BKH - thank you so much for posting this clear explanation. I need 12 hours for the sensor to settle, otherwise am battling false lows and Dexcom SCREAMING at me, inevitably in the middle of the night! Thanks again - Jessica
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You will only get the company line when talking to a CSR. You’re not talking to and most likely will never speak with a dexcom expert; just someone they pay to answer the phone which they provided some basic training and knowledge items to help with the calls and questions.
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This is another reason why I stopped wearing the Dexcom. It became much too complex in their role to seek a profit. Every time I had a problem, the solution was always “change the needle” which meant an additional hour of my time and an added insurance charge, plus my husband had to be available to help since I couldn’t do it alone. Eventually insurance only covered enough needles for a year, without extra replacements for problems.
do you mean change the sensor? there is no needle to change.
thus far dexcom has always replaced the bad sensors at no charge so no need to worry about insurance
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We can only hope that the new G7 system will address some of these issues. Like you, with all the glitches that Dexcom has, it’s only a matter of time before some person doesn’t get the important warning that they should have gotten because the Dexcom was being squirrelly.
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@3cTim Thanks for asking the question about the needle. I read this over and thought I’d missed a key component of the conversation. I don’t think I’ve replaced as many sensors and some of the folks here; over the last year I’ve replaced 3 or 4 due to failings toward the end of the 10 days (day 8-9), once due to pain that necessitated removal.
@bostrav59 I’ve commented on the reliability issue to on-line support (not that it helped a lot or they took any action because of it) as well as here on FUD. It shakes your confidence to have a failure or wonky #s, particularly if it happens multiple times in a short time period. I have to add, though, it’s hard to get to the six sigma level when all sorts of people and individual body quirks are involved! I too hope the G7 is an improvement!
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For what it’s worth, here’s our experience: we’ve been very happy with Dexcom G6 for 1.5 years now. This is the only thing we’ve ever known, besides finger pricks, since our son was diagnosed. We have Dexcom replace a few sensors a year. Some are just off, they drop out, the readings are not smooth, … I get a feeling for it, kind of when you meet a person for the first time and you just know you won’t like them much. Our son is 12 and he’s so skinny, the arm is the only place he can wear it. He’s super active, running, jumping with his bike, and tons of pillow fights and frequent roughhousing. It seems he never rests. Bottom line, I’m impressed the sensor is holding up as well as it does. If he lies on it at night, it’s an instant drop by 20-30 pts. So if he’s riding at 80, we’re quickly at an urgent low and the alarm goes off. We can tell the sudden drop from an actual low and tell him to turn around and go back to sleep. The readings normalize within a few minutes. Our son prefers to go low and eat rather than be high and inject. We hardly ever calibrate. If we feel like it’s off, we measure and if it’s within 20 pts, we’re happy. We’ve learned that if we calibrate more than twice, the sensor is on its way out.
I’m an engineer by trade and a tinkerer by nature, and seeing the abuse this fine tube in his arm has to endure, I’m impressed it works at all. So I cut Dexcom a lot of slack. If it breaks, they send me a new one without hassle. It’s as good as it gets, for the time being, and I don’t know anything better. Hope this is helpful for some. Happy to answer specific questions.
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