I am increasingly frustrated with my CGMS from Medtronic. Here's why:
#1. Having to turn off the wireless interface between my Onetouch Ultralink meter and my MM 722 pump. The reason? Because the CGMS interprets every single test performed as a calibration reading. Too many calibrations "confuse" the CGMS, resulting in bad readings. That whole last statement really doesn't pass the smell test with me, but anyway.
Why is this frustrating you ask? Here's why: It is one more damn thing I…
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Added by Scott on November 19, 2009 at 11:00am —
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On Friday, November 13 I was fortunate enough to attend a WDD Luncheon at the
Samuel U Rogers Health Center in Kansas City, MO.
Cherise of
Diabetic Iz Me let me know about the event and I am glad I was able to attend. Cherise's mom is the Outreach Director there and organized this event. Here's a…
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Added by Scott on November 14, 2009 at 11:30am —
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That is all
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Added by Scott on October 19, 2009 at 8:54pm —
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Over the past few weeks, I've really been working on fine-tuning my pump settings. Adjusting sensitivity, ratios and basal rates. As such, I was expecting to have some days where my numbers would be all jacked up. And sure enough, there were some. Yesterday was such a day and as I was watching my son's football game I suddenly asked myself "How long has this damn infusion set been in anyway?"
I checked my pump and it had been in for
5 frak'n days. When I realized that, a whole bunch of t…
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Added by Scott on September 11, 2009 at 9:24am —
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I believe that the health insurance issues are just a symptom and while I want the following to happen, I can almost guarantee that none of it ever will. If it is not currently unconstitutional, these items will totally destroy the current power-base held by our elected officials and long-term bureaucrats. Thus, the never happen part. They are listed in no particular order of relative importance
And before we get started, I want to state up front that momma always said I wasn’t the brightest cr…
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Added by Scott on August 14, 2009 at 10:00am —
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A dangerous pastime. I know. Always thought
Beauty and the Beast was one of the better Disney films...
Anyway, a lot of the recent blogs and discussions that I've been reading around the D blog-sphere have gotten me thinking a bit more about my situation and, in particular, the way I feel about diabetes.
I've had people ask me about how I feel about having diabetes before and I usually just give kind of an odd look. I've had it so long, that while I get frustrated with it some ti…
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Added by Scott on July 30, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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Seriously, I hate naming these things...
well, I may have just had my best day since starting pumping ...
I was at the doc a couple weeks ago and told her my last A1c was a 6.0. She said "Wow, that's great, when was the last time it was that low?" I started to say "I not sure it was eve…
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Added by Scott on July 23, 2009 at 8:26am —
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It's been a while since I posted anything, been swamped and really just haven't felt like it.
On the D front, good news. My ophthalmologist (lord I have trouble spelling that) saw no signs of retinopathy this time around, I had had some changes in my eyes previously.
My latest A1c was a 6.0, I actually feel like I earned this score. I've been able to get the swings leveled out, tho I still have too many lows, but working on that one too. The Symlin has helped alot on this front as well as the…
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Added by Scott on July 6, 2009 at 10:00am —
9 Comments
That song from Staind has been going thru my head today. It seems to be roaming pretty freely, must not be much else in the way inside there...
I've been on my Medtronic CGMS for just over a month now and think I am finally starting to get the hang of it.
The issues mostly involved
1) Frustration when the numbers were way off and I didn't understand why -- This mostly came from wanting to believe the numbers when my sugar levels were changing rapidly. I really have to be aware of what is "pro…
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Added by Scott on June 4, 2009 at 2:06pm —
4 Comments
On using my CGMS after using my CGMS for two weeks...
I did learn a couple of things about the Medtronic system
1)
You need to turn the wireless on your meter off. When the engineers at Medtronic were designing things, every test your meter sent to the pump was considered a calibration test. In real life, this was a mistake. You don't want to have a calibration number entered when your sugar is changing rapidly. And guess what? When it is changing rapidly is when we may be testing most.…
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Added by Scott on May 15, 2009 at 6:30am —
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Welp, got my CGMS system from Medtronic today... now to find out when the Medtronic CDE can train me
I'm looking forward to it, not so much for the hypo warnings, but for the trending information it will provide.
Using Symlin, I've found out that I need to do things differently if I'm say at 90 and trending downward than I do if I am trending upward or am stable. Sometimes I just have to guess what is actually going on, sometimes I'm right, sometimes wrong.
I think this is probably the last p…
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Added by Scott on April 30, 2009 at 4:11pm —
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Added by Scott on April 23, 2009 at 8:39pm —
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Well, after a battle with Coventry Healthcare of Kansas, I received a phone call today telling me that my appeal had been approved and that I would be able to get coverage for a CGMS. I may be the first person that Coventry has approved for such device.
What I really learned tho, is how an appeal process really works.
When you appeal, Coventry (and maybe other companies)will ONLY send the information that you include in the appeal. It is up to the reviewing doctor then to obtain other informat…
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Added by Scott on April 15, 2009 at 5:00pm —
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Now, most folks would be ecstatic with and A1c of 6.2 (maybe the best score I've ever had), but not this cranky, old man. Know why?
Because I am still out of control with numbers ranging from 30 to 250. Matter of fact, I was 34 at about 2:30 am this morning. Well, at least one thing is consistent in all this.. an average will almost always be wrong. My average glucose level was 152 for the last 3 months and that should translate to a 6.9%. A 6.2 should give me an average number of 132.
I wonde…
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Added by Scott on March 16, 2009 at 12:00pm —
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Just felt like yelling that
That is all
Scott
Today's snarky comment:
FRAK Continue
Added by Scott on March 7, 2009 at 10:00pm —
5 Comments
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the response I received to a complaint letter I had written about my first CDE. (
Complaint letter here and
their response letter here)
I even asked…
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Added by Scott on March 6, 2009 at 12:30pm —
1 Comment
Hi folks,
I seem to be having lots of discussions with folks lately about Symlin. I thought I'd throw up a graphic of my Trends Summary from Carelink. It has 3 periods on it. The first is when I was on the initial sample I received. Second is when the sample was gone and I was fighting with insurance to cover it. And C shows the results since I was able to start it again. The trends summary just shows averages, I am still getting some swings, but I am now able to adjust things so they are start…
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Added by Scott on March 3, 2009 at 9:00am —
2 Comments
A few weeks ago, I blogged about a complaint letter I was sending (see
Well isn't this just special...). Here is the original letter
Redacted_Letter.PDF
Here is the heavily redacted response I received.…
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Added by Scott on February 26, 2009 at 10:00am —
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Taking insulin and being resistant to it. Oh joyous days!
You know, it just seems that the harder I work to get my diabetes under tight control (real tight control not that ADA cr**), the harder I have to work to make it happen.
For years, I kinda slid on thru life with A1c's in the upper 6's low 7's. Then I started having highs after meals. Started pumping. Found out I was having an immune response to the insulin I had been taking for years. Changed insulins. New insulin is higher copay becau…
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Added by Scott on February 13, 2009 at 9:00am —
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(I really don't like phrases like that, but it seemed appropriate. Don't get me started on "thinking outside the box"! I'm warning you!!)
Hello everyone, thought I'd throw out a quick update
Symlin: me likey
I have a problem where my 2hr PP sugars are always way high (250-300 range is not uncommon) and my 4hr PP numbers tend to be way low (70 and below is not uncommon if I don't watch it). So we had been taking big boluses to cover the 2hr numbers and the Novalog was still way active and, wor…
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Added by Scott on February 6, 2009 at 11:30am —
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