Trying to remember how to dance to the tune of a Harpoon

I’m at a minor transition point in my supply of Medtronic CGM sensors.

Earlier this year the VA pharmacy sent me more Enlite’s than I could possibly use up before their “use before” date. I finally managed to use those up 3 days ago.

(For those who don’t know … or care ? :wink: … Enlites appear to always be given an expiration date exactly 180 days after their date of manufacture. CGM sensors are definitely not something you stock up on.)

But rather than immediately start the new box of Enlites I received 2 weeks ago, I have decided to try to “finish off” the 5 Harpoon sensors (aka “Sof Sensor”) degrading away in my frig. They are left over from when I originally started CGM last November before switching to Enlites.

It’s sort of a combination of not having the emotional makeup to just throw stuff out when it is still potentially usable and also realizing that these Harpoons technically expired over 6 months ago and are not getting any younger. So, back down memory lane I go.

It’s interesting. All my expectations are now based on my Enlite experience and I am having a hard time remembering just what the heck is a reasonable Calibration Factor for a Harpoon. I am tentatively going with around twice the range I’d consider reasonable for an Enlite.

At the moment I’m on my second of the five. First one didn’t even last me 24 hours before I decided it was dead. Almost did that with the second one, but decided to see if it would “improve” with age. Maybe it has. But I’m still keeping an eye on it. :smirk:

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I don’t use Enlites so can’t advise but can certainly empathize. Actually, in my case I don’t even think it’s as reasonable as “waste not.” I was just noticing the tower of Assante infusion set boxes stacked next to my D supplies drawer. Well, I’ve still got the Snap and it’s always good to have a backup amirite? Plus maybe I’ll get to use them when Bigfoot releases their Assante-based pump in a couple of years. But really it’s more of an anxiety thing. Like the panic I had last Saturday after I got back from my bike ride and discovered that the cover of the bikebag I keep my DB stuff in had somehow come unvelcro-ed and my ContourNext had flung itself out somewhere along the 5 mile route. And thus the rule of “You Just Don’t Want To Throw That Away” came into play in the form of that OneTouch way in the back of the drawer that–also because YJDWTTTA–had enough strips to see me through the two days it took to replace my Contour (yay Amazon Prime).

I had zero luck with Sof Sensors. Such bad luck that after trying everything MM could think of, I got my money back on the system. I have better (not “great”) luck with the Enlites. Enlites in the arm are amazing, Enlites in my abdomen are awful, and I’m not sure I’ll ever try the thigh again as I barely got to through DAY 6, with DAY 1 being useless.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for Waste Not Want Not. But I also have my limits. I’d toss the remainder of those harpoons. Or repurpose them: can you use them to attach things to a cork board?

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or make some diabetes-supplies-art out of them

For several years I used Sof-Sensors that were 6 months or more past their expiry date. They worked just as well (or if you like just as badly) as the in-date ones. I averaged 8-10 days from each sensor (my best one ever lasted 14 days).

Although they were a great advance on relying on fingersticks alone, they were nowhere near as accurate as a Dexcom (or Enlite). Inserting could be painful!!

Looking at some of my old Carelink reports CFs were typically around 6 for a good sensor.

Joel

Just thinking about someone else doing that raises a small nervous twitch of discomfort. Not. Really. A. Possibility. (For me).

Yeah, not really seeing that. Best I seem to have done so far is in the 8’s. Still, it hasn’t been all as bad as I had feared. One thing which probably helps is having lowered expectations. :smirk:

Location, location, location.

At this point I am more than 80% sure I can place an Enlite on my abdomen & get a usable (for me) 6 or 7 days. My problem with my abdomen is not so much performance as skin sensitivity. The skin on my stomach seems much more prone to develop itching after a few days which drives me mad. Even though the sensor may be performing well I still want to rip it off to stop the itching! :open_mouth:

That’s also a big part of why I am liking using my upper arms. It seems to perform relatively well but without skin irritation.

I get variable luck with my thighs. That’s actually where I have my current Harpoon inserted and it seems to doing an adequate enough job at the moment. With Enlites I think I have better luck inserting very high up on front center of a thigh. Just a few inches or less under the crease where my leg joins my torso. (I’m sure there are precise anatomical terms for this, but I have no idea what they might be … nor how to find them with Google. :blush: )

The main concern I have with using my thighs is finding a spot to insert which minimizes probe kinking. The sensors I pull from my thighs always seem to have some amount of kinking. Surprisingly, kinking does not always seem to imply a sensor won’t work at all. But I’ve got to believe it also doesn’t help.

No matter where I insert I never seem to get much beyond 6 1/2 days. The last sensor in my abdomen I was able to get close to 8 days before it went casters up. After pulling it I noticed that the sensor probe wire had apparently separated from the probe sheathing. Never a good thing in my experience … :unamused:

Pity there isn’t a “Where is my meter?” mapping app you can pull up, no? :unamused:

I had a slightly similar experince a month or three ago. While I actually knew where I had forgotten & left my meter, the building was locked and I had to wait until the next day before I could go back and retrieve it. I also dug into my “box of forgotten meters” and pulled out an Accu-chek Aviva which still had viable strips.

But the experience was annoying enough to also prompt me to get a cheapo backup Contour Next meter. (Yes, I also got it from Amazon. … it just seemed easier than schlepping around to pick one up. :blush: )

But that’s the REALLY infuriating thing–just a couple weeks ago I got a Trackr gadget and put it in the case I carry the thing around in. It mapped it as being located about a block over from the route I took, so I actually rode back there. Nothing on the street, but there was a Starbucks and a hotel on the same corner so I thought maybe some kind person had picked it up. I actually went into both places, annoying customers and staff, but no dice. I finally gave up, but it’s so frustrating to have the gadget and not have it help! Not to mention I’ve lost the Trackr as well. Yeesh.

I do have my contact info on a card I keep in the case and was hoping someone might call, but it’s been over a week, so I guess that’s that. Fortunately they aren’t too expensive. $39 on Amazon Prime.

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I also lost my meter during a bike ride, many years ago. Went back to the trail within an hour or so and got REALLY LUCKY in that I found it. I knew which parts of the trail are especially bumpy so I concentrated my search efforts there.