Tuesday, August 29, 2006

NYT on CGMS

The New York Times has a short article (registration required) on the thrills of wearing the Minimed CGMS. It's written by a journalist who has had diabetes for 30 years.

I don't know, maybe it's because it's the NYT, but it does make me think that the Minimed device isn't quite for me yet. This despite my endo and others already telling me the same thing.

My ideal CGMS? One that requires minimal calibration, with readings that are within 5% of my meter and that has an alarm that can be switched off for short periods.

Call me crazy for the last feature request, but so many folks I've read or talked with have tales of being kept awake at night because the device is repeatedly warning them of lows (which may be wrong because of the 15%+ variability between the device and their meter). It sounds like a nightmare to me. (Thanks to Caro for correcting me about this last point. There are ways to have less alarms go off!)

I wonder how long it will be before someone is offering a CGMS bag that muffles the noise for sound sleeping? :-)

2 Comments:

At August 29, 2006 6:16 AM , Caro said...: But you can turn the low alarm on the Guardian RT off - I've done it several times. You can also set the repeat interval to anything between 20 minutes and 1 hour. If you are really certain you aren't low, you can go ahead and turn it off, but since I never know whether I may be dropping, I tend to use the 1 hour interval instead.

The only thing you can't do is set the low alarm onto 'snooze'. This is a function with the high alarm that means it won't alert you to another high for between 1 and 12 hours, but normal high alarms will resume automatically after that. You can also turn the high alarm off and vary its repeat interval too.
At August 29, 2006 9:50 PM , MileMasterSarah said...: Bernard,
You have some good thoughts on CGMS....and Im sure if I had a system, I would be frustrated by alarms warning of lows that really weren't lows at some point (I really love to sleep but it seems I never really get to sleep longer than 3 hours at a stretch)....But I still really want one....really really really badly!

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Diabetes: technology, devices, software, and other stuff.

: Name: Bernard Farrell; Location: Massachusetts, United States

I was born in Ireland and now live in the US. I have had Type 1 diabetes for over 35 years. I struggle with my blood sugar, the same as most people with diabetes. I currently wear a Minimed 512 insulin pump and will shortly switch to a Cozmo 1800 pump. I also wear a Dexcom CGM to track my blood glucose levels. I also take Symlin to help control my post-meal blood sugars. I'm blessed by God, and every day brings the possibility of a cure.

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