Friday, April 04, 2008

Getting a Guardian

It's decided: I am going to get a minimed guardian! I'm buying it as a cash item, in minimed lingo, meaning that we won't be applying for insurance aid. That's going to be 1339$ for startup costs that include one box of ten sensors. I figure I'll wear one sensor per month; if each sensor lasts about a week, then I'll be fairly part time on the sensor.
I had been thinking about the dexcom, and then I realized a few things. One, the dexcom doesn't allow you to calibrate by manually entering a blood sugar value; you can't use any old blood sugar meter. My insurance will only pay for test strips on the Accu Chek line of meters and adding in the cost of getting test strips for the one touch meant that the dex suddenly cost a lot more. Then I also realized that most people get more than the FDA approved 3 days from a guardian sensor, and that with that factored in, the Guardian sensors are much cheaper than the Dexcom ones. So I called Minimed, talked to somebody named Sarah about my questions on Wednesday, called her back on Thursday to say, Yes, that's what I want to do.
I told Sarah on the phone at Minimed that I'd had a reaction to the iports and asked about what if I have one to the guardian. She says that if it was a reaction to the adhesive (and it was- question is was it ONLY to the adhesive) then we can change the adhesives. But if it was a reaction to the plastic cannula, then we're out of luck. Minimed will take the transmitter and monitor back and reimburse me about 900 dollars if that happens.
I've transferred the money into my checking account, haven't got the details finalized, assume it will be another 2-3 weeks before I actually get the guardian.

1 comment:

Bernard said...

Jonah

As of a few weeks ago Dexcom started supporting manual input of blood glucose values. If you already have a Dexcom unit they will provide a free upgrade starting sometime in June.

That would be the third (albeit minor) improvement they've made to the Dexcom in about 14 months. I think I'll be sticking with them for now. Though I do have several friends who swear by the Navigator.

Best of luck with the Guardian, do let us know how it turns out.