Dexcom Seven Plus vs. Freestyle Navigator

Abbott finally stepped up to the plate on Thursday & offered customers money back if they wanted to return their Freestyle Navigator and get another system. The day after Abbott came out with their offer, Dexcom came out with a special deal for Navigator users. I had already started the process for getting a Dexcom and was just crossing my fingers that it would not be too much of a fight with my insurance company to get it. I called Dexcom about the deal. They had received the paperwork from my doctor that very day so all they need from me is the money. As soon as I get my money from Abbott, my Dexcom will be ready to ship. Abbott promised a quick turnaround, so I hope they keep that promise. I have been without a CGMS for 10 weeks now so am anxious to get started on the Dex. The Dexcom deal was $541 less than what my insurance paid for the Navigator, so my insurance should be happy to get money back for a change!


I did a one week trial of the Dexcom and I really like it. There are a lot of Navigator users trying to decide if they should take the offer or wait things out. Of course everyone is looking at pluses & minuses between the Dexcom & the Freestyle Navigator.

There were only 2 ½ things that I liked better about the Freestyle Navigator. The first one is the distance. I was used to being able to set the Freestyle Navigator down and walk to another room without losing connection. I had trouble with the Dexcom losing connection even in the same room. I am not one to wear belts much so I am going to get one of those Spibelts and that will solve that problem.

The second thing that I like better about the Freestyle Navigator is that Tylenol can mess up your readings with the Dexcom. I don’t take much Tylenol, but really don’t want that option taken away from me either. The morning I started the Dex trial, I woke up with a killer headache. I didn’t want to take Tylenol that morning because I wanted to get a true picture of the Dex. I survived that day, so I guess I can live without my 20 Tylenol pills a year!

The ½ thing that I liked better about the Freestyle Navigator was the ability to get actual numbers on the receiver. It was nice to be able to wake up and remember you had a low or high in the middle of the night and look to see how low or high you actually went. I guess the bean counter in me prefers actual numbers over graphs, but since the rest of the world prefers graphs over numbers, I should get used to it!

The alarms on the Dexcom are far more superior than the Freestyle Navigator. The high on the Freestyle Navigator cannot be set lower than 140. On the Dexcom, you can set it at 120. I don’t like waking up in the morning in the 130s or 140s so that makes a big difference to me.

Also, the Freestyle Navigator beeps at you every 15 minutes when you are out of range. There is a mute button but there is an issue with that going into indefinite mute so I did not want to do that. If you change your alarm settings, then you have to worry about remembering to change them back or falling asleep and waking up high because you did that. With the Dexcom, you can pick how often you want to be reminded. When my BS goes high, it takes about 20 minutes before my insulin even starts kicking in so I don’t need to be reminded every 15 minutes that I am high.

I was concerned about losing the predictive alarms that the Freestyle Navigator has. What I did not realize was that the Dexcom has rapid rise & fall rates that you can set for either 2 or 3 mg/dl per minute. That is actually nicer than the Freestyle Navigator’s predictive alarms. The Freestyle Navigator looks at your high & low settings to calculate if you are gong to hit that threshold. On the Dexcom, if you have your low alarms set for 70 but your blood sugar starts dropping rapidly when you are at 200, it will alert you that your blood sugar is dropping fast. I liked that a lot better because you actually got more warning for rapidly moving blood sugars.

Another nice feature with the Dexcom was when it beeps that you are out of range, the screen lights up and says high or low. The buttons that you have to push also light up. That made it really nice at night when it was dark to just pick it up and be able to see what was going on and hit the right buttons without having to turn a light on to see. On the Freestyle Navigator, you had to hit a button to get the backlight to come on. On several occasions, I was trying to find the right buttons to hit in the dark and actually disabled my alarms. That won’t happen on the Dex.

I know one big complaint people have about the Freestyle Navigator is the size. I previously said that the size doesn’t matter to me but I am retracting that. Size really does matter! Even with all the talk I have heard about the size, I was really surprised to see just how small the Dexcom was. When you put the Freestyle Navigator transmitter next to the Dexcom, it reminded me of the picture I have with my Yorkie next to my brother’s Great Dane.

I had a ton of holes in my arms from the Freestyle Navigator. Originally, I planned on using the same arm but because of the holes, I started rotating arms. Even when I went to change sensors, I still had holes in the arm that I pulled the prior sensor off of days before. When I took the Dexcom out, I had a tiny, tiny little mark and that disappeared quickly. After going thru a very nasty foot infection, I am a little paranoid about germs. Those holes in my arms left an opening for germs to get in.

On a couple occasions, the plastic sensor mount for the Freestyle Navigator cut into my arm. One night in particular, I woke up in the middle of the night with pain where the sensor was. I decided to rip it off and there was an outline dug into my skin from where the mount had cut into my arm. That took several weeks to heal. I know that if I sleep wrong with the Dexcom, that would also happen, but since the Dexcom is so much smaller, it won’t be as big of an area to heal.

I also had several occasions when I put a new Freestyle Navigator sensor on that I had a lot of bleeding and ended up taking the sensor off because there was so much blood. Since I only did a one week trial with the Dexcom, I don’t have enough experience with that to know if that will happen or not, but since the Dexcom sensor is so tiny, I don’t expect much of a problem with that.

With the Dexcom, you can use whatever meter you want to do your calibrations. With the Navigator, you had to use Freestyle strips. Some people will not like that they have to take an extra meter with them if they want to do either readings or calibrations, but I never trusted the Navigator 100% and always took my meter anyway so that was not a big deal for me.

And of course one of the best things about Dexcom is that I have never seen anything about Dex users having to wait over two months for replacements. Since Abbott has now done this same thing two years in a row, anyone that continues to use the Freestyle Navigator has to wonder when the next time this will happen again.

Abbott Diabetes Care

Thursday, Abbott Diabetes Care placed a notice on their website with a notice that they were contacting customers who were waiting on new receivers or transmitters. They said that they were trying to offer solutions for the waiting period. There was a number to call so I called.

They are not able to say when they will be able to replace the system, so if you don’t want to wait, they are offering $2k towards a replacement system if you return the Navigator to them. I also brought up that I have 7 ½ boxes of sensors. I was told that they will also reimburse those. I then told them that my insurance company paid more than what they should have on those, so I wanted to make sure the reimbursement was for what was paid. They will pay dollar-for-dollar as long as long as you have the sales receipt, which I do.

I wanted to make sure that something was in writing if I returned everything to them. They are also sending Affidavits for people to sign. I don’t have a problem with that. I just wanted my money back so I could get a Dexcom. The Dexcom is supposedly cheaper so my insurance company will make out on the deal. The supply company will get their money for both a Navigator & a Dexcom and I will finally have a working system. Everyone should be happy!

They are sending me labels & boxes to return everything to them. They said they are working on doing a fast turnaround.

Even after I accepted the deal, I was offered 90 days worth of test strips. I use a different meter that connects to my computer so declined that offer.

Abbott finally did the right thing for their customers. Although I wish that they had done it sooner, at least they finally did it.

I feel sorry for anyone that works in customer service at the Navigator department. I am sure they have dealt with a ton of angry customers the last 2 months. They all deserve a bonus and a happy hour trip!

Dead Freestyle Navigator Update

It has now been 8 weeks since my Freestyle Navigator died. Abbott Diabetes Care said that they would replace my receiver but they are on backorder. I am still waiting on that replacement.

My insurance requires preauthorization for me to get the sensors every three months. That process had already started when my receiver died and they shipped a week later. I never, ever expected to be sitting here two months later without a working receiver! I still had over a box of sensors left from my first order - those sensors expire in April. The sensors that came in February expire in June. I would have to have a working receiver to use the sensors that expire in June by April 1st - that is obviously not going to happen. Even if it did happen, I still have sensors that will expire before they can be used.

For some reason, when I meet my deductible for my DME, I don’t get statements showing what the insurance company paid. I did not get a statement when they paid for the Navigator because I had met my deductible. A little over a week ago, I received a statement for the February sensors. To add insult to injury, the supply company charged $750 a box for sensors. That is common for supply companies to bill far more than what they get paid. The supply company I buy test strips from charge over $90 for a box of strips that I can walk in WallyWorld and buy for $30. My insurance pays about $35 a box for those. You can buy the Navigator sensors for about $380-$400 cash. That is what I thought my insurance would pay for them - wrong! They paid the full $750. For six boxes, that was $4,500. I am currently sitting on over $5,000 worth of sensors and at least $1,000 of those will expire even if a Navigator showed up today.

I asked Abbott for my money back because they are not honoring their warranty - the Navigator only worked 11 weeks and I have been without for 8 weeks. I was told no. They seem to think they are honoring their warranty because I will get a replacement someday but they can’t tell me when. I brought up the sensors that will expire and I was told that they are working on that. I don’t consider being without a medical device for two months honoring their warranty.

I wanted a CGMS for two reasons. The first being I have gastroparesis and that makes it challenging to balance blood sugar and insulin. I am also hypo-unaware so pass out when my blood sugar drops too low. One time when that happened last fall before getting the Navigator, I was in the kitchen making breakfast. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in the living room three hours later with blood all over my shirt. When you first regain consciousness from passing out with a bad low, it takes awhile before you figure out what is going on. After I got to the point I could move around, I went in the kitchen. Before passing out, I put eggs on the stove. Fortunately, I passed out before I turned the stove on or I would have burnt the place down. I apparently fell and hit something and the blood on my shirt was from my nose. I later ended up with a black eye.

I am back to living in fear again and have had a bunch of bad lows. One night last week, my blood sugar dropped to 13. I am not sure if I passed out or not, but since it was late and I had gone to bed, I “thought” I was sleeping - who knows! I panicked and ate a lot more glucose tablets than I probably really needed. Of course the next morning, I then woke up with blood sugar of over 400.

I had already let my insurance company know what was going on but decided to send them another letter. I sent them a picture of the 13 on my meter. I point blank asked them to get their money back from Abbott so I could get another CGMS. I had the paperwork for a Dexcom Seven Plus and am actually doing a trial this week. I had a doctor’s appointment the morning after the 13 so asked him to sign the paperwork for the Dex. I sent that along with my letter and Dexcom is working on processing that from their end.

I am usually one to just walk away and not file complaints with everyone, but Abbott’s actions are unbelievable. This is a medical device that they are selling that people depend on. Although not everyone that gets a CGMS is hypo-unaware, a lot of people that have them get them for that very reason. I am not the only person suffering from severe lows. A friend of mine told me to write my Congressman - I said I can’t because he died from a medical error (John Murtha).

I then decided to send an email to the Governor’s office. I also looked at the Attorney General’s website and decided to file a complaint there. Because I did not have the statement for what my insurance paid for the Navigator, I had to wait to call them this morning to get that information. They paid $640 for the transmitter and $900 for the receiver. I also have $5,625.00 worth of sensors. On the form for the Attorney General, they asked what resolution you want. I asked that Abbott have to refund $7,165.00. Of that amount, $500 should go to me for what I have to pay the supply company and the balance to my insurance company. I am also going to send my insurance company another letter letting them know that I filed a complaint with the Attorney General.

There was a doctor that posted on two message boards that is also on the waiting list for a replacement Navigator. She said that she filed a complaint with the FDA so I decided to do that this afternoon also.

I don’t know if Abbott realizes that with the internet, current Navigator user all over the country are banding together and making sure everyone is aware what Abbott is doing to their customers who rely on a medical device.