My son has been having some bizarre ups and downs lately so his endo suggested putting him on a cgm for a week. Dexcom or something like that. He had me check into the insurance and they said it would be fully covered. We had never considered a cgm, mostly because he is thin and it is hard to find spots for his pump site and we thought it was a lot of "equipment". Added to that, we thought it was not covered by insurance. We will not qualify for a new pump (we have animas) for another 2.5 years...does anyone have a young child on a separate CGM? Does anyone use this Dexcom one?
We currently are using the dexcom. We have had it for one week. Ethan is 7 and to is very thin. Most of his sites from the pump end up with a bent cannula. The insertion was effertless. He did no flinching. It was easier than pump sites. It is not to big either. Our readings were in the begining about 30-50 points off. Recently they have been 100 or more off. We had one day where it asked for callibrations all day(about 12 hours). Our insurances will not pay for ours. If it did we would get it in a heartbeat. Seeing the trends is an awesome thing.Sometimes it dead on though. I think big changes just confuses it and when it get close to expiring it is less accurate. I think you would be excited to see his numbers and which way he is going. I love the feature of just going hey E, whats you're #'s. I know it is most likely within 50 points. I can see if he is going up or down. Or his trends. It is a good step towards a great thing. You though will have to decide what you think is best for you guys. We love it, and do get frustrated with it to. The reciever is quite large but fits in a pocket. They said that there are some nice holders online. I have not checked them out yet. But if we decide to pay for this then I will. Good luck I hope this helps you.
Hi! I just wanted to add to this for you. We Have been using the Dexcom going on our third sensor and I can not imagine life without it. If we could have at 5 I know we would have. Our sensor the second time was on within 10 points 95 % of the time. I think the big number difference was user error. :) The customer service from dexcom has been better than expected. Our rep is very personal and compasionate. That makes the using this an even more enjoyable experience.
we finished the one week study. I know first weeks are a little rough with anything new...we also had some way off numbers. It seemed when he went high or low really fast it was hard for it to keep up. Also our sensor died after 4 days, (while skiing - I don't know if that had anything to do with it) All that said, we were able to see an improvement in numbers in just 4 days - maybe coincidence, but I don't think so. Each day we had better numbers than the next.
In the end, I think we decided to let the system get better and wait until the insurance pays for a new pump in 2 years. Hopefully dexcom and animas will have an all in one unit by then.