Continuous
Blood Glucose Meters
There are a very few continuous BG monitors out there, but the technology is still new. If they ever become freely available, (to do which they will have to come down in price very substantially!) they will take the diabetic market by storm. It would be on a par with discovering you'd found the Holy Grail!
Our BG level tests are the only way we have of knowing what is going on within us but it is so random. It depends on when and how much we test. Even dedicated finger pricker's can only get to see a small sample of what really happens. It's like the single holiday snapshot we were shown before video cameras gave us the ability to see the whole scene.
The information can at best be described as intermittent and may well miss some of the most important swings. Not much comfort when we know that it is tight control that prevents complications!
As a lifelong control freak I would kill for some means of keeping an ongoing check on my BG levels. Think about it - throughout the whole 24 hour period you would know exactly how your BG was effected by everything you did. You would not be asking "why" so much, it would all be there for you to see. Doctors must have felt this way when x-rays were first invented.
A slight digression here but have any other diabetics out there noticed that the word 'why' has cropped up more in their conversation since diagnosis than it ever did before? Why me?; why are my BG levels up/down; why do these meds make me feel ill; why can't I eat this when everyone else seems able to - why, why, why!!!
Sometimes I feel the frequency of the 'why' word is only superseded by that of the 'DAMN' , or something a little stronger. If there are any folk out there offended by this language I apologise, but I must add that any diabetic trying to get control of this disease who has managed it without the odd expletive must be a saint and has probably got their BG's down by exercise - the polishing of their halo!
Anyway, back to our main topic - continuous BG monitoring. We diabetics are not the only ones aware of the advantages of this - the financial returns to the company that comes up with a workable and affordable means of doing this will be in the pound seats. So there is a lot of experimentation going on and, as I said before, there are a few models out there.
Do not, however, imagine that because they are termed 'continuous glucose monitors' you get one, strap it on like a watch and that is it, it gives you everlasting results as long as the batteries last. They have not quite got there yet. Most will only work for a specific period of time before having to be replaced or removed. At the moment they compliment our normal finger prick devises but do not replace them.
Read on through the links below and you will better understand what I mean.
Guardian RT Continuous Monitor.
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