#1. I'm a pretty lean person and I don't have a whole lot of spots where I can put the infusion set, and / or CGMS. I usually resort to my abdomen, and my back near the "love handles". This leads me to
#2. I think I'm starting to develop some scar tissue in some of these areas which leads to poor absorption.
#3. I realize the Sensor is very "new" technology and the people I talk to at Medtronic refer to it as the "model T" of sensor technology. In 2 years these sensors will probably be amazingly different than now. My problem is that I started a new sensor yesterday, I was very stable when I calibrated, and everything seemed to be fine. Well, about 3 hours later, my CGMS reading was about 134, and my finger-stick was 255. This usually doesn't happen with the sensors, but when these rare occurrences happen, it is VERY frustrating. I think it makes it worse that I pay $35 per sensor.
#4. Doing the Basal testing SUCKS! It's even worse for us runners. If I want to do testing, I have to take a day off. I'm in dire need of doing testing, but it's sooo hard to get it in.
Ok, I think I'm done venting, if anyone has any recommendations. Please let me know.
2 comments:
I hear ya. Our 6 year old daughter was diagnosed at 16 months. At 20 months we had her on the pump. I cannot simply imagine with a child's eating patterns how to manage her night time basal and all the snacks during the day, etc. with shots.
6 months ago we got the real time sensor. That gauge is HUGE. She is just a skinny little 6 year old. We tried it a few times, and when it worked well, we had a good 4 days of great readings. We also got used to knowing how it trailed real time sensors so just like we knew when to override a pump, we began to learn how to guess where her blood sugar really was.
It can be very different - if the pump said she was starting to rise fast and she was 150, we knew a real test would show 200-225...I know that is different than the problem you said, but just wanted to post that.
Anyway, after a couple of 'good' runs, we had back to back ones that filled up with blood or didn't work at all. She simply cannot take that gauge very often on top of all the blood sugar pricks and pump site changes. Unfortunately we just had to give up. Its a true shame, but until she feels comfortable with it and not feeling like Frankenstein or the Bionic Girl, we're not going to push her.
I've seen people put pumpsites on their upper arms and various places on their thighs. But at the end of the day I think you nailed it - I think until they get to v3 on this thing in a couple years, it might be slow going. We have decided that as long as her sugars are good we're going to leave out the real time sensor...and then use it for a week or two as needed if something changes.
Ryan,
Thanks for the comment!
Chicago, too, ey? And you are an experienced marathoner! Can I seek some advice from you?
And I definitely want to meet you in Chicago!
Charlie
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