I replied to you by email. Let me know if you didn’t receive it.

For anyone curious about the reply, here’s the main answer.

I have not watched the expiration dates on the sensors at all. I’ll have to check the dates on my current box. Personally, I would not waste them, especially if you’re paying for any significant portion out of pocket. I doubt that the quantity of chemicals on the sensor, even if they have changed somewhat, would really be seriously harmful. I would use them and see if they track your glucose accurately enough. If you find that they don’t or that you experience pain or swelling, stop using them. Realistically, the most likely thing that would make them expire is that the chemical would react as it does with your glucose, leaving the sensors with too little of the chemical to be effective in tracking your glucose levels.

Of course, I am neither a doctor nor a chemical engineer nor an employee of Minimed/Medtronic with inside information. So, obviously, this would be at your own risk. I just think that the number of chemicals that can truly hurt you in minuscule quantities is quite small. And, minimed would be unlikely to use a chemical related to something that dangerous on a device inserted into your body.

So, without advising you what to do, I will say that I would use them until/unless I see them not working or causing pain or swelling or some other minor bad effect.

Scott

You’ve provided some fantastic info about diabetes and the pump/CGM, for which I am grateful. I was hoping to ask you a couple of questions, if you don’t mind using the email link that’s embedded in my comment (couldn’t find a link to email you here). One thing in particular that I’m wondering about is, with the CGM, have you used the sensors past their use-by date? How long past it? Or anyone else who is diabetic and following this conversation, I’d love to know if they really do expire.

The site didn’t look particularly fantastic to me. It did look legit at first glance though, so I won’t call your post spam, despite the resemblance. Better advice though, especially for those relatively new to diabetes and unlikely to have developed complications, don’t suffer with diabetes. Take control of diabetes and enjoy your life. I’ve had diabetes since 1988 am 44 years old, and do not let my diabetes stop me from anything, or at least not much. I did decide not to take up SCUBA diving, which is expensive and more complicated for a diabetic. I also have never taken flying lessons partly because diabetics can’t get licenses and partly because, again, it’s extremely expensive. I do travel around the world in search of wildlife and get to places far more remote than most of the non-diabetics I know. Many think I’m a tad insane. Check my trip list for details. All of these trips have been since I got diabetes.

http://misanthropicscott.wordpress.com/vote-for-the-next-travel-location-write-up/

If you are a patient of diabetes or know any patient suffering from diabetes you must refer him to this site http://www.reddiabetes.com

Interesting. I wonder what brand he tried. MiniMed (now Medtronic) pumps have been approved for years. When I started using mine in 1998, it had already been on the market for years. I started pumping humalog (insulin analog) when both pump and humalog were approved, but not for use together.

As for the unit waking your friend, that makes me think it may have been the continuous glucose metering discussed on my other diabetes post. They did combine the functions of monitoring the glucose level into the insulin pump, which may be causing the confusion. The sensor was only recently approved and does not yet have an insurance code.

The two bits of functionality, though on the same device, are quite different. One monitors glucose levels every 5 minutes and can provide alarms when the level is out of range. The other pumps insulin into the body.

I suspect that they combined the two features in one device because:

A) They could.
B) It saves space on one’s belt.
C) The original charter of minimed is to create an articificial pancreas. That will need to be one device.

I have a friend who was issued a trial one of these “pumps”. He loved it. Just as he was getting used to it, they took it back saying it hadn’t been certified by the FDA? He was amazed at the unit waking him in the night.
The one he had was around the size of a matchbox, but, he said they are getting smaller.