We were having a discussion on the best CGM, but in a somewhat narrow way, and since the conversation diverged, I though it might be useful to vote on the best CGM. After voting, or not, feel free to post an opinion. Also, if you think something should be changed, added, or removed, let me know…
Original Thread
The survey is here, and clicking on the image should work as well.
The 4th question is probably moot, since there’s no way to connect the answers to their previous response.
Actually, I can. Even though responses are anonymous, they are recorded such that each person’s answers are on a single line, ans I only need to use a pivot table to group them to see answers.
Good to know. All we can see from the 4th question is that nobody is impressed with the tech support they’ve gotten. LOL No surprise there.
You put guardian as an option. But I’ve use 2 previous Medtronic sensors.
The Enlite and the sofsensors. Both are pretty crappy compared to dex.
But then I also used the dexcom 3 day sensor and dexcom 7 sensor too
Thank you for putting the survey together! I couldn’t submit my response because I’m not wearing a CGM right now. But can’t wait to see more people respond on the survey.
I just quick a quick search on the current sensors, and I made some later changes to the “Why…” question. In this case I prioritized immediacy over accuracy, but left a big catchall “Other” category.
Only 16 people so far, understandably limited and not representative, but something preliminary I thought interesting, a few people chose the Senseonics Eversense as the best. Most of the respondents, myself included, used the Dexcom G6, and although we have experience with others, most of us have never used the Senseonic.
I though it interesting that the one person with the greatest breadth of experience with all the current meters chose the Senseonic.
BTW, I do not work for, or have any association with, nor used, the Sensionic product:
That might have been me…I should clarify a nuance of my vote. Eversense was best for me solely based on one feature. That feature is the low/high/falling etc alerts vibrate on your arm even if your phone is dead, out of range or turned off.
It has other attributes that might be a turn off for some users so choose wisely! But my trial of Eversense for 6 months sold me on the usefulness of that unique feature. YDMV.
The newer Libre 2 will alert with vibration, and need to scan to get details. But can’t find info that describes if there is a different vibration (short vs long for example), to let you know which (high vs low) without scan. However scan may still be required to silence alarm.
The Eversense is one I really want to love, but can’t get over one detail to try it… How was the removal process for you? I grill everyone who’s tried it for this detail, because this is the part that scares me. There’s 1 other member here who didn’t have anything bad to say, other than a small scar. I’ve heard nightmares from other people about the doctor cutting their arm wide open and digging around for it, and others who couldn’t find it at all and just left it in.
That probably has more to do with doctor skill than the device. I’ve seen studies that showed surgeons in training can vary widely in terms of ability, and most doctors are likely novices, but the more experience they have with the procedure the better the outcome, generally.
If you decide to go the Sensionics route, make sure you are seeing someone that has many of their patients using it, or at least, the extraction is done by someone deemed highly skilled.
For me. removal was not bad. Took maybe 10-15 minutes without a lot of fussing by the doc. He was experienced and seemed to have confidence the whole way through that both insertion and removal went according to plan.
Long story I will try to shorten: I actually had 3 sensors. My second sensor was dislodged about a week after insertion (ice hockey) , became infected, had to be replaced. For various reasons, I knocked the infection down with antibiotics and left that abandoned sensor in my arm for 3 more months and had both sensor #2 and sensor #3 removed at the same time.
I still have a scar on each arm though. The scars are about half the size of a raisin so they are noticeable. The scar does not bother me but I expect there are many potential users that would not want to be scarred like that.
Dexcom G6
John
Well, the number of survey takers jumped this morning from 17 to 27, so I will do another quick analysis in a day or two.
For any one that comes across this and wants to partiicpate, the survey is here, and clicking on the image should work as well.
Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of. There’s only one Endo on my entire half of Colorado, and they’re 100% loyal to Medtronic. I’m assuming they’re not even considering a sensor competitive to Medtronic. I was summarily dismissed by them at my second appointment when I came in with a competing pump, even though they were the ones who eventually signed off on the script. I’m hoing there has, or will be in the future, some changes to the extraction process that minimize the need for experience to be non-traumatic. My current doctor is so eager to learn about my D-tech, and I’m sure she’d be willing to try. I’m her only type 1 patient, though, so not too eager to be the guinea pig. I might be more willing if and when I have a pump that can communicate with the Eversense.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
My primary hospital here is NYU, and they have a great endocrinology department, but it seems that they’ve all been sold on Medtronic. It’s the marketing by the device manufacturers and pharmaceuticals that blinds/binds them, but if you raise the idea of an alternative, they are quick to offer Dexcom. By prior experience with my first CGM (actually an insulin pump) when I was uninformed, and given a Medtronic, I quickly learned that patients preferred the Dexcom, and that the doctors are misdirected by marketing.
Before their financial woes Senseonics made a marketing push and sent trainers to doctors who were able to line up a minimum number of patients for Eversense. My endo only had two so she referred me to two others who were in the program. That was in early 2019.
The company has gone through some changes since then. My gut feel is they will make another push when the 180 day sensor is FDA approved. I will probably wait until that 180 day sensor is available and try it again. They are also planning a 365 day sensor.
Just wanted to clarify, john58 is talking about the eversense sensor vibrating on your arm many times and different patterns for highs and lows…3 short for lows, long vibrations for highs. Very distinct and no phone or reader needed to be in the vicinity…the libre 2 sensor does not vibrate. The libre 2 sensor reader vibrates a little if you turn on the vibration, but I’ve had many lows and highs where I did not receive an alert (while at work where it is recommended to wear ear protection)…eversense is still my favorite, but their app was useless to me and I spent a couple days researching how to make it work with xdrip and my watch/xdrip watch faces…but eversense was by far the most accurate especially recovering from lows…my us 14 day libre has a huge 30 min delay after treating a low, where eversense was about 10 minutes… my eversense removal was relatively OK, I still have 2 scars and every 3 months is too short… the 1 year should be next in the us, but my Dr was on her 19th removal on my 2nd sensor and most people’s skin will attach to it making removal tough
