Oh, goody!:D

Thanks for the information. I have done some online searches, but I haven't come up with the answers to a couple of questions I have such as:

1) Is the new SEVEN going to turn off after 7 days? I hope not as I get about 10 plus days use now.

2) Will this be waterproof? I remember hearing about a waterproof version coming out.

I wonder if the new SEVEN is what we are using now....except to be re-marketed with the 7 day claim.

Thanks!

1) The 'SEVEN', AKA 'STS-7', will shut down after 7 days, exactly like the current one. You can restart at that time and go for 14, or 21, or whatever you can get. :D But it will be a lot more expensive than the current $35, so if you end up getting the same amount of time from each Sensor in the world, your costs will go up. :(

2) Yes, it will be waterproof. I've just ordered my LAST EVER set of shower patches. :D

3) STS-7 involves many upgrades, not just the time (and waterproofing). Accuracy is supposed to be better, and in the trial they submitted to the FDA, where participants wore the device "blinded" for a while to establish baseline behavior and then got to take the "blinders" off and use it as a normal user would, they averaged a 40% reduction in time spent Hypo. The same trial procedure, done with the STS-3 a little over a year ago, got only a 20% reduction. If you're fighting with insurance based on the argument that your reducing your nighttime hypos is "medically necessary", this dramatic reduction is a BIG HAMMER in your argument. :D The Introducer needle is thinner, and maybe shorter too, they say it's a lot more comfortable going in. Lots of S/W changes to the receiver logic and even the current versus bG estimate curves-- you're gonna need a new Receiver to use the new Sensors.

(Maybe you need a new Transmitter too, but I'd guess not. I'll also guess that it's likely that the Receiver S/W changes could be performed by a ROM Update on the current device, but they want to verify and test that update at the factory-- not letting people do the update at home.) :D

Thanks for the information. The best part for me is the waterproof aspect as I am a huge beach/pool person in the summer, and I like to swim. I have shower patches when I travel, but in the shower I've been using the Glad Press and Seal Wrap. It works just fine.

How do you know when your transmitter and receiver need to be replaced? I'd hate to put in a new $35 sensor only to discover that either the transmitter or receiver are shot. I've been using mine for about 5 months now. Thanks.

On the Transmitter, (which they SAY has an estimated life of only 6 months), the 'diagnostic' is skipped readings at normal bG when you place the receiver about 10 feet away. (of AIR ONLY, no walls or furniture or your body in the way). Mine's now 11 months old, still going strong.

On the Receiver, (estimated life "12 months"), the lifespan is really in YOUR hands: You should recharge it often, try not to EVER let the battery indicator show less than completely charged. (It's impossible to overcharge, I plug mine in for at least an hour every day.) These batteries, Lithium-Ion, last a lot longer if you always keep them above 80% charged. Letting them go below 50% really hurts the lifespan a lot.

My Receiver is also about 11 months old... although I've been a User for about 14 months, they replaced my entire kit in early July last year. By charging it every day, I think that it is capable of lasting for 3 years, maybe even more.

But of course, the STS-7 system requires the Transmitter to be replaced, it's full of new programming and calibration adjustment curves. The Sensor itself is significantly changed, (the new studies show it to be much more accurate), and it probably doesn't even deliver the same current/voltage signal levels as the 3-day version we're using now.

So mine will be traded in long before it dies. I think that they're gonna force all current STS-3 owners to upgrade, because they plan to charge a lot more for the new Sensors. (They say cost per day goes down, but that's based on 3 days versus 7 days. Cost per Sensor will go UP.)

And so, to improve their profit margins, they're almost certainly gonna kill off the 3-day product line and stop selling the less profitable Sensors as soon as they are sure that the 'SEVEN' product line is better, and it's components are widely available. I'll SWAG this discontinuation to occur around September or October. I've no idea if they'll give us a nice upgrade deal, or suck the maximum $$$ from us 'addicted' users to continue. It's obviously got major advantages over the comparable Minimed Guardian, and although it comes with more Sensors, that system costs $1399.

This is awesome! I wonder if it will speed approval of the famous Navigator?

Maybe Abbott's making way too much money selling Freestyle strips, and doesn't want to hurt their use-once-throw-away testing supply profits.

I have NO IDEA why there'd still be an FDA fight after all these months, the accuracy is definitely there, and I thought that Abbott backed off their "total replacement" claim way back in September. After the first rejection. I don't KNOW anything, this is pure speculation.

What the &#^@ they're doing now, I don't know. They seem to announce "it'll be for sale in 3 months, don't buy those other guys!" every 3 months. Same old, same old, going nearly a year back to last June (when they announced "August, 2006". :mad: All that they REALLY want, it seems, is to keep a lot of interested people sitting on the fence and NOT buying from the two companies which actually have product on the market.

I know Rick, it's getting almost as frustrating as waiting for the next Co-pilot. Same deal there. I'm seriously considering buying a guadian.

Since you're pumping Cozmo, not 522/722, you be using a separate "Receiver" component. So MM's main advantage is gone, you'll be pocketing the separate 'Guardian' model instead of using the pump's add-on 'feature'. *I think* that it's now almost "no contest" between Guardian R/T and Dexcom, now that Dexcom's gonna be waterproof:

(1) Dexcom costs less to start (list price $800 instead of $1399, you can buy the extra Sensors to match Guardian's package and still have $hundreds left over).

(2) Dexcom is widely perceived to be faster and more accurate at catching Hypos. Search for example, John Walsh's exeperience at 'the mall'. That's more accurate ALREADY-- and the new one is far better the the current model.

(3) With Minimed (either version), the beginning of day 7 involves a pretty big wait-- you need to BOTH restart the Sensor (the SLOW way this time) and charge up the Minilink Transmitter. Not only does Dexcom go a full 7 days (you restart it at the beginning of day 8), but you never have to recharge the Transmitter-- and my not-rechargeable Transmitter is still running great, after 11 months. At only $250 versus $650 for a replacement Minilink, even if 11 months is all I get Dexcom is a financial win over Minimed if Minimed lasts for anything less than 3 years. But mostly, it's a convenience advantage: I DON'T need to carry the charger on trips, I DON'T need to plug it in and charge every 7 days or so. (They SAY it'll last for 12, but no one actually gets that long, and if you push it for more than 7, it's gonna die at a very young age.)

So what's Minimed got in it's favor? Aside from lots of Sales Reps who have long-established relationships with Endos.... I've used both, and after Dex has solved the "shower patches" hassle, it's just plain BETTER.

YMMV, of course. You Gotta try both to make sure that your body "matches up". I had roughly comparable results with both-- a better Minimed experience than John Wash got, although Dexcom was a little better at the lows for me too. (I bought Dex mostly because of the old, wired-model MM Transmitter. But I'm glad I did!) My Endo here gets about 2 weeks per Dexcom Sensor with good results, but keeps retrying Minimed to see if they've gotten any "better" for him; his Minimed experiences are consistently TERRIBLE, much worse than mine AND John Walsh's. After 3-4 days he's overwhelmed with numerous "lost sensor", skipped readings, and BAD readings. There's no "user errors" in his techniques, and he's tried several different sites. When I saw him wearing the new Guardian with minilink at our last meeting, I asked him about it: He said it was nice not to glue on the Transmitter anymore, but his Sensor experiences were just as bad as ever: He was on his 3rd (and last!) Sensor in only 9 days of use, and it too was already dying.

Well, wonders never cease. I get a letter today informing me that the CoPilot has been re-released.

I honestly was under the impression the Guardian was more accurate. I saw the study at Mall, but the two units weren't labelled as to which was which, so it was kind of worthless.

There's a slim chance I would get a 522 if I got the Guardian, though I truly like the Cozmo better as a pump.

Then you should prefer Dexcom, for all the reasons I said. (Minimed R/T was the "bad" one in John's PDF, Dexcom was the "good" one. Us users of both easily identifed them from his "this one shows only shows even numbers, not odd numbers" comment.)