Freestyle Navigator - a huge mess, resolved
For whatever reason, these past few days have seen me go through a real rollercoaster with my Abbott Freestyle Navigator (the real-time blood glucose monitor). They say disasters come in three. I concur.
Roll back to Saturday. I went out with a friend, and we ended up in a somewhat wet environment. No real problem there, I am good at being careful with my Nav, but apparently I was not careful enough; after a bit, my receiver simply stopped working. Not a battery issue; they were relatively fresh, and when I took them out and put them back in, it instantly came back to life. Except it still didn't work. That is, pressing the main button (the right bottom one) did nothing. Performing a manual check proved the point, as the arrow buttons worked fine for changing the strip code; it was just that main button. Of course, without it, the Nav is useless.
I was freaking out, and called Abbott to open a case for replacing the unit. Friend then suggested to try and dry the thing out, as I was voicing suspicion that a little water may have entered the space around the button. Good idea; an hour later the device was back to operational.
However, this points to a design issue: the buttons on the Nav really should be waterproof, but they are not. So don't ever take it out in the rain, folks, or it might simply stop working for a while.
Move ahead 24 hours; I was in a big crowd and someone bumps me on the arm. I don't know which someone; many of them bumped me on the arm. But at some point the transmitter apparently detached and fell to the ground. I only found out 10 minutes later when my received started complaining - and by then, it was far too late to do anything about it.
Another design flaw: the coupling between the transmitter and sensor is not tight enough. With the Dex Seven, this would never have happened; if you got bumped hard enough to dislodge the unit, both the sensor and transmitter would get pulled off. This may sound painful, but that's the idea; you would instantly know something went wrong. Not so with the Nav design; if the transmitter pops, you will have zero clue that it happened until you look for it (or your receiver tells you its gone). So point two: use an armband to keep it in place if you intend to go to, say, a show. I know I will begin doing so from now on.
But the main distress came later, when I called Abbott. They first said they will overnight a new transmitter to me. Great. Then the lady calls back and says she can't do that, because it's out of warranty. I ask to buy one. She says she can't do that without insurance authorization. My insurance won't authorize a new one even if I pay for it myself. Argh!
I escalated and eventually got to speak to the head of the department, who took many notes and promised to return to me the next day.
Again move ahead 24 hours, and speaking to him again, he let me know that they reviewed the case and decided to ship me a new unit even though it is against normal policy. He admitted that the loose coupling problem has been noted before; this probably had something to do with the reversal.
So what did we have? receiver stops working (major downer). Receiver starts working again (upper). Transmitter lost (downer). Transmitter to be replaced (upper). Transmitter to not be replaced (downer). Transmitter cannot be acquired (major downer). Transmitter to be replaced (upper). All in less than 48 hours.
And all I want to ask you is this...
Is it a wonder my blood sugars have gone haywire?
Roll back to Saturday. I went out with a friend, and we ended up in a somewhat wet environment. No real problem there, I am good at being careful with my Nav, but apparently I was not careful enough; after a bit, my receiver simply stopped working. Not a battery issue; they were relatively fresh, and when I took them out and put them back in, it instantly came back to life. Except it still didn't work. That is, pressing the main button (the right bottom one) did nothing. Performing a manual check proved the point, as the arrow buttons worked fine for changing the strip code; it was just that main button. Of course, without it, the Nav is useless.
I was freaking out, and called Abbott to open a case for replacing the unit. Friend then suggested to try and dry the thing out, as I was voicing suspicion that a little water may have entered the space around the button. Good idea; an hour later the device was back to operational.
However, this points to a design issue: the buttons on the Nav really should be waterproof, but they are not. So don't ever take it out in the rain, folks, or it might simply stop working for a while.
Move ahead 24 hours; I was in a big crowd and someone bumps me on the arm. I don't know which someone; many of them bumped me on the arm. But at some point the transmitter apparently detached and fell to the ground. I only found out 10 minutes later when my received started complaining - and by then, it was far too late to do anything about it.
Another design flaw: the coupling between the transmitter and sensor is not tight enough. With the Dex Seven, this would never have happened; if you got bumped hard enough to dislodge the unit, both the sensor and transmitter would get pulled off. This may sound painful, but that's the idea; you would instantly know something went wrong. Not so with the Nav design; if the transmitter pops, you will have zero clue that it happened until you look for it (or your receiver tells you its gone). So point two: use an armband to keep it in place if you intend to go to, say, a show. I know I will begin doing so from now on.
But the main distress came later, when I called Abbott. They first said they will overnight a new transmitter to me. Great. Then the lady calls back and says she can't do that, because it's out of warranty. I ask to buy one. She says she can't do that without insurance authorization. My insurance won't authorize a new one even if I pay for it myself. Argh!
I escalated and eventually got to speak to the head of the department, who took many notes and promised to return to me the next day.
Again move ahead 24 hours, and speaking to him again, he let me know that they reviewed the case and decided to ship me a new unit even though it is against normal policy. He admitted that the loose coupling problem has been noted before; this probably had something to do with the reversal.
So what did we have? receiver stops working (major downer). Receiver starts working again (upper). Transmitter lost (downer). Transmitter to be replaced (upper). Transmitter to not be replaced (downer). Transmitter cannot be acquired (major downer). Transmitter to be replaced (upper). All in less than 48 hours.
And all I want to ask you is this...
Is it a wonder my blood sugars have gone haywire?
posted by Blinkered at 4:02 PM
3 Comments:
This may sound ridiculous, but it just worked for me in an emergency the other day. If anything electronic gets damp, put it in a ziplock bag full of rice (not minute rice, just the ordinary sort). It will dry out within a few hours and *may* become functional. I know, not a risk you want to take with a blood sugar monitor, but possibly could get you by until you are able to resolve the situation.
You were really lucky to get your receiver replacement. You must have been the last person to get one. Abbott has had an embargo on shipping out Navigator receivers for anyone. People have been complaining to the FDA. I think that there is a quality issue. At this point I am not sure whether Abbott is going to continue the Freestyle Navigator. Look at the Navigator threads on the forums at the American Diabetes site.
http://connect.diabetes.org/forums/Topic4334024-3830-1.aspx?Highlight=Navigator
You're right, except I did NOT get my replacement transmitter. I just hadn't posted about it, my apologies.
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