Oh How I'd Love a CGMS

A CGMS - Continuous Glucose Monitoring System is the latest wave of diabetic technologies that's making its headlines in the news. There are now 3 different companies sampling their CGMS's on the market. One of these is Medtronic, which is the same company that produces my insulin pump.

When I bought my pump, I chose the one I did for two reasons. First, it was the only one that held enough insulin for my 3 day supply (according to the trainers). This turned out to be wrong (I use less insulin with the pump than they predicted), but that was their initial thinking. The other reason was that it was already equipped with the technology to communicate directly with a CGMS.

What a CGMS does (as the name implies) is continuously checks your blood sugars. All day long, 24 hour hours a day, 7 days a week, it senses your current blood sugars, logs them, charts them, and even (this is the part that really excites me) can be programmed to alarm if your blood sugars fall out of the desired range. Imagine the potential? In theory, I could set up a CGMS to alarm me when my blood sugars reached about 120 or below 80 (these are the blood sugars a nondiabetic expects to see). No drastic lows in the 30s that I can barely think straight enough to take care of... no unexpected highs of upwards and over 300 because my pump tubing got tangled up in a knot. Near perfect control.

So why haven't I gotten one yet? They are insanely expensive. When I got my pumps, my very kind and loving parents offered to pay for the CGMS receiver, which would have cost an additional $1000. I was thrilled (I think I even cried) because I so desperately wanted one. Well, I called to look into it and found that the initial $1000 was just a start. A months worth of supplies to keep the thing going cost $350. $350 a month? Who has that kind of money lying around? That was beyond my parents reach and mine (See, school teachers just don't make that much money). The extra cost of the pump supplies was already a bit of a worry... that just wasn't going to happen.

Well, an ariticle I read today said that some of the biggest national insurance companies are starting to pay part on CGMS systems. Its only a matter of time till more jump on board to stay competitive. I can't imagine that mine will be amongst the first to take them on, and even if they do... my 20% of that each month would mean an extra $70.00 a month (assuming these sensors don't go bad on me early like my pump sites do). So its probably a ways off... but I can dream.

Someday I'll get a CGMS. Eventually those prices will come down as the technology becomes more mainstream. Eventually my insurance will cover part of it. Eventually, I'll have the chance to manage my diabetes in a way that was beyond anyones wildest dreams just years ago.

Here's hoping!