Dexcom 7 receiver/display, transmitter and sensor My Dexcom 7 CGM and I have had nine days and nights together and we’ve parted ways. And, as if it knew I was not happy with it, it gave me one last kick in the teeth coughing up its last numbers. I met a friend today for brunch in Manhattan. I walked from my apartment in Brooklyn over the Brooklyn bridge and then took a subway to the cute little Italian bistro  where we were meeting. The walk  took about 90 minutes. After being seated and looking at the restaurant menu...

PositiveID Corporation announced that it has successfully created and laboratory-tested a stable and reproducible closed-cycle, continuous glucose sensing system that functions in the human blood fractions that are relevant to glucose analysis in the human body. PositiveID’s development of the glucose sensor, which is based on RECEPTORS LLC’s (“Receptors”) proprietary chemistry platform, is a critical component of the Company’s implantable RFID glucose-sensing microchip, GlucoChip™, which will...

It pains me to vent about the amazing Dexcom, but I have a frustration. It’s the must-always-be-turned-on <55 alarm that Dexcom has built in. For starters, I love Dexcom. I hate life without Dexcom. When I’ve run out of sensors, as rare as it is, I don’t really know what to do. So all kudos to Dexcom for making my life so much better. But Dexcom has an alarm that must always be active (no option to turn it off), which sounds whenever it gets a reading that your blood sugar is below 55. Now in theory that’s...

Pictures from Medtronic's Product Pages The Medtronic continuous glucose monitor that I wear has sensors that are FDA approved for 3 days at a time. Given, however, the expense and the pain involved with replacing the sensor, I, like many others, try to wear the sensors for as long as they will last. Typically, I replace the sensor after five or six days, when it loses all signal and stops tracking glucose levels at all. I can tell its time has come when it shows a gradual decline in blood sugar, finally reporting that my blood...

Medtronic has launched the Enlite Sensor, the newest and most advanced glucose sensor for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), in more than 35 countries outside of the United States.   The new Enlite Sensor combines greater comfort with improved glucose sensor performance in both overall accuracy and detection of hypoglycemia. According the the company when the Enlite Sensor is used with the predictive alerts feature on Medtronic systems, diabetes patients have access to hypo detection rates up to 98%....

A new study designed to evaluate the effect of continuous glucose monitoring on hypoglycemia in type 1 diabetes has found that continuous glucose monitoring both reduces the amount of time spent by type 1 diabetes patients in hypoglycemia and improves HbA1c levels. The results appear in the April addition of Diabetes Care. The randomized, controlled, multicenter study, included 120 children and adults on intensive therapy for type 1 diabetes and with a HbA1c  of over 7.5%. The patients were randomly assigned...

Deciding to postpone yesterday’s run to this morning, following my hypoglycemic episode was the right thing to do. I woke up at 5:00am this morning and checked my BS – it was 223. High, very high, but I knew this was a result of too little insulin at dinner (4 units) – an overreaction to  last night’s hypoglycemia —  and taking a smaller dose of Lantus at bed time (10 units) – because of my planned morning run. I know that one should not run with BS over 200, but one sometimes does things he shouldn’t.  I...

I had a very scary night last night. It started out like most nights, nothing unusual.  I checked my blood sugar before eating dinner, it was 130,  I ate dinner, which included a nice portion of quinoa and some squash, and took 7 units of insulin. I cleaned up, did a bit of work, and watched a few minutes of TV (American Pie was on one of the movie channels).  At 11:00pm about 2½ hours after taking insulin I went to bed (I took 14 units of Lantus). At around 1:30am I woke up in the middle of a terrible dream.   My heart was...

MiniMed Paradigm® REAL-Time Revel™ Insulin Pumps I do not yet have the iPhone 4. I do, however, have the diabetic’s version of the Hot New Gadget– the Minimed Revel, Medtronic’s latest insulin pump. I am very happy to be able to try out Revel temporarily, on loan from Minimed through the Paradigm Pathway Program, so that I can compare this new model to the model I actually do own– the Minimed Paradigm 522. If I like the Revel, I can choose to upgrade my 522 for $400. I will be wearing the Revel for a number...

Medtronic, Inc. announced the launch of iPro 2 Professional CGM, a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system used by physicians to help improve diabetes management, in 49 countries around the world. This simplified, yet more advanced fourth?generation CGM system is valuable for detecting high and low glucose fluctuations that can lead to dangerous health complications. Such complications often go undetected with traditional A1C tests (a measurement of glucose control over a two?to?three?month period) and glucose meter measurements. iPro2...