My name is Clemma and I am writing about my experience with the Dexcom Seven continuous glucose monitoring system. I live in Minneapolis with my young son and my not so young husband. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 11 years ago, when I was almost 21 years old. I started pumping 7 years ago, first with a Minimed 508, then an Animas IR1200, and now with the OmniPod. Friday, June 29 I hooked up to my newest constant companion, the one and only Comrade Dex...

Friday, July 6, 2007

Why Dexcom?

Once I decided to buy a CGMS, I had to choose from the available models. There are currently three games in town, although Abbott's Navigator should be coming soon. Besides Dexcom, Minimed has two systems - the Guardian and the Paradigm Real Time system (or whatever it's called). The latter is integrated with Minimed's latest insulin pump. I have an Animas IR1200, and my insurance company is not interested in buying me a new insulin pump yet, so the Paradigm was not an option. I chose semi-arbitrarily between the Guardian and the Dexcom. From my research on the internet, it seemed like each system had pros and cons, some people love one, some people love the other, and you can't really know how a system will work for you until you try it. Dexcom had cheaper startup costs, and the Dexcom rep called me back much more quickly. Some people think I'm silly, but I put a lot of stock in the behavior of sales reps to evaluate a company. That was a big reason I chose the Animas pump over Minimed in the first place. After I met with Tim the Dexcom sales rep, and the product looked good to me, I decided to go for it.

Initially they were going to give the the 3 day system for a week, then upgrade me to the 7, but someone behind the scenes decided to give me the 7 right off the bat. I got trained via a 20 minute phone call, and that was that.

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