[acb-diabetics] Accessible CGM's

[Veronica Elsea]

Actually, I have sat down with a sighted friend who uses CGM and I 
have thought a lot about how we'd want the data presented. What they 
see is a number and arrows to show whether it's trending up or down. 
The dip of the arrow is sharper if it's a fast drop and flatter if 
it's a slow one, for instance. We could get at everything we'd need 
using simple speech for the number and rising or falling tones to 
match the simple graph. The system has alarms to indicate when you're 
out of range, either high or low. No problem making two different 
sounds, one for high and one for low. You can look at past readings 
like we do now in a glucose meter. It's just that the numbers would 
be every 20 minutes instead of every time we did a manual test. My 
biggest concerns with them aren't actually blindness related. 
Sometimes once the low alarm goes off, you can't shut it up until 
you're actually back up again. All my friends complain about this in 
the middle of the night. Sometimes they get into crazy states when 
the sensor gets too far away from the transmitter and stuff like 
that. You have to calibrate them against your regular meter when you 
first insert a new sensor. Some people have trouble with the tape on 
the sensors. They're making a lot of progress though and they can be 
a good way of learning what's happening in between finger sticks.
But there is absolutely no excuse for not having these things 
accessible to us. None!
That's my nickel's worth! <grin.>

Veronica
Diabetes Melodious is here!
http://www.laurelcreekmusic.com
		Veronica Elsea, Owner
Laurel Creek Music Designs
Santa Cruz, California
877-607-6407