Comment by spacedcowboy
1 day ago
I have type-1 diabetes, brought on late in life after going through a miserable 2 years of stress after my wife was in a coma due to medical negligence. She came out of it, but the damage was done, she won’t recover, and she is a shadow of who she was. Prolonged extreme stress can trigger type-1 diabetes, and once you have it, you have it for the rest of your life.
Right now, I’m on glipizide which manages (along with a low-carb diet) the situation, but I need the GCM so I know when this “honeymoon” period (before I start needing insulin) starts to end.
Unfortunately I have an extreme needle phobia too. My insurance doesn’t cover the G7, just the G6, so I don’t know if it’s different, but if I try to apply the G6, my heart rate will massively speed up, I will start to hyperventilate, and typically pass out when I click the button on the applicator. I’m out for only a few minutes, but it’s not a pleasant experience… I have to make sure I’m lying on a bed to do it now, after learning the hard way that it’s possible to fall when just sitting down, and head wounds don’t stop bleeding when you’re unconscious.
I would dearly love the ability to measure glucose non-invasively. It’s actually nowhere near as bad for me if I don’t have to click it myself, but my wife wouldn’t understand what to do, and my son is too young for me to feel comfortable asking. Theres no-one else around to help, so sometimes I make a dr appt, for a 10-second “click”. Most of the time I just put up with it. The hope is that the phobia starts to diminish, but so far it hasn’t, and yes I’ve tried psychologists.
Every 10 days, and [sigh] as I write, I recall that today is the day. Again.
The G7 has a smaller applicator. To me it looks less "needly" than the G6 did. The libre applicator is even smaller. There's less of a need to look at the underside because the applicator is set on the skin without having to pull free the sticker. That could make it easier for you.
But obviously they all have a needle because they need to get something under your skin. Which is I guess what triggers you.
Doesn't really matter what the G7 offers, it's not covered by the insurance :( I was originally on the Libre-3 but they stopped making them (now it's virtually the same thing but called the Libre-3+ and my insurance doesn't offer that either, even though the difference is just in Bluetooth).
So G6 it is. And yeah, the difference between the non-invasive and invasive is what causes the problem. It's weird, I don't have any other phobias, but I found out about this one when we all stabbed our fingers to test our blood-groups in school. Fell off the stool in the lab, 14 stitches in my scalp. Not the last time, either.
I’m T1 as well and the G7 is night and day better than the G6. Total game changer for me.
Hopefully you get access to it soon.