CGM = pacemaker? Really?!

I wear the Dexcom CGM sensor/transmitter in the back of my arm, and as I rode my bike home from work yesterday I didn't know it was visible below my bike jersey. At a stop light another cyclist stopped beside me.

Guy: Hey, what's that thing on your arm?
Me: Oh [startled] it's a radio transmitter.
Guy: Ha! What are you, a cyborg?
Me: Ha ha - yeah (smiling) actually it's for a continuous glucose monitor, for diabetes.
Guy: Oh, I wondered if maybe it was a pacemaker.

The light changed, and I dropped him like a subtle hint. I wasn't offended by the cyborg comment, he seemed friendly and simply curious. But...a pacemaker, in my arm?? Glad I stayed ahead of him because I don't need to ride near someone so stupid.

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Comment by nel on August 13, 2010 at 6:38pm: and technology moves soooo fast , maybe he thought you were the FIRST ;) he met on his cycle travels ...in any case a good conversation piece ,if ever so short , right ?
PS Cyborg is a new word to me, please explain ...thanks

Comment by Crystal on August 13, 2010 at 7:44pm: He's not too far off. Medtronic's started out repairing medical equipment and helped produce a battery powered pace maker and the internal pace maker..They started out of their garage in 1949.

Comment by PatientX on August 13, 2010 at 10:26pm: I saw a woman wearing what looked like an infusion set on her arm so I asked her if she had an insulin pump, but it turned out to be a device used to control her heart rythm because she was in cardiac failure.

Comment by Bradford on August 14, 2010 at 10:48am: @nel - a cyborg is someone/something that's part human and part machine (at least for simplicity's sake we'll leave it at that broad of a definition :-)
So if you remember the 6 Million Dollar Man television show, or maybe Terminator of more recent times...well, I'd consider them cyborgs. So for all of us people with diabetes who wear pumps and use CGMs, I'd say we fit right into that group ;-) Except we're definitely cooler than the Terminator. Hands down. They should make a tv show or a movie about us...