[Diabetes-talk] A few questions about continuous glucose monitors

[Veronica Elsea]

Meghan, I too have the Dexcom and am having an experience similar to yours. I only know of two CGM’s on the market right now. The Medtronic is designed to integrate with its pump and on its own, is okay if what you really want are the high and low alarms. Personally, I still think they can use the sounds they have on hand to accompany the reading of a number so we’d know if that number is part of an upward or downward trend, fast or slow. I know of no efforts to add speech to these at all. And I have no idea what the operating system is. 
But from where I sit, it sounds like you’re getting what you can out of your CGM. Sorry there isn’t better news here. Hang in there.
Veronica

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Phone: 831-429-6407

On Mar 17, 2014, at 9:54 PM, Megan Bening <mebening at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
> I was wondering if anyone on this list uses a continuous  glucose
> monitor and, if so, which one do you use? How accessible do you  find
> it? Are there any that you guys prefer? I was recently diagnosed  with
> hypoglycemia which is clearly not the same thing as diabetes, but  I'm
> finding that I'm constantly fairly low, especially overnight,  and
> right now my endo and I are trying to find an underlying cause as  well
> as trying to look at my options for glucose management. The reason  why
> I would like to use a CGM if possible is because right now, my  levels
> tend to fluctuate wildly. I can use my protegy voice and get a  reading
> as of that minute, but have no knowledge as to whether I am rising  or
> falling, or where I've been since my last reading, etc. I also tend  to hang out in my 40s overnight, and the low alarm on the
> CGM  alerts me to this so I don't wake up in the morning feeling  awful. 
> Right now, I am borrowing a Dexcom G4. I like that it has  distinctly
> different musical tunes for a high or low alert, and the alarms  are
> fairly loud. I can also get around the menus to some degree just  by
> counting button presses, similar to how we all used to use old  cell
> phones/iPods, but wondered if anyone has a CGM that works better  or
> had found a better way of managing it. One thing that I am not  crazy
> about is that right now, in order to enter my BG, I either have to  get
> a sighted person to help me, or I have to arrow down about 150  times
> to make sure that I am at 20, the lowest reading, and then arrow  back
> up to wherever I am supposed to be. And that's not even saying anything about whether or not there are alerts on the screen that need to be dismissed before trying to access the menus, which aren't always obvious if you can't see them. I'm also trying to figure out  what
> the underlying OS in the G4 is. It looks a lot like Simbion to me  and,
> if that's the case, couldn't something be scripted to voice? I  know
> the trend graph might be difficult to adapt audibly, but even  being
> able to arrow through a list of my readings, and see whether  I'm
> rising or falling, would help a lot. Does anyone have any tips?  Also,
> do you guys know if any of the other CGMs on the market right  now
> integrate with iOS or Android? What do you use? What works well  for
> you, and what doesn't? I tried to Google this, but I'm kind of  finding
> a whole lot of nothing and figured someone on this list might  know
> something to help me.
> Thanks for any assistance you can  give!
> Best,
> Megan
> 		 	   		  
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