Man! I've been so busy in my new district that I rarely even get to check this board much less ask a question!
I have a 4th grade diabetic diagnosed only 6 months ago. He is amazingly responsible and very tuned into how his body is feeling. He uses a Dexcom CGM and his parents monitor his BG throughout the day.
There has been some concern that the teachers were perhaps not responding quickly enough to his monitor and perhaps not accompanying him to the health office as is stated in his 504. I was asked to come to his parent teacher conference this evening along with his case manager so we could all get on the same page regarding his diabetes care at school. I will also add that he is new to this school this year since our elementary is divided between 2 buildings and he is now in the 4-6 building.
At the conference his father said he wants his son to stay in class as much as possible and wants us to treat him based on his CGM and not a finger poke (with a few stipulations) by providing snacks in class so he doesn't have to come to the health office when he is low. The father stated (and I confirmed) that the Dexcom G5 is the only CGM system approved by the FDA to use for treatment decisions rather than a finger poke (again with stipulations). This will be our first diabetic that we treat based on CGM rather than finger poke.
I decided to investigate and visited the Dexcom website. They actually have a pretty good PowerPoint presentation specifically for School Nurses regarding how the system works.
Despite all of this I am nervous about treating based on a CGM! I did ask parents to please get an order from his endocrinologist stating that we are to treat based on the CGM and not a finger poke (with those pesky stipulations I mentioned above -- if student feels low despite the CGM registering a normal blood sugar, if the CGM becomes dislodged, etc.)
Do any of you have diabetics that you treat with CGM and not finger pokes?
