I'm looking into getting the Minimed CGMS

First of all i'd like to thank everyone that replied to my question, your comments have given me a lot of information. Thankfully my insurence company covers the CGMS and we sent the order - should be getting it and the new pump within the nex t week. I'm so excited! I want the comments to keeps comming for anyone else who wants to know more about it.

I have two more questions:

How many times a day should i check to calibrate the CGMS?

Can you really keep the sensor in for more than three days without getting an infection?

 

 

Hi kaycee.

saw your last post (but can't seem to find it here!)

i find that i can leave my sensors in for about 10 days and have NO ill effects from leaving it in that long.  longer times cuase a bigger hole to be left and longer healing time, but it can be left in as long as it keeps working .  the ones i've left in the longest...have healed up..just took a few more days to look normal.  i apply antibiotic ointment to ALL spots when i pull a sesnor out..and for sites that i find more troublesome...i also apply a layer of Eucerin as the skin is quite rought from being under the tape for so long.  But I am happy to say, by the time i need to insert the next one, things have cleared up completely.

i use the front of my thighs to insert MOST of my sensors...fid the 1st one or 2  in my stomach, but decuded to try for other spots due to abdomen placement for infustion sets.

I've never had an infection from the sensors (knock on wood!).

As for calibration, the minimum is 2 per day, 12 hours apart.  MM suggests 4/day as the max, and suggests that all be done when BGs are relatively stable.  I've seen others post on other forums that it is best to calibrate when BGs are between 80-140...but i've done higher than that with very little issues.  I'm still learning, as we all are in the crazy process...it's definitely a learning curve when you first start..so don't get too frustrated at the start.  It can take a few months to get things running smoothly...so be patient!

Michelle

I usually stretch my sensor use out to six days, never crossed my mind to do it longer. Maybe, I will have to think about it, if I ever need it. I have never run into infections yet with the sensor.

As Michelle said with the sensor calibration, two is the minimum, however I tend to still test three or four times a day. The sensor for me is more for both trends and to help me catch if I over/under calculated. Although, it is good to try and get into a test cycle, just so you never have the problem ran into a few times, where my next calibration was at two in the morning. That was my own fault since I thought I had tested earlier in the day for a calibration. But if you have a pattern you will not be woken up for that.

hey Michelle (and everyone else :P), how long does it take for you to heal after having the sensor on for ten days?  Also, does it always work for ten days?  Once its past six days for me (the most seven), I start getting calibration errors after every BS test I take....

Hi Ruth (and everyone else!).

I find that if my sensor lasts 10 days or more,  it may take a few days for it to look perfectly healed.  It usually is a bit irritated for 2 days, but nothing troublesome.  I just clean it real good with alcohol swab when I remove the sensor, and put a dab of bacitracin (or whatever ointment I have) on it right away. I will usually put more on it when i shower, but that usually only lasts for 2 days before I stop worrying about it.  So far I've not had any major issues with the insertion site (or with the odd little marks that the sensor pressing against my skin leaves as well. 

Not all sensors last 10 days.  I have had the last few only last 6-8 days before giving me very unreliable information, even after turning on and off and recalibrating.  I do generally get at least 8 days, a few have gone even farther and given me good results.

Some just don't give good results and I pull them after a few attempts at stop/starting them.

I've starting using a different angle of insertion with my auto-serter.  I now tend to move it more upright to get a better insertion.  I am still too chicken to manually insert it..although I'm sure I'll soon be able to do that.   I've even managed to teach myself to self insert a SIL set....a much scary issue for me!  But I did it!

The best trick I've found to extend sensor life past 6 days is to take extra care when un-taping after 6 days...you want to be very careful to NOT dislodge the sensor.  I find that putting a piece of tape on the sensor when I first insert it (insert the sensor, and IMMEDIATELY put a piece of tape across it to hold it in place BEFORE attaching the transmitter.  Be careful to not cover the part where the transmitter will click on.  Once the transmitter is clicked in, I then use a piece of paper tape to secure the transmitter to my skin, then I put a piece of Tegaderm over the whole thing.  The paper tape helps to NOT pull the transmitter away from the sensor when I have to unhook the transmitter on day 6 for recharging. I then apply more tape over the Tegaderm to keep it all as still as possible for the next 6 days.

It is definitely a learning experience..and the more you do it...the better you'll get.  My 1st few sensors only lasted the 6 days....then I got better at changing the tapes and keeping it firmly attached.

hang in there....things will improve! I promise!

Michelle

We just started using minimed's cgms for our 2 yr old.  We still aren't sold on the device.  It doesn't work well if you don't have an accurate calibration.  You have to plan ahead for a good time to calibrate as your bg needs to be steady.  I think that minimed recommends no carbs in for 2hrs before calibration and 15 minutes after calibration.  You have to calibrate at least 2 times a day.  We've been calibrating early in mornings - 5 am and 5 pm.  Since she is only a toddler we really have control of the accuracy of this calibration and still the cgms doesn't reflect great numbers.  Sometimes we are dead on, but mostly it is at least 20 to 50 off.  We actually put it on her, she wore it for a week and the alarms drove us so nuts, that we decided to stop using it.  However, after about a week of researching the benefits of using a cgms I decided we had to make it work.  I've read that it can reduce long term complications by 26% - article was from the mayo clinic.  The very next day we put it back on her - and now we are on our 3rd week of use.  It is a headache, more work, more alarms, but it has definitely given us better insight into the patterns of her bg.  She was having nightly highs, above 300+, that we didn't realize were occuring b/c we weren't finger pricking between 12 am and 3 am.  The cgms should us the pattern.  The alarm also woke me up in the middle of the night when she was at 43.  The CGMS does have many flaws - as the low alarm needs to be much louder, the calibration needs improved, another injection site, and the device is large (especially for little people), but the patterns that we've been able to observe from all the bg readings does give you the ability to get a little more control. 

  

Hi hannabanna.  Are you a member of any other CGMS lists?  Yahoogroups has a CGMSdiabetes group that has talked about monitoring setups with baby monitors and microphone systems that parents have used with the little ones.  You might consider joining it..they've even posted pictures and the group's email archives are very search-able by subject once you're a member.

Other sites to think about is the Children With Diabetes website.  Very informative information available there as well on CGMS tips and tricks.

I also belong to insulinpumpers.org which also offers CGMS tips in some of it's members posts.

One last one that I know of is insulinpumpforums.com .  Lots of topics there to get into discussion on...and to search previous posts.

It's always GREAT to have various options to look for assistance.  And even you're an adult, even the kids sites can give valuable information from parents who are going through the same things.  it works both ways..some times the adults/kids/parents have a different outlook....but we all are trying to get to the best solution to the pretty much the same problem.

As an adult with the MM CGMS...I can agree with you that the alarms are NOT loud enough, especially at night.  I live alone, and the the first few nights of using my CGMS were  quite  challenging. I would awaken to a screeching alarm, sirening, or even vibrating...only to learn later by going back in the history of the readings that the pump had been going off for over 30 minutes and I did not hear it while asleep.  Now a couple of months later, I've become much more attuned to hearing the the alarms during sleep, or feeling the vibrations on the bed or against my body.  I can imagine how hard it would be to hear it on a young child in another room.  Heck!  I can hardly hear the alarm when the pump is in my bra and i have a sweatshirt and a coat on while I'm on the subway.  I often miss the alarm until I've gotten off the train and into a quieter surrounding.

It is great how the CGMS can alert you to night patterns.  That has been the best thing for me..to better understand my insulin profiles during the night.  I now rarely wake up in the middle of the night with a drastically low BG.  It's been a godsend!

Hi there.

My MM rep told me a secret.  To tape down the sensor, before inserting it, put some eyelash glue (for fake eyelashes) on the sticky part before insertion.  That seems to help.  My issue has always been that the sensor seems too 'heavy' and eventually pulls out the cannula.  But the eyelash glue works really well.  Maybe in conjunction with some of the other ideas posted????  I will try it and let you all know.

Hey all recently I had the opportunity to wear a freestyle navigator and my minimed cgm at the same time check it out...

 

http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/28524/61192/freestyle-minimed

I have had a CGMS for almost two months now. I ran through a whole box of sensors without any of them working and going through a great deal of pain.

Does anyone have any advice or tricks that I can use to help me work this out? The other month I have had the sensor I haven't used it out of fear. I need to use it to help me control my rollercoaster blood sugars-but I find it very hard to use.