My son is almost 19 years of age and attending his first year in University. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 11. Last year, his mom purchased the Guardian RT Subcutaneous Continuous Blood Glucose Monitor for him. As you probably know, the Guardian RT is the best control device that money can buy. He used it for almost a year, but decided to take it off while he toured the United Kingdom during spring break. Now, he refuses to put it back on. His IQ has been measured at superior, 99.6% on the national scale. We can’t imagine what on earth could cause such behavior! Has anyone else had a similar experience?

We have several patients who purchased the CGMS, used it for a short time and then decided that it was too much hassle. I’d suggest discussing this with him and seeing whether or not he didn’t like wearing it physically, had allergic problems with the tape, didn’t know how to use all the data he was getting, didn’t know how to respond to the blood glucose readings or didn’t think it was accurate enough (usually means not understanding the delay between interstitial glucose values and blood glucose values from a meter), etc. You may also want to discuss with his diabetes team to see if they have any ideas. As a point of reference, there are people wearing pumps who decide not to continue to wear pumps as well.

SB