Cgm?

[Diabetic Nix]

Hi

I am thinking of self funding a Medtronic CGM to go with my pump. Is anyone out there using one and can give me any info on what they think of it and if it helped long term?

Thanks

Nix

 

[AlisonF]

Hi. I've using it for almost 7 years and have kept HbA1c in the low sixes/high fives compared to sevens previously.

I wrote a summary here of where it made the biggest differences to my control http://www.shootuporputup.co.uk/2010/06/what-made-the-difference/

 

[Redkite]

If you can afford it I'd definitely recommend it. I would desperately love for my son to wear CGM full time, but we can't get funding, so we can only afford for him to wear one occasionally, e.g. for exams week etc. It's incredibly useful in terms of both realtime information and day-to-day trends. Plus if you use the Medtronic CGMS with the Veo, you have the added benefit of the "low suspend" function, which is a potentially life saving feature for night time hypos.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Anna (Insulin Independent) wrote a great post with her thoughts on Dexcom vs Enlite sensors (two of the main CGM choices in the UK)

http://www.insulinindependent.com/2013/07/dexcom-g4-vs-medtronic-enlite-low-down.html

 

[Flower]

CGM is a great insight into the secret life of blood sugar. I've used it for nearly 3 years. To begin with it is quirky due to the time lag between interstitial glucose and blood glucose. Once you have got used to its ways it is a brilliant tool to see patterns where you previously thought there were none.

It can drive you up the wall when your blood sugar isn't stable with constant alarms predicting lows and highs but that is a real encouragement to keep your levels as stable as possible.

I find it quite hard to find enough new places to insert the sensor for a week at a time within range of my pump but it is great to help you iron out problems and tweak your basal rates and for me its an absolute life saver as it predicts when I'm going low and automatically suspends insulin delivery if my levels go below pre determined glucose limits. My HbA1c has massively improved since using cgm.

If you are able to and happy to have an extra bit of kit on you then I would say go for it.