Reflections....

Well I have used a complete box of 10 sensors. That is my first box - I am using sensor #10 right now....time to reflect on my experience!!

1. Excellent Minimed training
2. Excellent Minimed customer support....
3. Others that seems to be having the same experience and troubles as I......so not a "me Problem" but rather a technology problem (transmitter and sensors)

I enjoy this technology - it has made my life easier, and allows me the ability to simply look at my pump to know where my sugar range is. I would not go back - but I wish my insurance company would cover the sensors!!!

I learned to be patient and wait until my sugar is level before calibrating - and I can calibrate with a high or low glucose...as long as the pump is not showing a fast rise/fall ongoing at that time.

I learned it is fine to sleep on the sensor/transmitter....no issues with that. As well....soaking in the tub with the transmitter on is fine as well.

I have received a few emails from others that are using this technology so I look forward to hearing from them and reading the stories of their adventures as well!! I don't know anyone else in the area I am in with this pump....so I turn to blog land for chit chat!!! Keep it coming, thanks!!!

Great Herons!

Amazing Herons everywheres today!

I went out for a walk - it looked like it was going to storm, crazy storm....not like a sprinkle of rain - but A full out storm. The waves were crashing on the beach, wind whisking by - so I went out for a walk!! Now the wildest thing, every few feet along the beach I went - Herons were flying all over the place! I think they were looking for protection on the beach, but the numbers of Herons I say today was outstanding!

Was supossed to see the Rolling Stones last night. It rained. It rained REALLY hard and there were people everywheres on the commons in Halifax. A BIG PILE OF MUD now....musically satisified mud.

Had a smooth transition from day 3 to day 4 of my current sensor with the new transmitter. So far so good.....

My view

New Transmitter Arrived

Well I have nothing bad to say about Minimed - I had a new transmitter to my door in under 3 days. That is not bad - considering I live in Nova Scotia and the transmitter was sent out frorm California!! Seems to be working well - but I must have a sensor that is "on the line" - meaning in the right place...but JUST - my isig values are low, and often dip below 1 and then I get "sensor error"- when this happens I just let the pump go for a bit - and I find the sensor catches up. For the first time ever I had a sensor error from sleeping on the site...or so that seems to be the reason. I had to get out of bed early - the alarm on the pump was waking me up!! I will admit, it is hard enough to sleep after a nice shift...add a beeping / vibrating pump HA!

Like the Olden days.....

Oh my - after having the CGMS for only a month or so - being without it seems like such a hardship!!! Hard to believe - I could not imangine going back to manual injections as well! Hard to believe the changes in therapy over my 22 years as a person with diabetes!!! Oh well - the new transmitter will be here Thursday - and I have been working for the past two days so I am keeping busy with the long hours!!!

I have started a french class - it is great .... but someone asked me what my pump was - and I was supossed to answer in FRENCH what my insulin pump was!! To say the least it was my homework to figure out how to say insulin pump. It will not be hard to figure out (google....I know, that is cheating...).

I added the OC logo on my blog - so I hope lots of people find this blog and find it useful!!! I am learning...and reading lots and LOVE THE BLOGS!! Right on!

Cheers

Transmitter Died....

My transmitter died!!!

Over the past week it has been increasingly difficult to keep my sensors working!! Many strange errors - and the pump was alarming all last evening while I was out with friends....always nice...beep beep beep......beep beep beep.....beep beep beep....

Anyways - finally this morning the sensor was reading my glucose at 13.4, and my meter was reading 4.6 I double checked with another meter....so I called the help line - I did not want another sleepless night of my pump telling me my reading was "high" when I was actually fine!!!

The people at the helpline were great, as usual - ran through the tests on the transmitter to find it was reading out of range. SOOO a new transmitter is being sent to me and I will be up and running again on Thursday. OH MY to go back to manual testing HAHA!!

Argh annoying!!!

So I decide to go away for the night tonight........enroute in the car had a random "Bad Sensor" error. Unknown why - and I certainly did not pack a spare sensor. Not sure why this happened - and my sensor was then rendered uselsss after 1.5 days!! I called Minimed technical support...no ideas.....bad sensor - but I had already established that!!!!

Frustrating....maybe not so if I had medical coverage :)

It worked....

WOW!! I uploaded all the graphs for a two week period to my laptop - and took them to sort through while at work. So I had internet explorer open with the windows XP - saved the graphs and summaries as .pdf files and then opened them over on the main MAC OSX platform. Slick!!!

I enjoy the graphs - but it is hard with my lifestyle. I work shift work - so it is hard to say I have a trend a certain time of the day - for 4 of eights days I am working, two days and then two nights - and then 4 days off. So there is no M - F trends. That makes it hard - so I am going to look at it all as an 8 days cycle, and then break it down to the 4 work days versus the 4 rest days (well not really rest HAHA!!!)

I got 7 days out of my last sensor. I had a bath...lots of bubbles and jets - and had a "weak signal" error that eventualy led to LOST SENSOR. I waited several hours and tried several times, and never got the sensor back. I changed it this morning.....

I am off to sleep now...tired....cheers.

For $100 Carelink worked on my Macbook

Several weeks ago l I was told Carelink would not work on my Macbook, by Minimed technical support. eI WOULD NOT ACCEPT THIS ANSWER. There was no way such an obstacle existed, soley because I choose to use a mac computer. I did tried on my mac - to see why this web-based program would not work on a mac computer. Well...seems the carelink program needs Internet explorer 5.5 or later. Mac stopped supporting Internet Explorer at 5.2 and support only its Safari software for web....no go.

I searched out and bought windows XP on eBay - so because I use a mac computer I had to buy this software in attempt to get this carelink program working. Well rest assure everyone - this is a fix that works if you use the intel based macbook. eBay was the cheapest option for Windows XP - and I used bootcamp to install.

I uploaded from my two meters last night, and my pump. I was overwheled initially by the number of graphs and logs available. Seemed at first to be too many - but I am sure they will all have a purpose. It will take me a few evenings to go through them all - I will have oppertunities at work Wednesday night to go through them all...we'll see how it goes!!!

So had a good workout at the gym tonight - I do not like to go to the gym in the summer - the evenings are too nice to spend indoors - but now the weather is getting cooler, which is nice....but it is dark soon after getting out of work on my day shifts - so it is gym season again. I love the CGMS at work - I can see when I start to drop ...rather then guessing how I feel!! Again tho - I had to change my tape over the sensor when I got home from the gym..sweat underneath!? I thought the IVflex I was using was "breathable", but alas it seems not....

anyways it was a long day at work and I am tired tonight...and tomorrow morning will be another early one. I will look at the graphs tomorrow night...or the next....we'll see.....Cheers to all!

Tonight is the night......for Carelink....

I have Windows XP running on my MacBook. It is a sin, and I have names it "satan". We'll see how it goes. I bought XP on Ebay for $80 and installed it. Seems at first to be running well, and the installantion was easy and occupies 5 GB. My next goal is to link up my meter and see how the carelink works!!! That is the goal for the night tonight...

My question to everyone out there - anyone is Canada have their insurance compant cover their glucose sensors or transmitters?? To date I have been told NO by bluecross. I have asked on two calls thus far. I did the math and with a sensor lasting 6 days, which at this rate seems to be the MINIMUM a sensor is lasting - comparing to a typical 10 tests a days...glucose sensors can be cheaper!!! I will attempt to post my comparison of numbers if anyone is interested.

I will let you all know how the caelink site and pump data upload goes on the macbook!!!!

Cheers,
Andrea

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMIE!

Well my sensor lasted 7 days...not bad!! Yesterday I was trying to sleep during the day between my two nights - and the pump kept on alarming .... lost sensor....first time I ever saw that, but also the first time I ever made it to 7 days with a sensor!! I tried several times to help the pump "FIND" this lost sensor, but unsucessful - I knew it was time for the sensor to be replaced!!

Today I got my Groovy Patches in the mail. I know I know silly - but they are cool and make me smile :)

Hey Jen is swimming across the English Channel today - everything think good thoughts for her!! YOU GO GIRL!

I'm off for 4 days now YIPPIE!

Cheers
Andrea

Day #7

Well I made it through 6 days on my current sensor with no issues!! This morning I started it up again for day #7!!

Now for ice cream cake...thanks to Clay at work..............

Labor day.....and I'm at work!!!

There was NO ONE out on the highway this morning when I came to work....Holiday Monday! Gotta love being essential service...

I have been watching my friends Jen's journey as she prepares to swim across the english channell!! (http://marathonswimmer.livejournal.com/) CHEERS FROM NOVA SCOTIA JEN!

SOOOO in case you are wondering, all is still going well with this sensor. I am on day #4 & 21hr. Not a single CAL ERROR...II learned to NOT calibrate if I am hyper....I have calibrated soon after eating etc, but had no problems at all!

Enjoy the holiday weekend! Cheers!

Holiday Weekend!

Good morning!!

So yes, went for a hike yesterday....it was very good!!! Probably a little more then I was looking for - it was quite a steep hike and I found that my skin was sweating under the tegaderm!! I had to change all the tape over the sensor site when I got home - there was droplets of fluid. Maybe more then you needed to know - but important information!!! The sensor was wet underneath. I dried it off with a cotton ball and reapplied tape - and I am back in action! I'm on day 4....really hoping to make a record with this sensor!! The longest I have had a sensor last is 5 days....so we will see!!

I am working for the next 4 days...I was thinking about going to the gym tonight (if it is not closed early for the holiday)....and will give it another good test for its money!!

Take care

Not sure if anyone reads this.....

Good morning!! I am really not sure if anyone reads this, but that is ok - I will continue writing about my journey with the CGMS...which I am finding some call the TGMS? Either way, it is working well - and I just completed 3 days on my current sensor with no issues. I have just restarted this sensor to see how long it will live!

This time I put the sensor on my right upper thigh - on the side....probably not the best of places - it is near the quad muscle. I feel like I am doing a trial this time around to see how long the site will last - so I am trying to lay back on the harder cardio to keep that quad/kink factor to a minimum. If I make it a few days longer with this sensor I will go for a run and see if anything happens!

Yesterday I trialed the sensor in the hot tub. HA! All for the sake of science......and no problem.

So this morning, the ISIG is still up in the high teens - much higher isig value then compared to having the sensor site on my upper abd area - but Minimed says there is no correlation between Isig value and stability of the sensor.....I said except for the obvious 0.00 isig meaning BAD SENSOR. HA!

So it is beautiful and sunny today - on this long weekend. Sadly I am back to work tomorrow (shift work) so today I am going to head out for a hike. I know I know ... I said I would take it easy - but I can not let this day go by without at least a small jaunt outside! Cheers!

September has arrived!

What a beautiful day today!! I am off work, sitting on the patio with a cup of coffee and still in my PJ's. Actually I am sticking around the house now waiting for glucose sensors to arrive!! They come in a cooler that FedEx won't leave without a signature and I don't want the sets at a sorting facilty all weekend (Long weekend!!!). That is good tho - keeps me home and I am getting lots done.

So I am on day 2 + 1hr on my current sensor. No problems thus far. It took me about three to four sensors to figure this all out - the tricks and trade. Maybe I have a handle on it now!? I had a spike last night while I was sleeping (likely due to my late night snack when I got home)....I had to do a correction bolus at 5am and then at 6:45 my pump was crying for a calibration test. If I had calibrated then I would have had a calibration error with my glucose dropping from the correction bolus (that along with the 5 - 10 minute lag for the sensor fluid). SOO I wanted a few more hours, did a calibration and no problems..and NO CAL ERRORS.

Today is a "me" day....nothing pressing......a great way to start this long weekend! Cheers!