Freestyle Navigator CGM vs. Minimed CGM

The Minimed did not display any arrows and was telling me that I was at 196.

Wednesday came and I woke up to find that both the Navigator and Minimed were finally in sync with each other the whole day and pretty close to the numbers on my blood meter as well. It took the Minimed two days to catch up. (I was wearing the Minimed for a total of 6 days when it finally caught up. I noticed the more days you wear the same sensor, the better the readings.) The Navigator was pretty accurate right after the 10 hour calibration.

Thursday night I had to go to the Health Trax Gym to meet my CDE for the Navigator exercise program. They had me go on the treadmill and let me put it at the pace I would normally do at my own gym.

Again, there was a representative from Abbott present who had a video camera set up, which went to a screen on the wall to show the rest of the people with diabetes what would happen during my exercise. (While I was on the treadmill the rest of the people were going to be learning about how to use their pumps with exercise. None were on a CGM.) I hopped on the treadmill and I started a warmup for 5 minutes at a pace of 2.5, then I gradually moved up the speed and the incline as I would any other gym day.

My blood sugar started at 192 on the CGM and on a finger stick it was 199. After 5 minutes, the Navigator showed that my blood sugar went down to 188. After 10 minutes it was at 177. In fifteen minutes it was at 166 and at 17 minutes I started shaking and then the CGM started beeping a projected low glucose with an arrow going straight down. The number on my CGM said 133. A couple of minutes later the Minimed also started giving me two arrows down as well.

I got off the machine to make sure I was OK, and the number on the screen turned to 123, still with projected low glucose and a downward facing arrow. I checked my finger and I was at 120. Again, if I did not have this technology I would not have stopped with a blood sugar of 120. I could have been in real danger if I didn't feel the low symptoms coming on, either. My sugar was dropping at a very quick pace in a very short amount of time.

The Navigator gave me a projected low way before the Minimed caught up - it knew my sugar was dropping quickly. A lot of times while I am wearing the Minimed, it starts beeping when I am at the programmed 95. So by the time I check my finger to make sure, I've already bottomed out.

Another good thing about the Navigator that I wanted to mention is that the alarm is much louder than the Minimed when I am low. On Tuesday morning it woke me up with a projected low alarm and I actually woke up. With the Minimed, I could hardly hear a thing while I am sleeping and I keep the pump up high near my pillow (not under it) when I sleep. You also can't hear it under the covers, either. 

My CDE is letting me wear the Freestyle Navigator until March 8th, and so far I love it except that it is huge! But, as long as it works ... who cares, right?