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[Diabetes] General Chat and Support Thread

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  • Registered Users Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    I exchange my Sharps bin at my local Health Centre/Primary care centre. I only changed my most recent one on Thursday.

    There is a smaller bin that I only become aware of recently(local nurse dropped it off as part of my wife's cancer treatment) that is returned to a pharmacy for disposal but not exchange AFAIK.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,251 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    Worth a go but I can't see getting a new script being trouble. They likely want us on the G7 because it's a sealed unit that consumers can't mess with to get longer life out of the sensor. I'm using the G7 now and it's very similar to use. Much harder to knock loose as it's lower profile and has a ring-shaped overpatch to help keep it in place. The warmup time is reduced also.



  • Registered Users Posts: 57 ✭✭2PieceJigsaw


    Yes the health center took them and I'd to then pay 5€ for a 2ltr one I'm baffled, thanks for the reply and I hope your wife is ok.



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    That's odd that there was a charge. Mine was just a straight exchange. I'd query that with HSE live tbh. She's doing well, thanks for asking.



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    My Pharmacist hasn't seen any new list as yet. She did say that once it's released that they'd be happy enough to switch me with a script from my GP. I thought that was odd as AFAIK, CGMs need to be prescribed by Consultant endo. She said that as the initial script was from hospital that repeat and amending same was ok via GP.

    I'll talk to him in the next few weeks and let the thread know.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 16,060 ✭✭✭✭iamwhoiam


    Once again thank you for that information ,Dexcom were useless with info for my daughter who had a new phone which was not compatible for the app . She was on the verge of buying a new phone again but tried your link and it worked .Saved her about €350 ! So for anyone whos phone is refusing to download the dexcom app the solution is in that post .



  • Registered Users Posts: 12,368 ✭✭✭✭Snake Plisken


    You are most welcome, the list of compatible phones is very restrictive.

    I take it she just went with the default settings with regards alarms etc when setting up the app.



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,060 ✭✭✭✭iamwhoiam


    I am not sure to be honest but she is delighted with it as was carrying two phones everywhere with her .! Her new phone and an old one (that was constantly switching itself off )so she could use the app



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,661 ✭✭✭NewbridgeIR


    Healthy diet (most of the time) and lots of walking has helped me and my weight. Got HBac down to 49 at last test.



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,337 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    Just on the train and the CSO (who I know reasonably well), came down to check on me after there was a complaint. I had unpacked some of my bag and there was a syringe with my kit (glucometer, charging cables etc.). Person beside me got up and went down the train. I decided best not to try and follow and explain, and put my stuff away (which I was about to do once I got what I wanted). He just asked was it OK to tell her I was a diabetic to relax the other person. All grand except she felt this wasn't acceptable, she had diabetic friends, they never needed to take their stuff out and it was unacceptable. Thankfully the CSO politely explained after her minute rant that he was not a doctor and that since it was a medical condition, if I needed or wanted too I was entitled to inject myself there and then. She was unhappy with this, and told him he was wrong. Some people.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    I wouldn't worry about it . Some people are just ignorant. I certainly wouldn't be rushing after them to explain



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,060 ✭✭✭✭iamwhoiam


    OMG . What an ignorant person you had to deal with . Well done for staying calm and not giving her any ammunition



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,337 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    On a more positive note, my T slim is here. Meant to have a training day with the Diabetes team but thats a fortnight away so I hooked it up myself and all seems grand. Nicer fit than the Medtronic pump. Touchscreen is OK, but if you have rough hands it might be annoying as its not super sensitive. CGM seems fine so far and have just set up the control IQ this morning. I'll give an update in a week about how the Control IQ app is going as this will be the big selling point if it works or not.



  • Registered Users Posts: 12,368 ✭✭✭✭Snake Plisken


    Hey just on this, I have been on the G6 for 12 months 2 weeks ago I went to change the sensor and the app said needed to change the transmitter, anyway checked everywhere couldn't find one, normally Dexcom sent a replacement ever 3 months, so I rang them to say I didn't receive mine and they said the reason I had not was because funding had not been sent through from the clinic I attend. I then spoke with my diabetic nurse who said that they have to approve funding for the transmitter and she would get it sent through, that's when I asked about going on the G7. So I would speak with your diabetic nurse and perhaps they can send through funding to Dexcom for your G6 Transmitter or move you to G7.



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    Thanks for that. I'll give her a shout. My CGM status is more than a little weird. I had a letter drop last December I forming me that I was now a T1 and including the script for the sensors for my Pharmacist. I gave a rang then and got mumbles re: a mixup somewhere.

    In the interim I've been using the sensors via that script on my LTI and self funding the transmitter.

    Due to a separate medical issue and the use of occasional high dose NSAID the CGM is far handier in helping control BG and insulin bolus.

    If it's a thing that the G7 is a new funding request via endo? I don't think they'll approve it no matter how consequential it is to the other conditions aswell as my overall BG management. With any luck it will appear on core list F and I can finagle a change in the sensor script to the full G7.

    Still, don't ask? Don't get!



  • Registered Users Posts: 12,368 ✭✭✭✭Snake Plisken


    @banie01 G7 is part of the LTI approved list according to a message.i got from my clinic.

    You can ask for the G7 and mention you heard that the diabetic clinics are starting to send out scripts for them. They should understand you are funding the transmitter and Would prefer the all in one solution of the G7. They will ask if you have a compatible phone so double check that although the app I linked to above has an option for G7, although I'm still waiting for my G7 script so haven't tested it yet.

    Best of luck with asking the clinic, you could drop them an email as well and get the consultants approval.



  • Registered Users Posts: 356 ✭✭Galbin


    Hi guys. Does anyone know if Ozempic is covered under the Drug Payment Scheme? It's quite unclear to me whether it is or isn't.



  • Registered Users Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    are you diabetic? if so it is covered under the LTI scheme, the same as everything else required to manage that illness.



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    As Ohnotgmail has said if you are prescribed Ozempic for Diabetes it will be covered via the LTI scheme at no cost to you.



  • Registered Users Posts: 356 ✭✭Galbin


    No, I am not diabetic. I have a complicated related medical condition which we have thrown everything at for the past three years and it's just not getting better. I am in a lot of pain and my doctor suggested this as it is also indicated for this condition. I am on a lot of medication otherwise so normally pay the full DPS amount. I just wonder if this is covered under the DPS that I pay €80 a month for.

    Thanks a million.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail




  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,337 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    For those who asked about the T slim in PMs, here is my general, one week in review.

    It is awesome. My TIR is now at 90%, only really going out of it after large meals so basically I am like Pinnochio and am practically a real boy. The only real issue is getting used to having good bloods with very little effort from me. Mistakes in the first few days appear to be from me trying to treat stuff instead of letting the Control IQ stuff do its thing. It is also how surprisingly quick my BG awareness has changed. I now feel a hype when I am at 5mmol/L and starting to descend but I also feel my hyperglycaemia when I hit 10mmol/L. As someone who was always paranoid about how my attitude and general demeanour changes so drastically with BG changes, this means I now must deal with the fact that what I say and do from now on is all on me. No more excuses.

    So compared to the Medtronic 740G

    • it is slimmer and more comfortable in clothing (I don't like my pump attached to my belt like a beeper).
    • The loading of the insulin cartridge is definetly more time consuming than the Medtronic but we are talking 3 minutes rather than 2.
    • The G6 does not appear to be quite as bang on as the Guardian sensor but it is still pretty close (this is the opposite of what I have read elsewhere)
    • The CGM does not cut out if you don't calibrate when asked (the f'in medtronic one was a pain for this), it also appears to rarely need to be calibrated but if you can't or don't, it still keeps going and predicting, reasonably well.
    • charges by mini USB so no more issues looking for AAs. I have just plugged myself into the USB ports on the train on my commute. It still delivers insulin while charging and uploading results
    • I haven't had a hypo since installing as it lowers insulin when its getting close, and increases it when hyper for no reason it knows of.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,251 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    Had two of my first three G7 sensors fail. They were very quick to send out replacements and a prepaid box to send back the failed sensors for testing. It would have been nice to have spares. In my case, it may have been paracetamol that killed the sensors according to tech support. Not really much I can do about it right now as I have been given Tylex, which contains paracetamol after I broke a few bones last week. So I'm back on test strips until I'm not taking the painkillers. I'm quite reliant on that Dexcom now, don't like not being able to use it for a few weeks.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,251 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    I stayed off the painkillers for all of today and tried another sensor, it failed like the previous two. The painkillers may not have been the actual issue.



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,337 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    The painkillers thing sounds like BS. It is true that paracetamol can cause elevated readings (so can a few things actually, can't remember in which ones though), but it shouldn't cause the sensor to fail.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,251 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    Yeah, I have my doubts given that I have used paracetamol in the past with my G6 and it didn't fail. One of my doctors said she didn't know of any reason it would stop the sensors but couldn't say for sure. Going back to test strips is an absolute pita and I'm not covered at all for hypos and seizures.

    Entirely a personal experience, but I haven't seen anything else on the G7, but the G6 was more reliable. Even then, the reliability of CGM sensors is generally bad compared to any other product I can think of.



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    NSAID's can cause hypos too but I've not heard of anyone having a sensor crap out on them for that just yet.

    I've just had an appt drop in my door to see my Endo team on Christmas week. Will be doing a little arm twisting to switch to the G7 or at least have a transmitter added to my G6 script.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,251 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    Wear a jumper with holes in it and walk with a bit of a limp, subtle manipulation. Failing that just remind them that the NHS is giving them to everyone and that can't be allowed to stand uncontested.



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,337 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    Yeah, shouldn't cause the sensor damage, with the paracetamol and a few other things, it reads a false BG, as in your BG is higher in reality. Obviously something, maybe an excipient of paracetamol itself affects the readings. The NSAID I think genuinely lowers BG, so shouldn't affect the monitor at all, your bloods will just be slightly lower.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭banie01


    Bit of a moan post and feel free everyone to ignore it. I really am just venting.

    I had my Endo appt yesterday, went well prepared with a a printout from tidepool and some other bits.

    I went looking for 2 things. 1, a transmitter script to go with the sensors they'd prescribed for me last December. 2. Some degree of holistic care or advice regarding a neurological/neuropathic issue that has really destroyed my QOL due to no-one wanting to prescribe high dose NSAID or steroid therapy outside of Hospital without my being on a CGM.

    Due to current cocktail of meds I've no confidence in my hypo-awareness. That's before I even broach the opiates that I am on. Everything in my day for the past 3.5yrs has had to be planned around how long I am going to be upright and how much I can do to abate that without topping up meds. I suppose I am lucky insofar as the maintenance meds do take the edge off and that opiates do work when needed. What should be noted at this point? Is that the registrar didn't have my notes available. Yes results up on the system but no clinical notes.

    That said, Urologist and Vascular surgeons are happy to let the issue persists until there is risk to function. That's despite me having seen various specialists privately. The one constant in all the opinions is that as 1st line treatment is NSAID and Steroids where appropriate. That they are contra-indicated by diabetes that it's put up with pain unless/until an endo decides otherwise.

    I laid all this out yesterday to a registrar who listened, went to talk to the Specialist who sent the sensor script last year, and then came back to say as I was GAD -, I wasn't entitled to a Dexcom. Folks, she prescribed the sensors last year, but not the transmitter 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♀️

    My control is still fairly tight, a touch over 7 but I am basically immobile. I've been self funding the G6 transmitter for the past year at @ €220 per quarter. It's not a huge cost but with the price of everything else rising so quickly this year? It's one that has to be put on the back burner for a while.

    The registrar,made it fairly clear that if I have a marked decline in control? That a reassessment will be made. Then marked me in for a 12 month review.

    I'm rapidly approaching the end of my tether with pain issues and I don't know how to knock heads together out there at this point. I may write a letter to the Endo or I may just roll into a ball neck an Oxy and see what tomorrow brings while I rock myself in pain.

    On a cheerier note, Merry Christmas and may the pancreas god be good to ye all this holiday season.



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