See for yourself. I found this on a website (can’t remember which) and it reflects my experience. There is a noticeable difference. The Navigator does not have a hard wire, but rather a flimsy plastic piece about the consistency of a transparency film (my photo below).
Wow. That’s a pretty noticeable difference!
With such a big size difference, I bet the Navigator also produces a lot less scar tissue. Hmmmm.
I’m interested: if you DO decide to switch, can you return a CGM? What do you do about insurance and payment issues?
I ask because I’ve had the MiniMed CGM for about 3 weeks, and I’m about to toss the thing out the window. The tape hurts like hell, it doesn’t catch a single low, and when I try to calibrate it to reflect a low, I get a CAL ERROR message.
With any device or supply order, if the company will accept a return (mainly dependent on time frame), you’ll need to notify your insurance so they can request a refund for their portion. I did this with a shipment of infusion sets mistakenly sent to me after I’d switched to another pump. My insurance was MORE than happy to get their money back on a processed claim. First, you’d need to call Minimed. I’d do it before 30 or 45 days was up from purchase. Call and ask what their return policy is. You don’t have to commit to returning it (and they may try to troubleshoot with you to deter you from returning it). Just call around and do some research so you know your options. I found on this website here where it says there’s a 30-day return policy.
Also remember that most systems won’t allow you to calibrate your readings unless you’re currently stable AND in range. If you’re moving too quickly in one direction or the other or are too high or too low, they can’t calibrate. That’s probably why you’re getting the CAL ERROR.
Posts of unhappy MM CGM users outnumber the posts of other unhappy CGM users by a wide margin. I don’t know whether the reason is that there are more MM CGM users than other CGM users or whether other CGMs are better. There are a lot of posts of unhappy MM CGM users who switched to DexCom 7+ or Navigator and are extremely happy now. I would try my best to switch from the MM CGM to DexCom 7+ or Navigator before it is too late.
Mine often fails to catch lows too Jacquie - but not consistently, some sensors/placements do ok, others not so well. Then again, it wasn’t nearly as often if memory serves, but the DexCom sometimes did this too - finding I was 40 when the DexCom said 85.
I’ve ended up recently setting my low alarm much higher than you would think, at 90, and then testing myself if it gets there to see if I’m actually 50, and occasionally I am. Of course, this wouldn’t necessarily have helped when I was 30 and seizing and the CGMS said 130… Thus investigating the diabetes dogs.
Guess I’m the lucky one. My MM722/CGMS has worked fantastic. For me, the key is to calibrate when I am stable. I do not calibrate all the time as some have mentioned. Minimum of twice daily. Extremely rare I ever see a “cal error”. I can’t even remember more than once having that happen, and that was my first few days when I did a calibrate with too high of a bg reading. On the other side, many times when I test, that bg number has been identical to my cgms. When not identical, within around 20% difference. It just goes on and on. That ominous sensor needle didn’t look inviting and I heard so many complain about it. So I am still wondering why I rarely even feel it when I put a new one in. I also get at least 6-8 days per sensor.
For me, this experience using the MM722 + CGMS has been just great. I am so pleased in it’s performance. I have hypo unawareness and this “trend” feature is a life saver for me. My wife is a RN and at one time was afraid to leave me alone, for fear of me going low and not knowing it in time to recover. Now, she is so relieved after seeing how this system works.
I hated my MM CGMS, it was never right, it would say I was 230 and I’d be 40something, it would say i was 40something and I’d be in the 200’s. I even sat in my doctors office one day while the stupid thing was alarming and had them deal with it, they couldn’t figure out why it was messing up. They had MM come in and everything, I was in the office half a day trying to trouble shoot it, she confirmed that I was doing everything right.
I also hated the excess scartissue, that thing scared me worse than anything.
The only reason I was using it was to see trends and catch low’s, it couldn’t even do that properly. The sensors kept going bad too.
I don’t know maybe I’m just another strange person with body chemistry that doesn;t work with MM.
I bet that would be very frustrating Kate. I’m sorry you had such a bad experience with it.
I on the other hand, am having fantastic results with my MM722+CGMS. The more I read and see and hear, I really think a lot of it has to do with our individual physiology. This has been a real life saver for me. I could never tell when I was getting low until it was too late. I rarely have low’s anymore and my hypo problem is improving because of using this. I wish it worked this well for all users. Some say that using another brand helped them a great deal. Have you considered changing pump/cgms systems? I know that is easier said than done, but if it would be possible, I’d sure want to perhaps try it.
I wish you well and hope you can find what works good for you.