My Life as a Robot/ I gots me a Dexcom

Now that I am the proud owner of a Dexcom G4 (THANK YOU HEALTH CANADA!!!), ahem, I have started to feel like a little bit of an automaton (cue steampunk music). This snapshot pretty much sums up my life as a diabetic, although I do not live in a sepia world unfortunately.

I jumped right on the ball as soon as I found out that the Dex was going to be available in Canada. I called my Animas rep immediately and ordered. I am very fortunate to have awesome insurance and it was able to cover the entire startup cost of the CGM as well as the monthly costs. I was like a little kid at Christmastime and I opened the box the second I got my hands on it. After inserting the sensor I waited anxiously through the 2 hours of startup time. I got my very first reading and for the rest of the day, watched the receiver like a hawk.

In conjunction with the pump, I feel like I am able to get the best control possible. I guess it is true when they say that "good things come to those who wait." (and those who petition....and who send multiple letters to Health Canada)

Canada Always Misses Out

Well, "always" might be a little bit of an exaggeration, But I really have noticed that Canada does really miss out on some cool products that other countries get (cough, cough Great Britain, United States). Namely the two products that I'm getting at are Dexcom and Symlin. I mean honestly, other than the integrated Medtronic real-time on their pumps, Canada has no access to any other countinuous glucose monitoring system. Not fair at all. We want tight glucose control just like everyone else! And Symlin (a.k.a Pramlintide/ Amylin) in an injectable drug used to prevent post-meal glucose spikes and can sometimes allow you to use less insulin. For me, as soon as I started on insulin I started gaining weight like nobody's business. Less insulin would be a godsend.

So why is it that Canada doesn't get the cool stuff like some other countries do? I mean, we are a fair sized country that maintains great connections with Europe and the States. From my research it is narrowed down to mainly these two things; Health Canada (Canadian equivalent of FDA) has not approved it yet, OR the manufacturer does not think that Canada has a big enough market to make a profit.

THIS IS A TOTAL BUMMER!!!

p.s On the plus side though, two cool things we do have are the InsuLinx glucose meter and the color screen on the Animas Ping meter-remote.