Has anybody experienced super noisy readings when showering? I use xDrip+ on my Android phone with a Dexcom G5. Every single morning when I shower, I put my phone within Bluetooth range (about 6ft) and immediately with the water on, my readings go nuts and xDrip+ displays a “High Noise” warning. It takes another 30 minutes or so after showering for the readings to return to normal.
Yes!
@sanfran, we find that we can get noisy readings if the water infiltrates the slot between the transmitter and the sensor. Sometimes (rarely) we even lose the signal for a while.
When we remove the transmitter, dry both sides of the contact plates well, then put the transmitter back, we generally get a good signal back. See if that works for you, and let us know
Yeah, I’ve noticed that but I don’t worry about it. I try not to calibrate right around when I take a shower since that will mess it up. Lately, I’ve just been calibrating once a day when I’m level-ish. On the other hand, if an injection isn’t working fast enough, a hot shower is a nice lazy way to drop quicker…
My Dex track always spikes when I take a shower. It will go from 80 when I step into the shower, and by the time I get out it’s gone up 30-50 points.
It comes back down pretty quickly, maybe 10-15 mins.
Just another Dexcom oddity, not attached to reality.
G4 here, and I used to frequently get the ??? during and after showering. I began to tape a plastic sandwich bag over the sensor – just along the top to keep the water off, not sealing the whole thing in – and the problem vanished. One minor nuisance to get rid of another minor nuisance.
@Beacher Until the Seven Plus the transmitters were not waterproof. Dexcom provided, for a fee, nifty little stick on shower covers.
Something along the same line as you’re doing, just custom fit. They actually worked pretty good.
Thank you all for your answers. I’ll clean the transmitter off next time I change the sensor.
The G6 spikes in a shower. It also spikes in the bath. The Dexcom app doesn’t show this, or at least doesn’t show it as much, but xDrip+ doesn’t seem to do the smoothing that the Dexcom app does.
So far as I can determine it is a skin temperature thing; the shower, or the bath, suddenly raises the skin temperature and the readings go up. I’ve only been using a Dexcom for a few months so I haven’t yet tried the sauna or the jump-into-a-hot-tub experiment but I suspect the readings will go wild. Indeed, even getting out of the car into sub-freezing air has a significant effect.
I’m pretty certain that all the Dexcom implementations are basically 100% waterproof. The sensor on the G6 has a grease spot which pretty much stops any water interference at least for the approved 10 day usage and so far as I can see water penetration would certainly cause the sensor to fail - it would simply short it out.
John Bowler
I get as much as a 40mg/dl spike when I take a shower. Within 10-15 minutes of getting out of the shower it goes back down, and generally goes a bit lower due to the heat enhanced circulation provided by the hot shower.
I just note it as an artifact with xDrip+ notes. It’s actually quite a trip to watch the track go up and down so quickly!