As a diabetic (and a crappy one at that) I tend to get a lot of infections. The latest one is an exciting (and by that I mean miserable) urinary tract infection that made it basically impossible for me to make it through an entire hour lecture without leaving to pee twice. I'm sure my class didn't really mind getting to go home five minutes early because of it but they are not the point of this post. The drugs I'm on are.
So after ending class five minutes early I make my way across campus (stopping roughly every other building to pee) and eventually make my way to Sutton's on franklin st. There's also a Walgreen around but I like Sutton's drug store because there's a little diner in there and they're local and it's closer to my car anyway. I go to the pharmacist and beg him to show me where the "Azo UTI pain killy thingy" is and he gives me a box of generic Azo Standard Maximum strength which I promptly pay for and take with some cran-grape juice that probably has a total of a table spoon of actual cranberry juice in it but whatever (and then run to pee again.)
On my way to the car from the drug store I notice my blood sugar is over 200 and correct for it (this I did while stopped at yet another bathroom to pee at.) I swear this is important later. I get to my car. I race to the doctor. I wait for the doctor in the bathroom because I still have to pee roughly every five seconds and the azo hasn't kicked in completely. I look down at Dexter. I see ??? in the reading box. This means that Dexter is receiving things from the transmitter, he just doesn't know what those things mean. This is odd but whatever, it's happened before and usually clears up in a half hour. The doctor gives me a prescription and now that the Azo has kicked in, I manage to make it to the pharmacy without having to stop on the way.
I get home and notice that Dexter is still very confused. I call the tech support and they ask if I've taken any tylenol. Acetaminophen is not a drug in Azo so I say no, but I took Azo Standard. They told me that's not a drug that is known to interfere with the sensor but when did I take it. I look at the clock and at dexter and say "about 15 minutes before I got the triple question marks." The woman tells me to call back if it's still doing it in another hour but it may just be the drugs I took. I take a nap. Naps are good and are usually the solution to all my problems.
I wake up and Dexter is happy again and asking for a calibrating blood sugar so I oblige and think nothing of the whole event for the rest of the night.
Today I woke up and took my Azo so I could make it through the day. By the time I get to campus, Dexter is reading a lovely ??? again. Ok, now I'm sure it's the Azo. I call tech support again and tell the woman about yesterday and the Azo and that I wanted to call and tell them that it's definitely the cause of the sensor interference and they should let their customers know. The woman, not very politely, tells me that Acetaminophen is the only drug that can interfere with it. I tell her that clearly that is not the case as the Azo has none in it and is messing with my sensor. She un-politely thanks me for the information and we hang up.
I don't think she intends to report this to anyone.
I think I will be calling my doctor, my local Dexcom rep, and my Dexcom trainer. Other users should know that it causes a problem to avoid them needlessly wasting sensors, trying to figure out why they keep getting question marks when they haven't taken any tylenol.
And that is why tech support should listen to me. The end!
PS: These posts would be better with pictures. I should start adding pictures.
I . . . suspect they can't start telling people something like that without, say, clinical trials that reliably replicate your experience. So while it'd've been awesome if your tech support lady hadn't been rude-- and if she'd have seemed willing to pass your experience up the ladder to someone in a position to actually investigate-- its not like she can or even should just start telling people Azo interferes with the Dexcom's sensors. You know?
ReplyDeleteI didn't expect that, I expected her to say "I will pass this information on to the people who do clinical stuff" and then DO THAT rather than insist that it was impossible.
ReplyDelete