Using a DexCom with a Medtronic Pump instead of Medtronic CGM

I am a happy Medtronic Pumper and also an athlete, participating in marathons, triathlons and other endurance events. The more I am out at events with other people with Diabetes I am noticing more and more that Medtronic pumpers are choosing to use the DexCom rather than using the Medtronic CGM.


Those of you who have a Medtronic Pump and a DexCom CGM, give me some ideas of why you made the decision to not use the Medtronic CGM. Thanks!
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I am a former Medtronic Pump/CGM user. I switched over to Dexcom while still using my MM722 pump.

For me, the MM CGM was incredibly painful to insert and wear; I bled with just about every insertion. The Dexcom sensors are a lot more comfortable. But, even more important, the Dexcom is significantly more accurate than Medtronicā€™s CGM, and it lasts longer.

The convenience of having an ā€œall-in-oneā€ solution was nice, but not enough to make me stay with a painful, inaccurate device.

Not long after getting a Dexcom, I switched over to OmniPod. Now, it looks like they will soon integrate with Dexcom, so Iā€™ll get my ā€œall-in-oneā€ solution after all.

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I have the Paradigm Pump and Dexcom 7+ā€¦ my reason is that I ignore pretty much all the alarms that go off on my insulin pump (I have a lot of alarm clock alarms set up and on vibrate mode) - as the Dex 7+ is pretty basic about having an alarm go off for lows or highs, I know that when Dex yodels at me I need to take of myself and take action. All three of my kids (besides Hubby) have gotten to where they get after me when they hear Dex alert (whereas, they donā€™t hear my insulin pump and also ignore the insulin pump). (Also note that after having an insulin pump for 8 years and using the alarm clock function, you can really see how I along with family ignore the insulin pump alarms.)

Iā€™m also a bleeder - just inserting my infusion sets I sometimes bleed so much that blood gets pretty far up into the tubing. After seeing Kerri Sparlingā€™s pictures on her website which shows blood after insertion of the Minimed Guardian transmitter, I immediately knew that the MM CGMS would not work well for me. The Dex sensor needle is the size of 2 hair widths and small. Kerri Sparling has a website www.sixuntilme.com - Iā€™m not sure where she has the pictures.

I also enjoy the Dex start up time of 2 hours compared to the other CGMS models but then again I have only used Dexcom so I donā€™t really know if there would be more of a benefit for me waiting 10 hours before having the receiver give me a guideline of how my blood sugar levels are doing.

Another reason I didnā€™t go with Navigatorā€¦ I originally tried to get the Navigator and found out it was on backorder already for 2 months and I was #7 or #8 on their waiting list and I was told it would be yet another unknown month, etc. I found out that I could get a Dexcom sent to me within 3 days (the trainer called me before Dex arrived on my doorstep!) - so far I have not had any backorder issues with Dexcom but I always seem to read about backorder issues with the Abbott Navigator. I also had problems with Abbottā€™s customer service, Dexcom has always been there for me - even when I had problems (even at 2 am).

Good Luck on your choice of CGMS.

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Iā€™m a new pumper (3 weeks tomorrow). I have the Paradigm 754 (or Paradigm Veo) and Iā€™m loving it. I had a week trial with the MM CGM and I had some really annoying problems. I had to change my sensor after two days, and the calibration errors were constantā€¦ From all Iā€™ve read, I have the exact same impression, that people prefer DexCom over Medtronic CGM. Have you decided yet what device do you want to use?
I have a bigger problem though, I live in Portugal, where the DexCom is not yet availableā€¦ I emailed them yesterday to get some infos, so I hope they reply me soon.

Hi Heidi,
I just started using the Dexcom 7+, and have been pumping with the MM for over a year. I love my Paradigm pump, but am not thrilled with their CGMS

After trialing the MM CGMS last year, and now having the Dexcomā€¦I love my Dex. While I can see integration with your pump would be nice, I actually like being able to have a seperate unit. For instance, often times I put my pump in my dress socks if I am working(like right now LOLā€¦slow morning!), and it would be hard to check where I am at/heading often if I had to pull my pump out.

I LOVE(as much as you can, however) the insertion process Dexcom uses. I hate the inserter for the MM, reminds me of the Sil Serter which I donā€™t like (it never inserts the first time I press the button, which causes extra anxiety).

I have found my Dexcom to be pretty accurate for me. To the point I trust(with finger poke confirmations) the readings.

My only grief with the Dexcom is that you canā€™t scroll back to read past numbers and see a ā€˜timeā€™ for it. On the MM CGMS I could scroll through each reading and see the exact reading and time. Unless you have a moment to upload the Dexcom, you have to guess the ā€˜roughā€™ estimate of when the reading was taken, and again what the BG was.

Overall though, I am very happy with my Dexcom, and very happy with my MM pump.

Good Afternoon,
Interestingly, I just let my endo know that I want to change back to the Dexcom 6. I have used the Tandium pump then changed to the Ominpod with Dexcom CDM, then changed to the Medtronics 670G with autofeed. I never had as many issues as I have had with the Dexcom CGM as I have had with the Medtronic CGM. I love the auto adjusting, but the pump was asking for BG readings in the early morning (around 3-4 am), and that was the entire reason I changed to the pump- to avoid the 3am alerts due to my sugar dropping out. The Medtronics pumps doesnā€™t have an app for it, you have to calibrate the sensors at least 2-5 times a day, and more importantlyā€¦I am constantly having to sensors back because they fail around day 4. Again, I maybe had an issue with 2 sensors with the Dexcom and it was because of bleeding during insertion. I think the new design is much better. So, I will giving up on the sensors with the pump and changing over to the dexcom. I miss having the alerts to the family as well. I loved my Omnipod!!! I wish I could change back to that. The only issue I had with that one was that the pods were designed to have the weight of the pod resting on the cannula and that caused a lot of bruising for me. I hope some if this helps. Let me know if you have more questions :):grinning:

The Medtronic CGM was often off 200 points from my finger stick. Sometimes it was off by over 300 points or more and my Dr was trying to adjust my meter by the Medtronic reading, which was resulting in massive lows, which could have easily caused me to have died or even had an accident and killed or maimed someone else. I have not had the problems with lows once I started back on the DexCom. The DexCom readings might be off, but at no point have they been off by more than 30 or 40 points. What a difference, instead of trying to fight with a CGM reading that is regularly off by more than a hundred points and trying to use that reading to make insulin adjustments while at work or worse while driving. Can you imagine if a child was having adjustments made while the CGM was that far out of range?

I really disliked my enlite sensors. I used a dexcom with my animas pump but when I got my medtronic 630 g I used medtronicā€™s sensor for a bit. I didnā€™t like them. They only went 6 days but on day 5 they were inaccurate. The taping was ridiculous and 2calabrations a day. I am now using a dexcom g6. Much better technology.

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I have been on the 770 since April13th 2021. I started Automode on the 20th. I have had a different experience with the Guardian3 sensor. They have been accurate except on the last day. I am anxiously waiting for the Zeus sensor as it will only need calibrating one the first day only. I am sure covid has probably delayed the release of it.