in hindsight, to post a link on their Facebook page to one of their annoying (to me) cutesy “D-Force” animation vids with the title, “How To: Handle Common CGM Sensor Errors”.
In addition to the somewhat expected I my Enlite comments, they also got a bit of an earful from other folks who are more familiar with that “wacky, quirky” side of Enlite some of us get to see.
My favorite “What Were They Thinking?” moment came when Medtronic offered to have someone call me to offer assistance when I was talking with someone about inserting an Enlite on an arm … something Medtronic very much does not support.
Oh, well. It was nice of them to make the help offer. Brain-dead stupid, but still a nice gesture.
The FDA didnt approve of any location but the abdomen, but you already know that… I have great luck, as I’ve mentioned before, with the arm. I even posted a pic of a sensor in said arm.
When you come to grips knowing you live in a country that has a slow-moving bureaucracy such as the FDA running medical-related things, the more you’ll realize how backwards this country can be, in certain ways. I don’t like the EPA, the VA, the FDA, or TSA. Just saying. ineptitude rankles me.
Thanks John for the FYI. Some of my friends forced my hand into using Facebook when we as a group were working on our doctorates as a cohort. So I will have to look that information up that you mentioned in your post.
That is the primary reason I excluded Medtronic as a choice for a pump or CGM. The pump seems easy to use, but the CGM just seems unreliable and the installation is too complicated. In addition, based on Youtube videos as well as Medtronics own training videos, their solution to design flaws is to add more tape. No thank you.
Isn’t the basic difference in technology between MM CGM and better ones is that the others rely on oxygen molecules to work their magic and MM still doesn’t? I don’t think I can lay my hands on the explanatory video that I saw years ago that explained how the Navigator sensor technology worked and what I remember was something about oxygen reacting with the sensor, for reliable readings. Anyone???
I think that Medtronic are very limited in what they will discuss. They like having a chatty presence on social media however the answer to any sticky questions often seems to be “PM me your phone number and we’ll have someone contact you…” rather than any sort of actual engagement with the discussion. To me this comes across as a bit stilted. At the Unconference, I almost buttonholed the Medtronic rep and wanted to see if I could get an answer to “what is the company position on the complete dominance by Dexcom on the ‘opinion pages’ of the DOC?” but then somebody else came over and the conversation evaporated and I never got it back.
Medtronic had reps at the “Sugar Surfing” event I attended recently but they, along with the Dexcom guy, who I’ve met before, were really silent on the issue. It’s always got to be you and your doctor making the decision but doctors don’t seem to provide specifics on “you should get _______ because _______” which is very frustrating considering how expen$ive these devices are and how we have to engage with them. I sort of have a complex as I seem to be the only person in the universe who gets along well with Medtronic but my competitive side always wonders if I could do better with a different rig?
I’ve gone back to my Medtronic but I’m using a Dexcom CGM. Having the receiver integrated into my pump just doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me, and that tape business seems really kludgy. I gotta put tape over it? Whaaa?
Drug and medical devices companies are regulated in what they can say in advertising as well as in social media. Discussing the use of a drug or device in a way that is not within the scope of FDA approval is “verboten.” They can discuss or recommend off-label use of drugs and they can’t tell you to use your arm or forehead because that was not approved by the FDA. The FDA has a set of four detailed regulatory guidelines for how industry should (and shouldn’t use social media).
For the most part I like the enlite sensor but it needs help. The tape leaves me with severe red marks for a month and if I try to use iv prep or skin prep, then the red marks stay there longer. It seems that the tape actually pulls the skin off. I have to spend more money for uni solve to get the adhesive off my body and that goes for the quick sets also. I wish we can put the transmitter through some type of barrier like tegaderm. The needle that puts it in your body is huge, and causes me bleeding in some spots because I have to take a blood thinner.
The insertion device is awful. I’ve had eaten a few transmitters to it getting stuck. Press the button, let go, wait 5 secs , then press again and pull off. Doesn’t always work that way.
No use in having a CGM that predicts low and it never gets there. Just wakes me up at night, so I turn it off. Then worry when I’m driving home from a low prediction after exercise.
When this sensor stops working, I doubt seriously if I’m going to invest in another one.
A while back I went to their FB page and asked them about Carelink being incompatible with Mac OS X Mavericks, which it was for a while. I did get a specific, non-generic response, and they also followed up with me when the FDA finally allowed them to release the update. But as @Brian_BSC pointed out above, they face pretty severe constraints as to what they can and can’t say. I expect all their socmedia interactions are heavily monitored and scripted wherever possible. It’s just the nature of the beast.
Yes, I think that has been the response from Medtronic almost every time in this exchange. While I understand the FDA restrictions … and have referred to them myself in other contexts … I also don’t view that as letting the company off the hook. The drug & device companies are extremely clever at dancing around FDA limitations when they decide to do so. The constant barrage of 90 second commercials on Hulu for botax and whatever that new Type 2 med they are currently pushing is certainly illustrate this.
I feel these FDA regulations are like a lot of the situations we face. They were created by a group who thought they seemed like a good idea from a distance but didn’t have to actually live and work within them in the world as it is now. They may be intended to do no harm, but I think by stifling discussion they do just that.
We can do better. I think we should try to do better.
You should really consider a Dexcom before giving up on CGM entirely. It won’t send results to your Medtronic pump, but the receiver isn’t that big a deal to carry around and you can echo the graph to an iPhone now, and Android phone before long. And it doesn’t have any of the problems you’re describing. I actually started the process of getting Enlights last year and didn’t follow through. You make me glad I didn’t.
No issues for me or my wife re the inserter. The enlites themselves are hit and miss for me. Some are so bad I get MM to replace them. Others go longer than 10 days. go figure. taping them with IV3000’s holds them securely for 6 days, untape, charge xmitter, replace xmitter onto sensor, retape, and good to go another 6 days or thereabouts. neither of us get rashes from iv3000 or the overtapes provided by MM, nor the tape that is part of the sensor.
sadly, my wife has a MBP, which I stupidly bought for her (we go WAY back with Microsoft OS’s, all the way back to DOS). I hate her MBP, and refuse to upgrade the OS from Mavericks. Carelink works for us on Mavericks, so not sure what your issue is. Dumbest item I ever bought was a MBP. I don’t like the screen (glossy), the color gamut is too narrow and there are too many programs that don’t run on OSX that we would both like to run. you are saying “it was for a while”. sounds like an issue we never had…
I can’t understand the rational behind being saddled with MORE equipment than we already have, ie wearing a pump, sensor/xmitter, and infusion set. No way I would wear a bulky xmitter, receiver, pump, and infusion set. That is two too many things for me to contemplate, regardless of accuracy. it’s a bummer not to be able to get it whittled down to smaller/fewer, but I’d never have a change of heart in this regard.
Didn’t mean to start a religious war (Dex vs Enlight OR Mac vs PC). Some things that I find no big deal are going to strike others as intolerable, and vice versa. Just wanted to be clear that there’s nothing that inherently prevents using a Dexcom CGM if you have a Medtronic pump.
oh good grief, it’s not a “war”. I don’t even particular like Enlite. Why are several of you on this board so frickin TOUCHY?? Geeze, can’t I contribute an opinion without it being labelled a “war”?
You claim there’s nothing to prevent a user to have a Dexcom and a MM pump. I just gave you some reasons…I’m not the only diabetic on the planet that doesn’t want to wear a pump and carry a separate receiver with them 24/7. Why is that hard to fathom?
I get rashes from everything except tegaderm. It’s the only thing so far that i can use, and I have to use unisolve to get them off. EKG leads does the same thing. I have to use the hypoallergic type. Didn’t know they exist til recently. I just put the tegaderm over the sensor and it stays there. If I reuse the sensor, then I take the tegaderm off, charge the transmitter, then use a new tegaderm to tape. I don’t even use MM overtape. I also have no trouble in getting medtronic to replace the enlites or the quicksets.
my Enlite comments, they also got a bit of an earful from other folks who are more familiar with that “wacky, quirky” side of Enlite some of us get to see.
moment came when Medtronic offered to have someone call me to offer assistance when I was talking with someone about inserting an Enlite on an arm … something Medtronic very much does not support. 
I have great luck, as I’ve mentioned before, with the arm. I even posted a pic of a sensor in said arm.