Robyn_17 sent me the instructions. Pretty sure you have to remove transmitter. I think that’s what makes it think it is a new sensor She was pretty adamant about setting timer for 15 minutes. Was really easy To remove with the test strip. Tried a credit card before and was more difficult.
1 Like
If it’s been asked my apologies, but do folks find they can actually get more than the 10 days on 1 sensor?
1 Like
No, I barely get the 10 days. I usually start getting noise or sensor error on the 9th. Hwr, I had the same issue with G4 and G5. I was lucky to get the 7 days.
Btw, I tried presoaking the sensor yesterday for the first time in hope of getting accurate readings on the first couple of days of the new sensor. I put on the new sensor 11-12 hours before my existing sensor was to expire, without activating the new one. When the existing one expired I just moved the transmitter. When I woke up this morning after 6 hours with the presoaked sensor, Dexcom gave 84, finger stick 78, so very close, and within about 20 minutes Dexcom stabilized at 78. So for a first try, presoaking gives huge improvements! I’ll definitely continue to presoaking! Thanks to all who recommended this method!,
7 Likes
Eat a piece of fruit, then watch how long it takes for your BG to go up on the Dexcom. Do a finger-stick every five minutes. The finger-stick will go up almost immediately while the CGM will have a fifteen minute or more lag.
1 Like
I can usually get 20 days in G6. Maybe 2-3 more if I restart again. But usually don’t try after 2nd.
If you do or don’t restart may depend on your insurance/costs and financial situation.
Some do just a few times to get back up supplies.
3 Likes
If I would, it would be to save Liam a few sticks. Insurance is good, I just always think to myself…if I was him, what would I want…and I would want less pokes and sticks I would think.
3 Likes
I will say the G6 insertion process is better than G5 since it is a “stick and click” process. Just the design of the previous versions gave one the impression a long needle was being inserted. Hopefully G6 is is less stressful for the young ones.
4 Likes
Yes Liam is excited about that!
1 Like
The G6 gives its best estimate of the actual current BG. It is mostly close enough in the research trials that the FDA says you can treat it as a true number for the purpose of insulin dosing.
Here’s the long-winded version. The Dexcom algorithm gets as input a sequence of measurements from the interstitial fluid. The job of the algorithm is to show it’s best estimate of your actual BG measurement right now, based on those interstitial glucose measurements. Their goal is to get the best possible “MARD”, which is the average difference between the number showing right now on the Dex monitor and the number right now from a lab-grade blood glucose measurement. The fact that there is a lag between glucose changes in the blood and the subsequent changes in interstitial fluid just means the Dexcom algorithm needs a way to estimate what the BG measurement would be right now. So if the algorithm sees the readings from the interstitial fluid are steady at some value, it reports that’s your current BG, and it should be pretty much right. If the algorithm sees a steady increase in the readings from the interstitial fluid, it will think that your BG is steadily rising too, and will estimate the BG number above the raw interstial number, based on how fast the BG is rising. This mostly works very well. It can go wrong temporarily if there is a sudden change in BG. For example, if you eat glucose tabs your BG will go up quickly, but it will take a little more time (5 to 15 minutes, generally closer to 5) for the glucose to diffuse into the interstitial fluid and an additional little bit of time for the Dex algorithm to see this as a change in trend and raise the number it reports. So overall the Dex reports good numbers when the BG trend is not changing: either steady or steadily rising or steadily falling.
8 Likes
Or like a young child bgs most of the time. Lol. The smallest carbs and insulin have major bg changes. We’ve figured out how to manage the bgs so they don’t often go crazy but he can still jump 200 bg points up or down from one tick to the next.
It will be interesting.
4 Likes
After my first week on the G6, I find the accuracy is indeed better and there seems to be less time lag. I have had 2 ghost lows—one in the first 6 hours, the other in the evening after lawn mowing. The displays are a little harder to read without my glasses but I do like being able to see the types of events in the “sideways” view (rather than just the boxes with the G5). Question: is there a way to change insulin units to accept hundredths, i.e., 4.25 not 4.2?
4 Likes
During the pre soaking, the space for the transmitter is empty. Is there any concern about foreign particle, dust getting in? I wonder why the instruction says to alcohol wipe the transmitter?
2 Likes
Good point. I thought the samething. You could place an old, expired transmitter in it but it is difficult to remove it when you go to start it with the actual transmitter. I have not had any issue with dust though.
Also, I’ve only presoaked a few times thus far and it did help. Hwr, I spoke with a Dexcom rep last time my sensor failed (last week), and she told me that presoaking should not be required! Instead, they recommend waiting 10-20 minutes after stopping the old sensor, before actually starting a new sensor. I tried this on my latest sensor and it seemed to really help. The first day was actually pretty accurate. I did end up calibrating a few times though. I will try this again on next change and hope it works again!!
3 Likes
That’s really interesting.
I removed my old sensor and put in a new sensor. The new sensor started out terribly (sensor error, no signal, false low at 4 am). I did not wait 10-20 minutes. Maybe I’ll try it the next time. Thank you!
2 Likes
Sorry, I know, that sometimes happens to me, fails immediately. It is very frustrating. When it works well, it is truly great though!
2 Likes
I agree! When it works well it is amazing. But when it doesn’t, it’s SOO infuriating.
3 Likes
I had a false low error of 49 the other night. (Fingerstick was like 110). Yuk.
1 Like
Oh, that is bad. Could it be a compression low? Did Dexcom recover right away? I get these a lot if I lay on the sensor. It will drop down to some low number but once I turn and no longer laying on it, Dexcom recovers within a few readings. As a matter of fact it happened to me last night, too!
2 Likes
I was unable to do a successful restart of my previous sensor and this new one has been really less accurate, over- and under-estimating BGs. (Also had to do a pod change this morning because of high BGs that sensor didn’t track.) Anyway I submitted an email support request, sent additional details, and have already received a phone call from tech support! A new sensor is on its way!
2 Likes