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Permalink Reply by MaryMary on June 26, 2011 at 4:02pm

Why not just put it in the cup holder? That way no one can fault you for having it mounted. If it beeps you can pick it up and take a look instead of fishing it out of your pocket. I really doubt that anyone looks at their CGM every 5 minutes, but having it handy to look at if it alarms is a good thing.

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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on June 26, 2011 at 6:16pm

I'd still consider that "in jeopardy", depending on the circumstances. You could very well get away with it, since it's not as "obvious" as a cell phone (although the Dex receiver thingy sort of looks like a cell phone/ ipod sort of gizmo? Perhaps a hidden advantage of the MM with it's ***bling-free*** display? LOL...) and get a "no harm no foul" but if you were to find yourself "apprehended", the consequences of these sort of cases can drag on for years. Any layer of complexity can increase the cost of the case. A lot of times, insurance will cover it but, at the same time, if a plaintiff (or their attorney...) gets a bee in their bonnet about your medical condition and the mysterious device that was in your car that they learned about because of the natural chaos @ the scene of the MVA, all of a sudden there's some risk to the person involved? Again, I only have experience in Illinois, Wisconsin and a few other states and I'm *not* an attorney but, at the same time, the trend is to make it illegal to mess around with your i-gadget or Droid or whatever and insulin computers would seem to have the same risk of distracting drivers and fall under the broad language of the legislation I've seen.

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Permalink Reply by acidrock23 on June 29, 2011 at 1:14pm

Well, I only do that if there's no cops around!

Permalink Reply by MyBustedPancreas on June 27, 2011 at 9:56am

Funny, I just wrote a blog post about why I don't CGM - http://mybustedpancreas.com/2011/06/19/why-i-dont-cgm/.

I do not CGM at this time for several reasons.

I'm running out of real estate on my abdomen and I am already horrible about rotating pump sites (hard in the summer because I like to wear nice summer things, which make abdominal pump sites preferrable). My control is fairly good too; not great, but good. Anyway, I have had hypo seizures before and sometimes fail to recognize hypos, but neither often enough to the point where I feel I have to have a CGM. And quite frankly, carrying around all my D crap is already complicated enough. I don't want to throw anything else into my bag.

BUT, the biggest reason I don't CGM is the accuracy. For me, they just aren't accurate enough to warrant the cost and effort. I test my BG 12-14 times per day. I would prefer that, instead of paying for a CGM, my insurance paid for more test strips.

That all said, I think CGMs are the technology of the future, and I certainly hope that they improve in terms of accuracy and cost (and ease of use for Minimed's CGM). When cost comes down and they are more accurate, I would definitely consider it again. I would love to use Minimed's integrated CGMS, but getting that sensor in is a B*&CH. And it's accuracy was worse that Dexcom's.

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Permalink Reply by Laura S. on June 27, 2011 at 10:57am

Nice blog post!

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Permalink Reply by Natalie ._c- on June 27, 2011 at 6:06pm

I have a Medtronic, and I use the serter, and have exactly NO problem getting the sensor in. Load the serter, press the button, and WHAM!! So I'm curious what caused you problems.

I also don't worry so much about the accuracy -- it IS usually a ballpark figure, although once in a while it does go crazy. Meters are only a ballpark figure too -- plus or minus 20% is not particularly accurate in my book. I think I mostly like the CGM because it yells at me when I'm higher than the arbitrary figure I set for high. At the moment, it's 140, but I've done it at 120, too. That turned out to be too low, because it was yelling at me all the time, but 140 works well -- when it yells at me, I could be 140 or I could be 180, but I would do something about it in either case. Before I had the CGM, I used to regularly be in the 200s and not be aware of it, and not think to test. Mostly lazy, to be truthful, but I like the fact that the CGM keeps me honest.

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