I Am Using The Minimed Guardian CGMS - Page 2

Terrie · 05-08-2009, 01:02

No you are not asking for too much Richard. That is Very unfair of your Endo to say No. If you feel that you could get better levels then that's not for her to decide. I mean she wouldn't be paying for the CGMS. You or your Insurance would be. I don't get it. Maybe if you keep bugging her about it. My Endo and Rheumy say sure go for it, whenever I ask about something that I feel would improve my sugar levels or pain levels, to my satisfaction. Don't give it up if you really want it.

Richard157 · 05-08-2009, 01:23

Thanks for the encouragement Terrie! I listen to her telling about other patients who are frequently going to the ER with near coma like situations and others who are having A1c's like 20 or so. Then I agree that I don't need a CGMS. I have mixed emotions about it.

alprunty · 05-08-2009, 02:59

There is a workbook that comes with the CGMS. The person who trained me first worked at my doctor's office. She did not instruct me to turn off the link with the meter. Or do anything that the workbook told me. I followed her lead and had disaster with it.

Then I went to a seminar from Minimed and they educated me according to the workbook.

You calibrate it at first the way it says. Every time you do a blood glucose it sends a calibration to the pump. So once you have it calibrated you don't send a blood glucose until you need to calibrate it again.

You can only calibrate it when your blood sugar is relatively stable. If there are up or down arrows that show your sugar is changing rapidly make sure that your meter's link feature is turned off. I manually enter all glucose readings now and the pump asks me if I want to use that reading to calibrate. I only do so when the rapid change arrows (the up and down arrow) are not showing.

It's way more accurate now. The link feature on your glucometer is set up to always calibrate the CGMS. As strange as it sounds you have to turn it off.

I will gladly photocopy my workbook for the CGMS and mail it to you if you like. It spells everything out much better than what I was first trained.

I think the person who showed you was not up on it's calibration needs.

Allen

Richard157 · 05-08-2009, 03:33

Don't bother with that Allen. My endo is not going to approve of my using a CGMS. The one week I did use one was just a loaner from her office. My insurance will not cover it without her approval. She thinks that since my A1c is always below 6.0 I will never need a CGMS. I have done without one for 63 years of diabetes so I guess I can hobble along the rest of the way as usual. Lol!