medtronic users

[bev]

Hi all,

Anyone who is pumping with a medtronic pump - can you tell me if the cgm device is yours to use exclusively or do you share it with others in your clinic?

I was told today that although the pump comes with cgm - that it wont be just for A's use - which seems odd to me - unless this is a common thing?

I know our clinic didnt have a cgm for him to use - but it does seem strange that they want to take A's away from the package to use for everyone else - when we had begged them for one months ago!Bev

 

[sofaraway]

I would ask for further explanation. Does the transmitter come as standard with the pump? Or is it an extra cost? If so it might be that they will only order one transmitter device and then allow those on medtronic pumps to borrow if for time periods to use with their pump. That is assuming the transmitters are designed so that they work with any pump rather than a specific pump.

Were you planning to buy the sensors or do you have funding for them aswell?

 

[bev]

Hi Nikki,

The cgm device can be used on any pump. We had realised that the PCT wont fund the sensors - so we had decided to fund the sensors ourselves. This would be difficult without the cgm device!
The whole thing comes as a package - so i had assumed that we would get use of the cgm.😱Bev

 

[sofaraway]

If the CGMS comes as part of the package then everyone would already have that part so wouldn't need to share anyone else's.
From my understanding you can't use the transmitter without the pump as it will have nothing to communicate with so they can't be planning to use the cgms on people without pumps.
I would tell them that you plan to self fund and therefore you need to be able to use the CGMS componant all the time, so you can use the sensors when you wish to.

There is a chance that I'm missing something not being a pump user or being particulary familiar with all this, I have just read stuff on the internet about this. So just my thoughts on my knowledge and basically I don't understand what they are trying/planning to do.

 

[bev]

Hi Nikki,

The point is that there are only 2 other children on the medtronic pump - so they have their own cgm. I think (?) the cgm can be used on other pumps - so i think that is why they want to use it for other children. The cgm does come as a package with the pump as that is its selling point - so i feel that the pot of money given for A's pump should give him exclusive use of the cgm - after all that is why we chose this particular pump! If we dont have the transmitter - then we cant self fund the sensors - and we could have chosen any other pump without the cgm.Bev

 

[Mand]

We did not receive a cgm with our pump. I pressumed this was because we not funded for the sensors. Are the sensors really expensive Bev? 🙂

 

[bev]

For anyone who would like to know exactly who funds what.

The medtronic pump is the only pump that has the cgm. However, the cgm has to be bought as an 'extra' - so in our case the hospital has bought the cgm as they get it cheaper when in a package, and so therefore they own the cgm and we just own the pump. They then use this for anyone who needs it within the clinic.
If we want to fund sensors ourselves then we can - but we have to buy another cgm (?450) - and the price of the sensors are ?375 for a box of 10.
So this can be expensive - but - having spoken to various people it seems that you can get more than the 6 days that medtronic say you can - so if you got 8 days it would work out to be ?140 per month. This would be using them full time which i doubt i would need to do - perhaps just a few days or over weekends etc or if he is staying away from home. I also know of someone who has used a sensor for 17 days! Hope this helps everyone!🙂Bev

p.s. the cgm only works with the medtronic pump.

 

[Mand]

Thanks for the info, Bev. We told that the local health authority actually own the pump but we have to insure it against our household insurance, which we have done. Will investigate re sensors. 🙂

 

[Sugarbum]

Oh my goodness Bev! This all sounds really odd to me?!

Im sorry I cant shed any light on it. I had assumed you were being funded for sensors and this is not the case is it? Such a shame, but as my DSN was telling me yesterday they are not NICE approved. What a pain. I knew it was expensive but seeing these figures....

Doesnt Adrienne use sensors? I would definately consider dropping her a line/PM in case she doesnt pick up this thread.

L x

 

[sofaraway]

I am really confused. What will the CGMS sensor communicate with if there is no pump?

 

[bev]

Hi Nikki,

You are confusing me now!

Do you mean if they 'share' the cgm with other children? If yes, then they can only use the cgm with the other medtronic pump users - of which there are 2.

But you have to have the medtronic pump for the cgm to be able to read the transmitter and sensors. I hope i havent confused you even more!Bev

 

[sofaraway]

No you cleared it up for me thanks. I thought they were going to use the cgms on anyone who needed it, and couldn't understand how it would work. But thats not what they are wanting to do, just for those who have a medtronic pump.
If there are only 2 children then can you share it 50/50? Or if the other family doesn't really want to use CGMS you could have it all the time?

 

[bev]

I think i will be asking the team what their intentions are as i dont think they have thought it through properly. I suspect they think the cgm works with any pump - because there are 18 on the roche pump and just 2 on the medtronic. This will work to our benefit as 3 sharing wont be too bad. But i also think once we have used sensors we will want them full time!🙂Bev

 

[Adrienne]

Thanks for the info, Bev. We told that the local health authority actually own the pump but we have to insure it against our household insurance, which we have done. Will investigate re sensors. 🙂

Hi

Different hospitals do it different ways. Our hospital owns the pump and they insure it so we don't have to.

Others, like you, insure it themselves and I have seen all sorts of amounts of quotes for this from small to hugely ridicously expensive.

 

[Adrienne]

Hi

Sugarbum is right we use the sensors and transmitter for the Medtronic pump and would not do without them anymore.

It is exclusively for the Medtronic pump, this particular sensor (no other pump does this yet but one of the others are bringing one out soon I believe), and transmitter work only with Medtronic 522 or newer.

There is not CGM device like some of you may have used. What they are talking about is the very tiny transmitter. It is that thing that could be potentially shared. It is about the size of a 50p but thicker. You insert a sensor into the skin just like the cannula for the insulin and attach the transmitter to the sensor. The sensor under the skin picks up the readings from the interstitial blood and the transmitter transmits the readings to the pump so you can seem them on the screen. Clever stuff. Readings from interstitial blood are normally behind true readings from capillary blood (fingers).

Bev's medical team are talking purely about the transmitter but I don't think they know this, they seem not to know what they are talking about and I believe Bev knows more. I have chatted with Bev about this a few times now and she definitely knows more than they do.

I would not like to share transmitters, it would be pretty impossible anyway logistically wise as you have to charge them up. The sensors are for 3 days only for the 522/722 pumps and you can trick them to use them for 6 days. I believe there are new sensors out which are for 6 days and I think you can trick them for few more days but quite frankly after 6 days Jessica's skin can't take the sticky stuff anymore (what you cover the sensor and transmitter with to hold in place) and it needs to come out. The hole as well becomes red after 6 days so a new sensor site is needed.

Hope that helps.

Bev, have you spoken to the rep yet?