Saturday, October 06, 2007

Not Impressed

I am on day 4 of the Guardian, and I'm not going to lie, I'm disappointed. We all know there are peaks and valleys in our blood sugars. I wish they didn't happen, and I try and prevent them, but usually when I graph out my blood sugars there they are, the hills and valleys of highs and lows. With the Guardian, there are no hills or valleys, there are only ant hills and minor puddles. It has only caught one low blood sugar, and never shows me as high as my blood says I am. With lows, it might say I go down to 82 or so, not the 50's I'm actually experiencing. The Guardian might show I'm up to 200, but a finger stick shows I'm actually 260. Last night, I went down to 60, and the Guardian showed me holding steadily at 150. I'm sorry, but that is a huge, unacceptable difference. The first full day I had the Guardian, I was ready to believe every number it showed me. I just did a minimum number of blood sugar checks before meals, and fully thought that my blood sugars really were that amazing, almost never straying outside of the 80 to 120 range. Now I am not that sure. I am still checking my blood sugar 8 to 10 times a day. I hope as time goes on that maybe I find out why it shows such differences, but for now, I just don't trust it. I am greatly disappointed in this piece of equipment. I thought this was the next greatest, life changing piece of equipment. I thought maybe it would be worth fighting the insurance company for coverage, but for now I think it would be a waste of time.

6 comments:

Allison said...

I don't know how much research you've done into CGMS, but from what I've heard, it can take several days for the CGM to match up with your blood sugar meter readings, ESPECIALLY on the first day when it is notoriously wrong. While all manufacturers claim a 2-hour warm-up time, most people will say that it can take 24-48 hours before it even comes close to accurate, and even then, you have to keep calibrating it in order have the maximum accuracy. Just something to keep in mind. I have also heard that you can have some good sensors and you can have bad sensors, even without getting an error, so that might also be the case.

Christine said...

Yesterday was day 3 for me on the Guardian and I'm not putting it back on till my trainer get back to me. I'm having very similar experiences. I've heard excellent things about it, yet it tells me that I'm flat 24/7 and only changes to match whatever I've calibrated it to. It's missed every low I've had since starting it, wakes me up like 5x a night, and reads totally off, by like 300%. And it doesn't even trend correctly, reading up when I'm down and vice versa.

Anonymous said...

Any ideas on this concept? couldbe good for college students...?
Diabetes Response Service - Emergency Response System

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear that the guardian hasn't been working out for you, I've been considering going on a continuous glucose sensor but I'm iffy about it because I've heard so many mixed reviews. Anyway, I hope it improves for you and if not, at least you know better now.

Anonymous said...

I would be interested in geting further comments on how you go with the CGM Jen, I was hoping to try the Medtronic CGM in conjunction with a new paradyme pump I will be getting at the end of October.

Wonder whether the pump retains calibration information from previous sensors used or it has to retrain itself for each new CGM inserted, in which case may be the accuracy never improves?

Gaz

Jen said...

Allison, Thanks for your advice. I've actually found it to be more accurate the first few days.
Christine, It's good to know someone else has had challenges.
Anon, I have friends and family who can do this kind of thing for free. Besides, every single day my schedule is different.
Seonaid, I know others have been very successful with these systems, and others like myself have not. If possible, I would see if you can try a system before you buy it, or see if they have some sort of money back guarantee. One of the companies- maybe Dexcom, at one point offered something like that.
Gaz/Gary, My understanding is that it restarts calibrations with each new sensor. In that sense, no, accuracy does not improve with each new sensor. If you are already getting a new minmed pump, I would look into how many sensor you have to buy at a time. If you could buy just a few, then try it. You might have better luck that I am.