Almost all my sensors have been good to go after about 2-4 hours. I do a finger stick at least a couple of times that first day, After that only sporadically depending on how accurate it seems to be.
My sensor that I have on now is still going strong at 22 days, the exact same way it functioned at day 2. This was not the perfect sensor to begin with as this one is a little"off". If I calibrate it to catch my lower BG’s then it is off at 110 plus levels, if I program it to the 110 it is off at the lower levels. But this is the way it was acting at the beginning and I learned to add numbers to the higher readings and have it more accurate for the lower readings.
Sigh, I have to remove it for another test tomorrow and won’t get to see how long this one was going to last!
I also am hooked on my CGM, I do not like having it off for very long as I want to be able to look at it and have a reading now and in 5 minutes and another 5 minutes and not worrying about finger sticking.
I haven’t tried it but I believe it refers to inserting the new sensor while still running the old one. The new one gets to acclimate for a few extra hours before you end the old session and start the new one.
Install a new sensor one day or so before your current sensor session terminates. Lets that sensor “soak” in interstitial fluids for 24 hours or so. When first sensor session ends, move the transmitter from expired sensor to the new soaked sensor. You should have more stable readings first day by having let the new sensor soak for some time before installing transmitter.
Put the new sensor in a few hours before your old sensor ends so it can “soak” in your interstitial fluid. When I have it in for 5-6 hours before I get much better reads the first day. Even 2-3 hours helps. If I am being active and the new sensor is in without the transmitter I will cover it with a big bandaid. No shower or pool with soaking sensor.
I would imagine if you saved an old transmitter, you could pair it with the “soaking” sensor until you removed the old sensor/transmitter, so you wouldn’t have any worry of water damage. I can imagine though, at least with my forgetful mind, wondering which was the old and which was the new, sensor! Perhaps marking the tape somehow would help with this.
I have t:slim G4 and Dexcom G4. I experience everything you described when I change my sensor each week. I have accepted that it is just ‘a thing’ with this product. My endocrinologist says it takes awhile for the sensor to settle in. She’s not kidding.
I wear the G6 and have taken to restarting the sensor after the 10 days. It’s much nicer if you’re wearing an accurate one just to keep it going as long as possible.
The transmitter isn’t that hard to pop out with a couple of test strips slid into the sides to pop it out with no damage to the sensor. I just didn’t know what to do with it as the Spike ap is down that would have allowed me to restart it!
Have u tried soaking a sensor for a day? That’s what I do with my G5. I install a new sensor on Day 6 and put an old xmitter on it. When it is time to start a new sensor, I take the current xmitter off the previous sensor and swap it with the old xmitter on the new sensor. When I determine if the new sensor is working well, I remove the previous sensor.
Hi Dave, I am 5’1” and usually weigh 106. I think my BMI is 20 or 21. Would that be enough weight for a G6 to work correctly? I contacted
Dexcom about getting a G6. That was 3 weeks ago and I never heard back from them. I am on the fence, but thought I might try one.
I think you wouldn’t be considered too thin for it to work, from what I’ve been told, but as with all this stuff, everyone is different. But it does sound from your stats, that you wouldn’t fall into the “too thin for the G6 to work well” group.
I’m pretty thin except I have a little bit of a spare tire so that’s where I wear my G5 and they work fabulously. Often they are within a couple of points of a finger stick. This morning, it was dead-on. I love it!
Dexcom has seen a huge increase in interest over the last year or so. Between Medicare approving the G5 and the release of the no-calibration G6, there are a lot of folks interested in their products. They’ve undergone a reorganization in the last 6 months and are experiencing a lot of growing pains.
You may need to be a bit aggressive if you’re interested in getting a cgm from them right now though.
I’m hoping that things improve in the next year after the reorganization has settled.
I love the G6, and I loved the G5 before that. Getting a cgm a few years ago was the best thing I’ve done for my diabetes since switching from R/NPH to Humalog/Lantus. It gives me the full picture so I can better understand how all the variables impact my bg values every day.
If you can wade through the bs at Dexcom, I highly recommend getting one!
My BMI is 20 and three of the four G6 sensors I’ve used have been extremely accurate for me, other than the first few hours being too low (I may try “soaking” my next one).
The first sensor was a slight outlier, but after the first 30 hours or so and several calibrations, it became fairly accurate (mostly within 10-15 mg/dl; while my others have probably averaged around 5). I should note that the first sensor was also the only one to bleed on insertion, so that may have had something to do with it being less accurate.
