Nov 27, 2007

Just Stop Already!

Jan Chait

Timex isn’t the only thing that "takes a licking and keeps on ticking." OK, my continuous glucose monitor (CGM) doesn’t exactly tick, but, like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps going and going—even when it doesn’t work.

I was washing dishes one recent evening when my CGM dropped out of my pocket and fell into the sink. It was only a few dishes, so I was just running water, but it fell under the faucet and, despite my grabbing it quickly and drying it off, it did get wet. Which it isn't supposed to do.

Bringing it with me back into my office, I set it on my desk.

"Rrrrrrrrr," it went, as it vibrated and skittered across my desk. I turned it off and set it back down.

"Rrrrrrrrr," it went, as it vibrated and skittered across my desk.

I "connected" and then "disconnected" the sensor. Put it back down.

"Rrrrrrrrr," it...well, you know the rest.

Then it began to alarm. That was pretty loud against the hard surface of the desk, so I put it on top of a pile of clothes that were folded on the ottoman. It wasn't much quieter. However, I didn't want to bury it in the pile of clothes, because I'm in my mentalpause years and would likely forget it was there.

I could have put it in another room, but what was the point? It has a pretty loud—and shrill—alarm.

But I had a dilemma: I couldn't kill the darned thing and it refused to die. And, "lucky" me, I'd just charged the receiver right before the mishap occurred. Good ol' Dexcom comped me a new receiver—overnight, yet—so I was able to hook up again the next day, but man do they make those things to run! It finally shut up when the battery got too low.

It's probably a good thing many diabetes-related products are made to take the lickings I sometimes manage to hand out. I'm forever forgetting I have a pump attached to me when I crawl out of bed and it hits the (fortunately carpeted) floor.

However, I've also dropped pumps on uncarpeted surfaces without mishap. Well, except for once, when the floor was tile and the cover broke off of the battery compartment. Again, I had a replacement the next day.

On two occasions, I've been away from home when a problem occurred. The time the battery cap broke off, I was in Arizona. Another time, I was staying in a hotel in New York City when I realized I'd forgotten to bring the charger for my CGM. On both occasions, I received what I needed the next day—delivered to where I was, not where I live.

What other types of companies give you such good customer service? Aside from my neighborhood grocery store (where the owner once delivered a roast to a customer and even seasoned and put it in the oven for her when the roast she'd gotten didn't work out), I can't think of any. I could, however, pontificate on the time a cruise line sent my missing luggage to Indiana, where I live, instead of to California, where I was staying at the time.

But a cruise line is hardly a life-sustaining piece of equipment, nor is luggage—unless, of course, you checked your meds and equipment instead of taking it in your carry-on bag as you should—so it can be forgiven. Even if you did have to buy some new clothes.

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