Yes. I need to input a reading 2 hours from the time I start my transmitter and sensor. There’s a bit of a but here. The but is that I sometimes hook up the transmitter and then wait until my blood sugar is stable to even bother to tell my pump that there is a new sensor. If and only if I do this, when I tell the pump about the new sensor, within 5 minutes, it will want a new reading. I tend to do this only when I put the transmitter on just before breakfast and know that it will be a while before my blood sugar stabilizes.

As for the 6 hour reading, the technology I have definitely requires it. It is not at all optional. If I don’t provide that BG reading, I stop getting sensor readings. I also have the same situation when I tell the pump that I have a new sensor after 3 days, something you don’t need to do, but I do.

So, with your newer technology, I can’t say how important that 6 hour reading is.

lol, its funny because I have been putting the sensor on my abdomen and its been quite in accurate. My buttock (which i think has more fat), seems to be giving my reliable readings so I’ve switched over there. So maybe the sensor works better in areas with more fat.

I’m scared to massage the area, with the sensor being so sensitive to pressure, I’m scared I will dislodge it slightly.

Can i confirm something with you. After you put on the sensor, 2 hours it will prompt you for a meter reading. Then the next calibration is 12 hours later (or at least thats what it says on the screen on the pump). But I recall something about entering it again in 6 hours for the first reading after the 2hr reading. Have I remembered correctly? If so, how important is the 6 hour reading?

Interestingly, I now have an Oxford HMO that pays for all diabetic supplies at the cost of a PCP office visit copay. It’s been working well for me not even having a drug plan.

Of course, any non-diabetic medications I need are expensive as hell. But, they still come to less than the monthly cost of a drug plan. So, this may be an option for anyone who has Oxford as an option.

I never thought I’d settle for an HMO instead of a POS or PPO. But, with not having a company paying any part of my health insurance now, I was lucky to be able to get access to this plan through a small business we own.

Health insurance in this country is ridiculously expensive. I want the public option. I would buy into medicare in a heartbeat.

Have you tried adjusting the angle? My CDE/pump trainer (also a long-term diabetic) advised against inserting at the 45 degree angle the original documentation recommended (also the angle the ‘feet’ (the part that sets on your skin) are set. (I use the Minimed soft sensors with a 523 Paradigm pump). The ‘sweet spot’ for me is somewhere between 90 and 45 degrees to the skin surface. Ideal is 60 – 65, but it’s all a WAG without a guide and with my variable inner tube around my waist.

Scott’s recommendations about putting the sensor in and waiting several hours before hooking up the sensor and massaging the insertion site every so often (to increase the flow of interstatial fluid or break up the pooled blood from the capillary that ruptured during insertion – the latter is my thought, not his!) have been VERY VERY helpful for me and my results are increasingly better.

The next ‘enhancement’ I’d like is sonar to know where the scar tissue and capillaries are so I can avoid them going in – that’s the #1 problem I have. VERY frustrating when it doesn’t work, but EQUALLY, VERY rewarding when it does!

Thanks again Scott for starting this blog!

Good Luck Julia

Have you tried massaging and kneading the area around the sensors? Also, try going for a walk and see if that changes anything. I know any kind of exercise completely changes both my ISIGs and my insulin absorption.

I wonder if they’re either going too deep or not deep enough. They look fairly short, but going in at a right angle, they probably need to be. You might try areas of your body with more or less fat* to see if they work better in either situation.

* Note: I’m not implying anything about your weight, just acknowledging that our body fat is not an even covering on our bodies, thankfully. Else, weight gain would make people look like Bibendum (the Michelin Man, yes he has a name).