Well, I have to say I was pretty nervous inserting the Medtronic Minimed Real-Time Sensor. The one I used in the Navigator trial was hidden inside a inserter and I couldn’t see the needle. I did know that the sensor was only 5 mm under my skin. But this sensor seems huge by comparison. The needle is fat (relatively) and the sensor is a needle, not a soft canula. Scared yet? 
Insertion did NOT hurt. The Sen-serter was quiet and easy to use, but pulling the introducer needle out was a trick. I had a hard time; I was afraid to pull to hard or the whole thing might pop off. It bled more than I thought it would but stopped quickly.
After two hours I got the alert with a vibration and beep to “BG Meter Now.” I took my blood sugar, which was surprisingly at 240. I was 100 at breakfast, so I was worried it wouldn’t calibrate. I sat and waited for my Blood Sugar to show up on the pump, it took at least five minutes to pop up. It was awkward after the calibration though. It didn’t “say” anything after my blood sugar was entered and without the reading showing up right away, I was afraid I screwed up. I didn’t and I guess it is just getting used to a new device.
So far it is comfortable and reading steadily. One thing that surprised me is that when you use the Bolus Wizard, your blood sugar doesn’t automatically pop up; you have to enter it manually, which seems kind of silly. I guess they want me to check my blood sugar manually before taking any kind of action.
I keep my pump in the side of my underwear, under my clothes (obviously). I had my pump on my left side and at one point, while waiting for anumber to show up, I lost the signal from the transmitter. I think that is werid. Two feet away under some jeans and the signal couldn’t get through? The navigator read while I was down and it was upstairs inside the dirty clothes basket.
I moved the pump over to the right side and it seems to be ok.
I have been running high all afternoon. I just did a serious Bolus and it appears to be coming down now, but too weird.
More later.
More later.
4 comments:
Welcome to the Minimed glucose sensing world! I have nothing but good things to say about it!!
When I started, I went through several sensors learning how to calibrate - but with your history with the other system, you will already be up to speed on the whole calibration issue!
We do not have the minilink in Canada as of yet, we still have the first generation transmitter sadly - so please do keep lots of pics and info on the sensor/transmitter!
Enjoy, and I look forward to reading about your experiences!!
Wendy
Thanks for the information, and the pictures. It's much appreciated.
That is odd about the bolus wizard. I guess you could just hand enter the value from the CGM, but it does seem like a strange UI choice.
Minimed's guidelines are to always fingerstick first for treatment... They do not want you treating based on the Minilink values alone. I've been on the RT/Pump since 2/5/07 and got the Minilink the day after it came out. Be SURE you insert close to a 90 degree angle, 80-85 degrees is best from my experience. My first sensor was inserted at 45 degrees and it was not nearly as accurate and died after 2 "CAL ERROR" messages. After the first 2 hour calibration it will ask for another in 6 hours, then every 12 hours until the sensor stops at day 3. I have learned too, it is best to keep your pump on the same side of your body as the Minilink. It does not read through your body too well. Sometimes you'll get a weak signal message for no reason, that's RF interference from something interfering with the communications between the transmitter and pump.You can email me anytime Wendy, I'd be glad to help in any way, and I'll even fill you in on the 7-14 day sensor life secret. :)
Noel (ndlucas@gmail.com)
I'm glad I stumbled upon this blog. I'm really interested in getting a 722 or some other CGMS for my daughter, once they're approved by health insurance. I'm really glad there are so many people writing blogs about this. It's extremely helpful.
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