Continuous Glucose Monitor in Waterparks

[Belle & Ariel]

My son, 15, has been on a CGM since October because of going too low and passing out twice in a few months. His problem is that sometimes his body does not recognize carbs and raise the blood sugar. There are times it takes 3 simple sugar treatments to raise him and then it is only 30 points. There are nights we go through 4 or 5 juice boxes in the course of the overnight hours.
We are going to be at the waterparks for several days and don't know how we can keep the CGM on. We will be away from the receiver so much and in the water more than the allowed 30 minutes. In addition, the big waves at TL can't be good for it.
My doctor has no advice either way.
I don't think I can leave it on all day and just use it at night and he certainly will not put up with inserting a new one every day--the warm up would make it kind of useless anyhow.
I'm thinking of cutting back Lantus about 20%, eating snacks almost hourly as we swim and of course checking BG a ton. The parks close at 5 and I'm thinking we will not swim at night so his body can stabilize from all the excercise before bedtime.

Are there any suggestions or experiences you can share?

 

[Selket]

Do you post over at the children with diabetes boards? There is a board just for those with CGMS devices/questions: http://forums.childrenwithdiabetes.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18
I'd recommend putting that ? over there. I'd like to know the answer too.

Which CGMS device is it? My younger son just started the Navigator about a month ago. I don't remember that one saying that it couldn't be in the water more than 30 mins. Of course your son won't probably actually have the transmitter/sensor part under the water for more than 30 mins before coming up/out right?

My son has a swim class and I wrap his arm with one of those bandages that sticks to itself. This keeps the transmitter/sensor nice and secure. It doesn't keep it dry though. I am not always close enough to pick up the signal. Seems like you could just get the receiver and reconnect it to the transmitter to get the signal to see his bgl. It won't help much for alarms at the water park but it will give you an idea of the bg and of course you'll have it for the non-water park days and nights that way. From our experience and what I've read it seems that exercise lows often happen many hours later so it would be great to have the CGMS for overnight.

I have also seen people recommend something like a "picc line" cover: http://www.drycorp.com/content/picc-line-protector-information/index.html

It might not be pretty but it would probably work for the arm sites. If he has it on his stomach maybe this: http://www.drycorp.com/content/waterproof-ostomy-protector-information/index.html I really have no idea if that would work.

Maybe Sue could chime in on the picc line/ostomy type protector devices. Do they put a lot of pressure on the arm/stomach? I'm thinking of getting the picc line one for William.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

We have the Medtronic Guardian. It is good underwater for up to 30 minutes. We can spend hours in the wave pool at TL.
He only uses it on his stomach. He is 6-3 and about 160, so it is very hard to find an area with fatty tissue and not muscle. His endo nurse encourages him to sit down and eat a twinkie LOL. His sensors come out curved from hitting muscle--I thought this was natural, but nurse had never seen that happen.
I have decided we might try it the first day and overnight to find patterns to know how many carbs I need to load him up with. He is trying his best to talk me out of it.
We cover it with Tagaderm, which is pretty waterproof and keeps it from popping off. It did come off along with the sensor once playing soccer. I would never find it if it came off in the wave pool at TL!