Share your CGM experience here

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Permalink Reply by Manny Hernandez on June 27, 2007 at 8:25am

Kerri is posting on her Twitter page her experience with the Dexcom today.
Check it out: http://twitter.com/sixuntilme

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Permalink Reply by Debi J. on June 27, 2007 at 9:39am

I truly hope CGM becomes standard and accepted and paid for by insurance *really* soon. I am not enough of a "model patient" or assertive enough to be a frontrunner in this, but I'm sure going to get one as soon as it's commonplace. And luckily, I don't have hyoglycemic unawareness. My Minimed pump is all set to work with one so...hopefully one day soon. In the meantime, I'll be interested in reading about everyone's experiences.

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Permalink Reply by J. Davis Harte on July 4, 2007 at 12:14am

I'm done with the school year, so one of my goals is to get insurance/Minimed to cover a CGMS for me. It is a necessity! I am an excellent candidate, 30 years of *compliance*, occasional boughts of not-knowin I'm lowin', and getting primed for pregnancy. So far, I've been unsuccessful at lowering my A1C to acceptable baby-making range with my pumpin and feel strongly that CGM will behoove that 'someday-soon' effort. Why I am not allowed this yet? I'm blessed with great insurance (thanks Mikey) and still, I'm supposed to fork over "how much?#@!" out of pocket and punch through numerous stressful hoops to even ... oh, I blather. I need one. Tell me how.

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Permalink Reply by Kelly on July 8, 2007 at 8:03am

My son got it after 15 lows with seizures.( The endo group failed to dx or suspect another condition; the neuro said he shoiuld have been referred after 1 or 2. They only partially redeemed themselves after giving the rx for the RT Guardian).So we got the new Minimed pump, and the sensors. He does not like the needle on the sensor. It is mich larger, and very hard to insert. He wore it alot, and got a month's worth of numbers, turned it over to the new endo, who never interpreted the numbers to adjust basals etc. They said they had not been trained on it yet. I said they are numbers( 205 a day)!. That is about 200 more numbers than you get on average. Because of his history, Ins is covering it. We also have some good diabetes insurance.

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Permalink Reply by Steve RRR on July 26, 2007 at 8:18pm

I've used the MInimed sensors/transmitter since April. So far, I've made adjustments with the help of my pump trainer, something my endo knows about. I can upload all the data to the Minimed Carelink website, then my pump trainer can look at the numbers and make suggestions. Minimed customer service (their 1-800-minimed line) has also looked at my data this way to help with a problem of too many"lost trasmitter" situations.

When I see my endo every 3 months, I bring him the graph of where my numbers have been. It easy for him to see how I'm doing. Good luck to you and your son, Kelly.

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Permalink Reply by Mollie on July 4, 2007 at 8:53am

A friend let me try her CGM which hooked me completely - 2 weeks later I ordered my Dexcom, i have had it 1 months and have gotten 14 days out of each sensor, but notice that i get some really off readings after day 11 - but not bad enough to start a new $35 (soon to be $60) dollar sensor.

Because I am so fantastic, today I am letting another diabetic friend take possession of Dex for a week(or as long as she can get the sensor to read accurately for her).

Although it is first Generation - if this is as good as it gets - it is good enough for me.

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Permalink Reply by Karen Doering on July 5, 2007 at 6:55pm

I have found a few articles about the Real Time CGMS on Diabetesjournals, but they are quite involved.

I want to print off an article to send with my letter of medical necessity to my insurance company for this device.

Has anyone found a good article about the system explaining its usefulness over our current finger sticking method?

This is what I found, but it seems way to technical somehow, but do I really care?

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/1/44

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/28/5/1231

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Permalink Reply by Donna Heun on December 20, 2008 at 4:10pm

Karen,
These studies may seem very technical to you but this is the kind of evidence that will convince insurance companies that this technology is not "experimental" but has scientifically proven benefits. You go girl!!

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Permalink Reply by Sandy Palmer on April 18, 2009 at 8:38pm

Hi Mollie,

I have had the Dexcom since 07. When you start getting the off readings day 11 what you can do is turn it off and let it rest for 12hrs. I usually go overnight and then restart it. I get pretty good readings. My sensors used to last me between 11 and 19days. Usually though 14 was average. I do not get them covered even after a 90+ page appeal with specialty letters and hypo unawareness and so forth. I only wear mine now when I go through huge changes or when I'm sick...

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Permalink Reply by Brian on May 25, 2009 at 6:52am

This seems really strange. You let it rest??? I have been finding that my dexcom readings get really inaccurate after a week. It doesn't read highs. It stops around 160's even though my BG could be up in the 300s. Very disappointing.

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Permalink Reply by Mollie on July 6, 2007 at 12:54pm

These are the 2 sample letters Dexcom gives to have your doctor complete - i filled it all out and sent it to my doctor to sign. Just filed - no word on approval or denial yet.

Attachments:

• Sample DEX.doc, 46 KB
• Sample DEX2.doc, 29 KB

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Permalink Reply by Sara on July 6, 2007 at 3:33pm

So, it sounds like I may be able to get a MiniMed CGMS and sensors covered by my insurance after all! Not sure how long that process will take, but I had a visit with my endo at the Barbara Davis Center today (everything's looking good) and signed up for their CGM class in a couple weeks. So regardless, I'll get to play with a loaner Dexcom for a week or two and only have to pay for the sensors. I am psyched!

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