Monday, June 14, 2010

The girl on the box...

For those of you who have a Medtronic insulin pump- have you ever noticed the girl on the box that your pump comes in? She's all sitting there...styling her insulin pump and her CGM...eating a piece of pizza of all things. I hate the pump girl on the box. I absolutely despise her. How is she sitting there...all happy...eating a slice of pizza..acting like that's okay! I don't know about most of you...but insulin pumps really do NOT help with eating pizza. Maybe Medtronic should think about that next time they develop a crappy CGM and send it to me with a girl on the box. I hate the girl on the box.

I'm completely and 100% frustrated with my CGM today. I'm on day 4 and this thing seems to be completely worthless. I've done nothing but treat it well. I've calibrated many times each day, making sure I'm steady and entering the numbers in. I thought this was a simple and helpful reminder to continue testing with my meter. Things seemed great the first 2 days...and then..bam.

Saturday night and Sunday, I was pretty much high all day. This hasn't happened to me in a long time because of the rapid testing 10x a day. However, Diabetes Educator lady told me NOT to correct anything over 250 so they can work on getting my baseline, unless I eat something. So....tired of being high all day, I eat a granola bar so I can correct the high and I knew the exact amount of carbs....3 hours later...still high...WTF?

Wake up this morning, still frustrated at high readings on the sensor and on my meter. Plus, they are more than 40 points apart every single time I check it. I was high all day at work...feeling like shit. I called DE lady and of course, she doesn't return my call. I just wanted her to tell me it was okay to correct when it was over 200, no returned phone call = much frustration.

Trying to keep a positive attitude- I made stuffed peppers for dinner. The Hubby and I got in the car and headed to the gym. I was excited...I'm going to drop the 20 pounds I need to. Middle of the workout, sensor is steady at 120 and 113..I'm feeling good, but decide to check for the hell of it with my meter. 50! Yes, that's right...50! So, I stop my workout, chew on some life savers and wait for my sensor to alarm that "hello, you're low!" About 20 minutes into my hypo and on my way home from the gym, sensor FINALLY alarms at 78 with 1 arrow down. However, my meter screams at 103.......UGH.....Thank GOD I'm going to the Endo on Wednesday....if this continues to go like this....it's a useless piece of crap.

Please...someone share something positive about their Minimed CGM?? The pizza girl on the box isn't cutting it for me!

7 comments:

  1. I have been using the Minimed CGM for the past 3 months and have absolutely loved it. Most of the time I find the readings very close to my meter. I have experienced a couple of times where my blood sugar was low and the cgm wasn't showing that yet...it was about 10 minutes behind. I could tell i was going low because of the continued fall of my sugars going outside of my range. Also to note- is that once you have come back up from a low the cgm will be about 10 - 20 minutes behind.
    The key is timing of the calibrations. Don't give up on it yet. Sounds like you are super frustrated because of the high blood sugars and the cgm is contributing to the frustration because you see it every 5 minutes.
    good luck

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  2. Thanks Lindsay! I'm feeling a little better about it this morning after I was very steady all night and numbers matched up this morning. How do you time your calibrations? I use my meter to test my blood sugar about 10 times a day, so if my sensor is showing steady...I usually calibrate...do you think this is too much? I didn't know if I could calibrate "too much" but I have a call into my DE, so hopefully I'll hear back from her today.

    Thanks for the feedback...great way to start my morning!

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  3. Unfortunately I've heard this a lot with the Minimed CGM. I've never worn it so I can't talk from experience but a girlfriend of mine wears one and she says it's always giving her problems and is way behind on her sugars. :-(

    I've only used the Dexcom so I can't give you good news about the MiniLink to make you feel better. But maybe some bad news about the Dexcom will make you feel a little better!?! The biggy for me is that you can't take Tylenol when you are wearing a Dexcom. It will give you false high readings (the sensor misinterprets it as glucose). This is a MAJOR bummer for me because I can get wicked migraines and the only thing that helps is Excedrin (which has Tylenol in it).

    I forgot this one night and popped a couple before bed. I was woken up in the middle of the night with a 400 blood sugar on my CGM!! I tested and was 121. Stupid CGM. Won't do that again!

    I can't imagine what it must be like NOT to be able to correct for highs. UGH! That must SUCK! Hopefully it will be over soon for you! And hang in there with your CGM. I think it's all about working out the kinks. Good luck!

    ~Layne

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  4. Hey lady - I usually calibrate my blood sugars 3 times a day. Any more than that and I feel like it has difficulty keeping up with the changes, even if my BG is steady. I calibrate first thing in the morning, in the mid-afternoon (usually around 4pm) and then right before I go to bed (at like 10:30 or 11pm). Sometimes I have issues if I have a bad sensor or if it's just "off" for awhile, but for the most part, the trends are spot on even if the BG number is wrong. That's why I'm so excited to get the Revel! I really think having the arrows will help make the difference.

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  5. Also, notice all the models' flat stomachs w/ no scars or tiny red dots anywhere. That's why I hate them. :P

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  6. I realize I'm late on this post but hey, any news is good news right?
    I've had shit luck with my minimed CGM also, UNTIL... i started putting it FAR away from my infusion set. I got fantastic results with it on my lower back and also on my thigh. anywhere on my belly and i want to throw the thing across the room.
    cheers.

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  7. Scully- Thanks for this- I told my husband immediately (the CGM is a daily conversation of hate in our lives)! I'm going to try your advice and I thank you for it. My main question- when you put it on your thigh- do you use the front, side, back?? I'm really worried that it's going to hurt- does it? I used my back once and it worked well but the pump had a hard time keeping a signal with the transmittor. UGH! I'll try moving away from the belly and let you know. Thank you so much for sharing!!

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