I’ve been looking at a couple of the guides from Medtronic such as "Getting Started with Continuous Glucose Monitoring" as well as the instructional booklet for Carelink software.
Glancing at the models on the covers of these guides, one thing is abundantly clear. People with diabetes are very, very happy. Or so they would have you believe.
It’s a beautiful fall day on the cover of "Getting Started with Continuous Glucose Monitoring." An attractive couple stand in the foreground. Out-of-focus golden maple trees fill the backdrop. Perhaps a crisp, sunny Autumn morning in New England. An adorable little girl sits on her "dad’s" shoulders and the "wife" clutches her "husband’s" arm tightly with both hands. In their warm, stylish sweaters, this could have easily been an ad for J. Crew. Incidentally, neither of them are wearing wedding rings, but that’s neither here nor there. I’ll try not to read too much into that and how it might represent the diabetic demographic as a whole. The scoundrels that they are.
The way I see it, the faces on the "family" don’t exactly depict what "Getting Started with Continuous Glucose Monitoring" might look like in real life. Taken out of a diabetes-related context, they look like they could be standing in line for the circus. Big, glorious anticipatory smiles.
We sure didn’t have that look on our faces when we were "Getting Started with Continuous Glucose Monitoring." A more accurate photo would have been of a family surrounded by a nest of king cobras or attending a three-day lecture series on financial accounting theory. Those are the faces I want to see.
The Carelink software guide is no different. On its cover, a young, attractive man and woman stare eagerly onto the computer screen with such joy in their eyes, they could have only either just booked a Carribean vacation or learned that they were getting a large tax return check from the government.
To match their faces, a fitting dialogue might be the following:
"Darling, come look at my perfect blood sugars so magnificently displayed in charts and graphs on our computer screen!"
"Oh, sweetheart! The technology! It’s breathtaking."
"Yes, I know."
"And according to this, you never went above 100 or below 98 for two straight weeks!"
"The technology! It’s ... it’s ..."
"Remarkable?"
"Yes, exactly. Remarkable."
"Isn’t life with diabetes wonderful?"
"It sure is!"
"Let’s celebrate."
"You thinking what I’m thinking?"
"Weekend getaway in New England?"
"Let me just grab my sweater."
It's also quite disappointing that no matter how many times I wear my CGM sensor in my stomach, my stomach never ends up looking as flat or as tanned as the model's :-)
To be fair, I myself wouldn't automatically assume a happy family picture on "Getting Started with Continuous Glucose Monitoring" is an attempt to portray a model of diabetes or the happiness level of people with diabetes or the diabetic demographic as a whole.
I have not seen the image, but I get the general idea of how you described it. Let me tell you what an image like that means to me as a person with Type 1 diabetes for 27 years.
I would accept such an image as a positive one depicting how using a continuous glucose monitoring device could ease some of my burden resulting from my having to continuously manage my diabetes. If my burden is eased, then so is the burden and level of worry of friends and family members who are close to me and concerned for my health -- this is true whether or not they and I have exchanged wedding rings.
You yourself in a previous blog portrayed your son Charlie's new and apparent enthusiasm for having begun using a CGM device. From your blog is really seemed like it made Charlie very, very happy.
Knowing this, would not an image of you and your wife and Charlie taking a walk on a nice day discussing how happy the CGM made Charlie be an image of the three of you smiling?
I really don't think the image of the happy family was meant to portray the attitude of everyone who has or is affected by diabetes, but rather the realization of hope that there are tools available which make our diabetes easier to manage.
U R a hoot, Carey, what about the picture of the young, pretty Asian girl eating a 4 inch High fully frosted Paula Dean Carrot cake that is on the user guide for the CGM, or maybe on the box, I forgot where. I cracked up when I saw it... No CGMS will allow us to got to that high sugar haven , regardless of what MM portrays. However, I did eat a FULL fried pork chop meal at Cracker Barrel tonight, and 4 hours later my blood glucose is 106...This had never happened before I knew how to square wave bolus with the aid of the CGMS...But I won't be a posin' out side in a rocking chair lapping up the Porkchops for MM, unless they pay me well .. (LOL)
God Bless,
Brunetta
You are so funny, Carey!! My CGM and I are having words at the moment. It told me I was 92...then very soon 70 with a "low predicted" alarm on my pump (Revel) and then the lovely 4 tone alarm for LOW. I was changing my son's diaper (reminder...he is almost 11 years old and weighs 115 pounds, so changing his diaper requires big muscles and a blood sugar higher than the 52 I was at the moment when my LOW alarm went off). I look like I'm surrounded by tarantulas right now....wonder if Medtronic would like to come take my photo for their literature. Well, I'm low and not making any sense at all.....I better go see what end I put Elijah's diaper on.....
Mousie
Ha! Yeah, I've seen that picture of the girl with the mountain of cake, Brunetta. And I think Medtronic would be well-served with photos of real people like yourself rockin' in a chair after a well-calculated square wave bolus. Good job!
Mousie. Unfortunately, your tarantula look on your face won't fly with Medtronic. No expression of fear allowed by their models. Best to you and Elijah.
And good point Alison. You should demand your money back.