Goodbye Medtronic, Hello Dexcom

Let me just say we had a lot of trouble with Medtronic, not only with their pump, but also their CGM. I am not expecting perfection. I know technology is not quite there. However, I would like to sleep knowing my little man is ok. We originally went with Medtronic's MySentry. While it is a great idea, it is not covered by any insurance plan. $3,000 out of pocket is ...., esp when already crippled with the cost of diabetes care. Medtronic's CGM is painful. It leaves a welt on my little guy no matter how much gauze I put under the transmitter. Plus, it scares him terribly. If you have ever had to stick your baby with a needle while they are saying, "please mommy, please mommy, I am scared." over and over again with tears in his eyes, you would know the torture. I ended up having to put the sensor in while he was sleeping. Our process was numbing cream on before he went to bed, after he fell asleep I would insert the sensor, wait until his blood sugar was stable in the night (which for us was about midnight) to be sure I could sleep without CGM data as it would take 2 hours just to get a reading, take out the transmitter at midnight, charge it for 15-20 min, insert the transmitter, go back to bed for 2 hours, get up and enter bg, and up within 6 hrs to calibrate again. This way, there would be two stable readings as Medtronic does not allow for calibration with any arrows of moving blood sugar. One other HUGE downfall of the Mysentry is the screen brightness. OMG, you cannot turn it down to a reasonable level. It is like the "sun" in your eyes all night. I don't know any 7 yr old who's blood sugar is not constantly moving somewhere. He is either eating or running around all the time. I found the Medtronic system to be tempermental. If you want to get up numerous times in the night for no reason whatsoever. It would go off as a low and end up at 160. This happened ALOT. Also, HUGE downfall. YOU CANNOT HEAR THE PUMP ALARMS FOR A LOW ON THE PUMP. Numerous times, the low alarm went off at school for 20 min or more and one time it went off for over an hour. NOT ACCEPTABLE! The CGM is designed for safety. There is no way to turn up the volume. Introducing Dexcom. I need to say. Dexcom = LOVE. No screaming when inserting while he was fully awake. It was accurate at first calibration. Only 6 points off right away. WOW! The alarms are much louder. First, it will vibrate and if you do not respond it will sing a tune. I also like the range. I can get a signal throughout the WHOLE house. Keep in mind it is 2400 sq ft. No more Mysentry unable to find a signal. I love not having the integration. I don't have to constantly ask while we are out, "Zach, what is your number?" I can see at Kung Fu just what he is at without sweating it the whole time as his Medtronic pump never got a signal while I held as he was in class. The responsibility for now lies on me, as it should. For now.... He is 7 and should be a 7 yr old boy. Not constantly worrying about his "number". He can't control it. Leave it to mommy. I can take that from him for now. He will have his whole life to deal with "numbers". We can focus on carb counting which he is interested in and readily looks for on labels. Bottow line, Dexcom is fabulous. I have had it less than a week and did not need any special training to set it up. Accuracy is SO MUCH better than Medtronic. For example, this morning the readings from his meter and the Dexcom matched EXACTLY. This will allow for much better control and overall better health. Not only for Zach, but for mommy too. I have actually slept through the night every night since we got the Dexcom. I hadn't slept through the night with the MySentry in awhile.