Well, I went to my appointment at 2pm today and walked out with a Minimed continuous glucose meter attached to my stomach and slung on my hip – nice.

Apparently this CGMS has been out for about ten years and while I’m very grateful to be able to use it for free, it’s starting to show its age. The fantastic staff member at North Shore diabetes clinic gave me the low down and inserted it for me then showed me the buttons. There are only a couple of buttons on it and the user interface seems pretty rudimentary.

I have to wear it for three days to get 48 hours’ worth of data, and it takes my blood sugar using pulses every five minutes. Unfortunately these are not real time units so I won’t have a clear picture until early next week when I’ve given it back and the docs have downloaded the data. So alongside wearing it 24/7 (yup, to bed, in the shower, the works…. and I have to tie a plastic bag around it when I’m in the shower…. are we still in the 80s?), I have to continue doing finger prick tests and keep a detailed log of everything like carb intake, insulin administered, exercise and all that carry on.

Every day of wearing this I also have to input at least four BM readings so the unit can check its calibration. Unfortunately this being an American model, I have to enter it in mg/dl rather than mmol/l so have to consult a conversion chart every time. You get to choose when you record the four readings, apart from the first one which you have to put in an hour after insertion. Of course I happened to be in a meeting with the CEO of our agency at the time – the first time I’ve had a meeting with him too – dang.

Aside from all the bitching and whinging above (I’m not really whinging, just giving you guys the full picture), I’m really really pleased I’ve been given the chance to undertake this exercise. Will be fascinated to see the results when they come through and finally see what is happening while I’m asleep.

So next up for me is trying to sleep with a digital camera sized unit clipped on my jim jams, and I’m off to RPM at 6am so will see how I get on while exercising, followed by the shower debacle.

Will keep you lot in the know.