Dexcom G6 best practices

@Mariethm Fingers crossed they’re coming from CA then! :sweat_smile:

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Yes, the hard to understand insurance coverages continue to perplex many of us here. If you are going to work with your physician to get strips covered (and you should IMHO) 2-3 boxes a month is about what we go through in a typical month. That should get you a to a good starting place and let you build up a small stash for when the tech doesn’t work and give you the time to figure it all out.

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Ty, I will let my dr know I’m looking to get 2-3 boxes covered.

Honestly I think running out of test strips does more psychological damage than physical because I really believed my sugar was high this morning, until my fingerstick prior to lunch read 82. Sigh, I have 49 test strips for now… but at a hefty $60. Thanks a lot OneTouch Verio. :slightly_frowning_face:

I’m keeping all of the receipts for my out-of-pocket expenses in all of this though, might come in handy for my taxes next year. Having a Care Credit account has been a life saver, considering my FSA card through my insurance went quick and it had about $500 on it.

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You might want to look into the most popular meter on here (Contour Next), which also happens to be one of the most accurate meters available in lab testing and whose strips you can buy at walmart.com and/or amazon.com for 300 strips for $60-$80. We also get those from our insurance, and buy a 300 pack once or twice a year and that usually works for us.

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:heavy_plus_sign: :100: on the Contour Next meters.

There is not another meter on the planet that can group this tightly. Here is one of my favorite pictures on FUD.

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Yes they sent my replacements out within 2 days of my request and they were shipped fed ex ground. The whole transaction took about 5 days.

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That is like donating blood, cool pic. My experience with CN meters has also been great.

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WalMart also has a very good lower cost meter ($20) that is quite accurate. Strips run $9\100 strips.

Well I may get publicly flogged here for saying this, IMHO you should use your life scan meters for fishing weights. That’s about all they’re good for and I have had many many over the years

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Many of the Walmart meters are also very accurate.

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Also, @Necroplasm, compare the price of the strips that your insurance charges with that of a low cost retailer, like Walmart. I discovered that even though my insurance was covering the Contour Next, it was still more expensive to get them through my insurance!

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I also buy Contour Next test strips w/o insurance because the meter is really good and the strips aren’t all that expensive. And I refuse to use the insurance-supported OneTouch Verio because I think the accuracy is unacceptable. In general, I refuse to choose medical technology based on whatever makes the most profit for the insurance company. In any case, I don’t use many test strips, which is why the cost of buying them out of pocket is negligible for me.

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I got a couple of Contours because they are supposed to be the most accurate, but time and time again my Verio One Touch meters test within a couple of points of the Contours. I do comparisons all the time because I had a huge stockpile of verio test strips when I got a Dexcom and the verio strips are now expired and I wanted to make sure they are still working. The strips still work fine and so do the verios in accuracy. I use my Contour by my computer the most, but I still really like the verios because they require less blood.

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I love my One Touch Verio Flex honestly. It gives me a projected hba1c that I confirmed through labs from my Endo are spot-on. It helps me get an idea of how my diet is going and what I can expect from bloodwork, which used to be a big fear of mine… the dreaded hba1c. :laughing:

It’ll honestly be nice to get the G6 up and running though, I wake up frequently throughout the middle of the night… sometimes unaware (my fiancé tells me) and other times I am aware… and quite clammy/sweaty but cold. So I’m wondering if I’m hitting lows during sleep and if so, how low.

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It’s great your Verios work so well @Necroplasm and @Marie . I had many once touch meters over the years, some I liked and most I didn’t. Some of the least consistent readings I ever had were with Verio meters. Possibly they have gotten better in the last 5 years?

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You know what they say: there’s a wrench for every nut! :laughing:

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So just out of curiosity: what are everyone’s sweet spots as far as placement is concerned?

Also, is it true that for adults we really should only place the sensors on our abdomens?

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We use only the bicep/tricep area on Liam. Legs are for the PODs.

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My son has put them on the abdomen (least accurate), Low Back/High Butt area below pants waist, and back of arms. For the last 3-4 years he has used the back of his arms exclusively. You don’t really need to move them very far for the next placement since there is nothing being infused. For him that is the most accurate and the least in the way place.

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I’ve settled on backs/sides of upper arms. I have also used abdomen area in a pretty wide arc from front side to back side. I have had great accuracy on all of these spots. Still trying to determine if sensor longevity is better on arms vs. abdomen. My gut feel is I ran through a bad batch or two of sensor back when I was only getting 8-9 days. My last sensor (arm) made it to 10 days.

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I’ve been using the abdomen and it works fine for me. If it weren’t working well, I’d certainly try other places.

If there’s a problem and you need to contact Dexcom for support, they may ask where the sensor is, and if you say some unapproved location they may give you a hard time.

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