Paradigm-veo

Hello, I use te Medtronic Paradigm 522 pump. I have used the Medtronic continuous glucose sensor with it and I thought it worked ok. You have to dons finger stick test every 12 hours to keep the sensor calibrated.

Recently I have been using the Dexcom sensor with the Dexcom continuous glucose moniter. I must say, the Dexcom is far more comfortable than the Medtronic. It's also smaller and you don't have to cover it with the clear patch. Both sensors have a life if around 7 days but I have found that the Dexcom system seems to be far more accurate with results.

I'm currently doing medical trials for diabetes UK testing these sensors and how they work.

The continuous system is a rather nice piece of kit, and it's actually woken me up in the night and saved me from having a hypo. I did find that the Medtronic sensor gave me a skin rash, but that's because the dressing you use to cover it.

I have the Paradigm Veo with CGM and it is OK. You have to do fingerprick tests as there is still nothing more accurate than that. You calibrate the sensor twice but ideally 4 times a day. The CGM reading is sadly not as accurate as a finger test so you still need to do them BUT it has a predictive alert which warns you if your BS is going high or low. You can turn the alarms off but then there is no point in having the sensor! I have lost my hypo awareness which is why I have the pump/sensor combo. It alarms to say if BG is above or below a level that you have preset and predicts a sharp rise or fall in rates. It is excellent at warning you about rises or falls which is the main point of it – met a sales rep and she confirmed that the prediction is it’s main point rather than the accuracy of its CGM. It does not replace finger prick testing but is a good aid for some.

My daughter uses the Paradigm Veo and contiuous glucose monitoring. One thing to know is that Medtronic have recently launched a new generation of sensor called Enlite. The reliability, accuracy, comfort, ease of insertion are all VASTLY improved over the previous generation of sensor.

We've been benefiting from this technology for the past 4 months and last week we had her first HaB1c since the change....delighted to report that we saw a great reduction, 6.9 vs. 7.3 previously. Her stablility is significantly improved too and we find the predictive alerts absolutely invaluable for preventing hypos and responding quickly to rapid rises to minimise hypers.

We find the number of finger prick tests required to be significantly reduced too. Yes, we calibrate twice a day but otherwise only finger prick if the data is looking illogical to confirm.

Frankly, I can't imagine being without the CGMS now but I do know we are very lucky to have funding in place as it's not at all easy to get the NHS to pay for it and without funding I'm guessing it is prohibitively expensive for the vast majority.

We consistently find the sensors last for 10 days.

cjw said:

I have lost my hypo awareness which is why I have the pump/sensor combo. It alarms to say if BG is above or below a level that you have preset and predicts a sharp rise or fall in rates.

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My partner is getting a Paradigm Veo fitted tomorrow, but without the continuous monitoring. Has anyone got the continuous monitoring on the NHS? He is hypo unaware at the moment, so wonder if that qualifies? We're going to look into funding continuous monitoring ourselves, but it sounds quite expensive : (

There isn't any NICE guidelines for CGM so any funding has to go before the/your Special Case Funding Committee... So very few people get funding for them..

But it may not be necessary for your partner to have one as he may gain good control without one..

I wouldn't get funding for one, but there again can't say I need one well it would be nice to use one for night time basal testing rather than waking to test every hour..

But with few hypo's, complete hypo awareness and an HbA1c in the 5% and an high BG now adays is a 7mmol/l then in reality a CGM is a luxuary rather than a necesseity..

Jopar, I'm delighted for your exceptional control, it's simply fantastic. I don't doubt you must work extremely hard to achieve it and I commend you for that.

I really can't agree with your comment however that CGM is a luxury rather than a necessity. Would you say the same about your pump, I wonder? After all, some could argue that they achieve perfectly good control on injection therapy, so why shouldn't we all?