The idea of real time readings has an appeal. The concept of still having some general data when my son fails to test has greater appeal. The fact of yet another gadget attached to my son 24/7 has no appeal to either of us but safety is my greatest concern.
I thought about being able to sleep at night in relative comfort. The Continuous sensor would give me an idea of whether or not sleep was an option for that night. This really appealed to me until I thought about it a little more. Currently we are using a CGMM at night--a continuous glucose monitoring Mother. It works quite well (knock on wood). My son has never had a seizure. His guardian angels have always managed to wake me up at just the right time when he was low at night.
I don't sleep anyway so perhaps the CGMM is the way to go until he is older and thinking about leaving home. The plus to this system is of course the cost. I don't think our provincial plan will cover sensors or a system. I know my son's father would not be happy to have to pay for another diabetes expense. This does not help monitor him during the times that he is away from me, but I have gotten pretty good at setting higher basal rates for when he is gone.
The more I thought about a CGMS vs CGMM, the more other things began to float through my head. For over eleven years I have been using the CGMM and thinking I was doing well. What if a CGMS showed that I was missing a tonne of lows? What if it showed that I was doing a horrible job as a pancreas and putting my son's life at risk on a regular basis? Instead of alleviating stress, it would increase my stress level (something I really do not need).
At the moment the Mother system is causing the fine lines around my eyes to deepen. It sees me fall into bed each night exhausted but knowing that in three hours I will be up again. It has increased the number of grey hairs that are finding themselves throughout my hair. The upside? Well I am keeping the cosmetic companies going trying to find just the right creams to hide or erase those fine lines. I keep the hair product people in business buying hair colors. My nerves are okay not knowing about the lows that are rebounding thanks to his own glycogen stores. Perhaps a continuous glucose monitoring system is not in our immediate future and the continuous glucose monitoring Mother will continue along just fine. 
Cgms does not have to be a permanent tool.... Unfortunately, our teen does not want to wear two sites, although Dexcom is very comfortable for her. I think you may find you have resistance from a lot of teens. She has agreed to wear it when we are having problems, as an aide to sorting things out. It is invaluable, even for such limited use. When Dexcom reduces its size even further, as it is scheduled to do, and it integrates with Animas pump, I think she may wear it more, as she won't have to carry the extra Receiver. If insurance agrees to pay, it's worth a try.
ReplyDeleteI started on my Omnipod pump two and a half years ago. I added the Dexcom CGM 8 months later. At this point I would say that if I had to either give up the pump or the CGM I would give up the pump. Don't get me wrong, I love my Omnipod, but the info from the CGM is so useful. I had decent A1C's before (usually around 6.5) but since going on the Dex my average has been around 5.9. It really helps me post-meals and helps to detect lows. I would say the sooner you can start the better. There's no use worrying about the past but avoiding technology that can improve the future because it MIGHT show you that what you're doing now can be improved is dangerous. You have to do what you can afford and you'll always somewhat be a CGMM just because you are a mother but with the technology you can do an even better job and your son can start becoming more independent. I think it's worth a try if you can afford it.
ReplyDelete