- This topic has 18 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
-
-
-
Well done Liz. I take it your pump is cgm ready & the funding covers a 3 month supply of sensors & insertion devices? (i really need to read up on how these things work)
Was it a big fight to get the funding?
-
-
Fantastic news Liz. I hope it helps you as much as it has so far helped me. Without hypo awareness you are up the creek without a paddle, using cgm has removed a fair degree of fear from my life. I feel much more confident about going out on my own and to sleep at night. You’ll be glued to your pump screen watching the graph line wobble its way through the day.
-
-
Yes, funnily enough I noticed in the instructions I was reading this morning that they were saying make sure you put the sensor 3 inches or whatever away from infusion sites OR injection sites. It hadn’t struck me before that you could wear one without a pump.
I disagree, depending on why you need a pump. with me it is the tiny doses I need, and also the ;
-
-
Agree with Lizz, it does depend on why you need a pump. Although a cgm would be fantastic, I can live without it without major hiccups (I still have a certain amount of hypos signs and a fanatical approach to testing). But without a pump, my life was a misery, mainly due to massive swings in basal rates from day to day (from 70% to 150% at times) that were not consistent so I couldnt tell when they were going to happen nor deal with them properly when happening. And the pretty huge difference in hourly rate needed suring the day (although I dont go down to zero, I do go pretty low during the night, and comparitively high mid morning (a delayed pre-dawn phenomenon, anyone?) which pumps can help with but cgm would only tell me about…
-
I think you can use CGM quite effectively to get an overview of what’s going on when you’re on MDI and tweak stuff as much as MDI will allow. So in that way, it could be really useful. But I see the CGM as the data provider and the pump as the tool that allows me to react to that data – with MDI the tool is more of a blunt stick than a surgical scalpal so you can’t react with as much precision.
-
Isn’t using a pump a prerequisite for getting funding for an CGMS?
Being one who is on MDI, and more interestedly looking at the progressions in the CGMS world than the world of pumps, i would like (well…) to argue that more people will benefit from CGMS over pumps, as pump can be seen as an alternative to MDI, there is really no comparable alternative to CGMS.
; -
Hi @Marijin I’m not aware of any national funding criteria for CGM, so there are no pre-requisites it’s very much a case by case approach.
I agree that CGM can be of benefit on MDI – especially for looking at overnight BGs, and even for things like monitoring the impact of certain foods/exercise.
But my experience with MDI was no amount of changing of basal insulin type/volume/timing could give me the flexibility that the pump does – I can have my basal set to a different rate every 30mins, so I can adjust it to meet my ;
-
Yes, I agree. I tried all sorts of long acting insulin at all times of the day. All of them have times when they peak and fall off in action (apart, allegedly, from Lantus) and even timing that would not have helped me. Because they are ALWAYS working, and their action could never work at the right times for me. I can also turn my basal right down when doing exercise – I take 10% of my basal rate, whatever time I exercise, and this compensates for the energy used, as well as eating. I used to find i couldn’t eat enough to be able to exercise without becoming hypo. It has freed me.
-
In an ideal world it would be nice to see CGMs available for ALL diabetics as a matter of course.
However they are expensive and someone has to pay for them. hence I think they should be available to people who have a “good” reason for needing them, ie the Pregnant, the newly diagnosed and people who are find it difficult to control.
but certainly being on a pump, should NOT be a prerequisite, and indeed I suspect that some people not on pumps (even thouse not on insulin) may have more need of them, not to avoid hypos but to try and get diabetes under-control and diagnosed correctly to avoid the complications.
We are of course talking ideals here not reality.
-
@lizz when I used lantus I was pretty well controlled after I selected the right time to give it…
Now I’m on a pump i realise I was just getting its sloppy release to match my wonky basals!
I used to believe it was flat but now I have the proof it’d not!
-
-
As I said, when I was on it I believed it was flat (compared to what I’d been on) its funny how the situation you’re in can make you perceive things!
Being controversial,
I’d say giving cgm to someone who’s not on a pump & can’t adjust their basal is like giving someone who can’t afford their heating bill £50 notes to burn to keep warm.
Similarly whilst its a nice to have, not everyone on a pump needs it!
… Retreats for cover…
-
Great news on the funding! Very jealous
If I’d had the option a couple of years ago I’d have gone straight for the CGM. A few months into pump use and I’m slightly more even handed, but I can (and have) seen that the things over which I have control with a pump (or MDI) are often only a small part of the BG balancing act.
For my money an accurate CGM would probably still be almost as beneficial as a pump, but some of the fancy schmancy jiggery pumpery benefits have won me over so now it’s prob 60:40 pump.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.