Friday, May 11, 2012

To CGM or Not?

Emerson recently had a quarterly appointment with her endo.  During this appointment we met with the practice’s nurse that handles the different technologies available to T1Ds, including pumps and CGMs, to talk about getting a ketone meter.  As we have mentioned in various posts in the past, we have been interested in getting a CGM for Emerson but her endo had not yet thought it would be a valuable tool for us and hadn’t given us the approval. 
During our time with the pump nurse she asked if we had considered getting a CGM, as she thought it would be beneficial and help us continue to improve on Emerson’s BG consistency.  This was a surprise to us as we assumed her and the endo would be on the same page but clearly they were not.  We let her know that we expressed interest to the doctor on a couple of occasion but that she hadn’t yet thought there was a need for one.  The nurse volunteered to mention it to the doctor again and see if she could have any more luck. 
We figured it would be after we left but when Emerson’s endo came in the room the first thing she mentioned was the CGM.  She still suggested that we might not gain much from it but that if we thought it would be helpful she would support us getting one.  This sort of caught us off guard so we weren’t prepared to make a decision right then on whether to go with one and if so, which brand, as we had quit researching them when we thought it was well off in the future.
So we are looking for help from fellow T1Ds and their families.  If you are able, please let us know what you see as the pros and cons of having a CGM, whether you use the Dexcom or Medtronic CGM, and what you like and dislike about it.  We would appreciate any help or guidance you are willing to offer.   

2 comments:

  1. OMG - yes, yes, yes! (ahem.) We've used the Dex almost since dx and love being able to set alarms at night (we sleep a lot better), see the trends (great for tweaking basals, esp. when you want to get a bit of sleep at night), and be able to see when we do need to test and when we can skip a test. Here's more detail, if you want it - and there are some really useful links at the bottom to more enlightened articles, info. for getting coverage, etc. http://lukesdday.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/dexcom-valentine/ Happy to blab about our experiences any time (obviously). Good luck with the decision!

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  2. My son uses the Dexcom 7 plus! He is very active. I LOVE it! The trending arrows are great-they let you know if the bg is rising/falling and how fast-so that you can treat/correct as needed. Sometimes there is quite a bit of difference between the actual finger stick bg/compared to the cgm reading~The tecnonology/accuracy will only get better-we will be receiving the Dexcom G4 Platinum in Dec. :)

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