Hey Guys if anyone here is familiar with the minimed CGM and knows the proper protocol to undergo when first putting one in, could you let me know? I first got trained how to use the sensors in the summer, and haven't used one in a while so I can't really remember what the nurse told me. I'm fairly sure she told me to calibrate it every 2 hours for 6 hours after inserting it, then 3 times every day in the morning, lunch, and before bed thereafter. Is this correct? Thanks a lot guys.
That seems a little odd for a protocol for the minimed. My friend and I have a different metod of using it. Once you start and test after the first meter BG happens you are fine for sixe hours. Than it needs to recalibrate. After that until the sensor dies technically you need ot only calibrate it twice.
While I do trust my sesor most of the time I tend to test a little more frequently. Testing before meals is nice to know exactly where you stand instead of a range, but one of the reasons I got the sensor was to not have to keep testing myself for each and every meal I ate.
What I do, normally when I change sensors I put it in roughly around 5:50 in the morning, I start my day go to seminary stuff usually the first calibration happens when mass is over. So by 8:00 when I am ready to have breakfast, not only do I have my sensor calibrated, but I also have my meal check covered. After that I usually give it two-three hours before I test again. That will usually cover me until before I head off to sleep, to which I do my final check. The next day I usually will test before breakfast agin just for accuracy sake and than it is just if I feel off. As much as I love my CGMS, it is not always on.
It seems like with what you are suggesting, you are testing more than you would need to do if you were not on the CGMS.
Pretty much you're technically calibrating your sensor every time you test yourself if your pump is programmed to read the meter. If not, then you still don't have to calibrate so many times. After the first test (roughly two hours after starting the new sensor), you check your BS, and then you calibrate in 6 hours and then every 12 hours after that. This is the max amount of time to wait though.
Hope this helps... this was how my nurse taught me, but perhaps other people may have been taught differently. If it worries you though, just call the nurse again.
Its once you put in the sensor you have to wait 2 hours to calibrate(not every 2 hours, you will start getting cal errors like crazy) then after that you can calibrate in 6 hours
Okay thanks guys, seems like the consensus is that you only need to calibrate once after 2 hours.. then every 6-12 hours after that? Were you guys also taught to eat low glycemic index foods prior to the first calibration, and that if the sensor ISIG was under 30, the data it gives you is considered inadequate? Last time I had a sensor in it wasn't even within 5 mmol (90 dg/ml) of my glucometer reading at times (the ISIG was consistently around 15)
I was never told anything about low glycemic index foods prior to calibration. Again, the way things are timed with me I normally am not eating before the first calibration. I think the fear though is the entire calibration issue the first time around if you have eaten something. As we know we will get cal errors if we monitor or calibrate after food as the sensor is delayed at times and you could be high and it has not yet hit that peak. That is my guess why if you need to eat before the calibration that it be something that does not affect the glucose.
The ISIG is something that is a different matter. My trainer told me one thing, the manual tells me something else, my friend Jeanette has a completely different story from her doctor and talks with Minimed. The ISIG from what I was told is supposed to be somewhere around 24 if memory serves me correctly but i can tell you with the sensor I just put in this morning it has yet to clear 20. However, both times I have calibrated since the initial test, it has been off by no more than one or two. It is all really odd. But it is a phantom number that minimed uses to sometimes diagnose problems...
Just like the previos person, I was never told about what to eat, but since it's only 2hours, I make sure not to eat anything. HOWEVER, I have had moments where it's almost two hours and WHAM!, I've got myself a lost sensor!!! Therefore, since I have to wait an extra 2 hours, then maybe once or twice I did eat some veggies to prevent too much fluctuations with my BS during that time. As for the ISIG, I was never explained what this was, and i always forgot to ask when I spoke with the nurse, but my ISIG ranges from 10-25 yet have had no real issues with the readings being too off... and if you read the sensor manual, I think I remember reading that when using the teser the range should be beween 24-29 so I assumed that this is a normal range since I always saw this test as the equivalence to the control solution for the meters where they have to range between 100-140. Do you get what I mean, because I think I'm just being coherent to myself at the moment ?!?!?! Anyway, that's just my opinion and I may be completely wrong. Also, I thought that it was very interesting that you brought up the ISIG matter here :)
Recently, i was told by a Minimed rep on how to properly calibrate my cgm I wrote it in my personal blog check it out here http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/28524/49951/calibration
Ruth, I don't exactly know what you mean, what units are you referring to with these values?
thank you Gina I'll try out that formula. In terms of the blood glucose concentration, is that the reading from the meter or sensor?
OOps! I always forget to specify. I meant mg/dL.