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Sinclair Cares: Painless glucose monitoring option a great choice for kids


Photo: WLOS
Photo: WLOS
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Working in partnership with our parent company, Sinclair Broadcast Group, we want to keep you informed about important health matters. We believe it is our responsibility and privilege.

In this Sinclair Cares report, Jay Siltzer shows you how technology is reducing finger sticks for diabetics, while improving overall health.

Diabetes can be painful in more ways than one.

All 10-year-old Cora Shelton wants to do is dance.

“I do jazz, tap, ballet, contemporary, and hip-hop. And sometimes modern," Cora told us.

But her pancreas recently gave out, resulting in a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.

“She's still able to do the same things she's always done, just with a little more effort involved,” said her mother, Kim Shelton.

Cora was scared of finger pricks. The fifth grader told her diabetes educator, who offered a new alternative.

Certified diabetes educator Wendy Billingsley recommended a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device.

CGM devices don't prick the skin, but use a small sensor wire that goes just under the skin of the user's bicep, and measures the glucose or blood sugar in the interstitial fluid.

That's an electronic reader scanned over the bicep disk -- which is replaced every two weeks --which indicates whether blood sugar levels are stable, trending up and requiring insulin, or down and needing sugar.

“If it's low i might eat a snack," Cora said, of juice or gummies..

"I think this device has made it easier for her to want to take care of herself," Kim Shelton said of her daughter.

Billingsley says CGM devices are good for kids, "because they don't have to take time out during the school day to prick their finger, and they have more information.”

That information allows Cora to keep dancing safely, while avoiding a health crisis.

We asked her how she felt with her CGM system.

"Amazing!" she replied.

Health providers say continuous glucose monitors can cost patients as little as $50 dollars a month without insurance.

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