Today was DAY 6, so as I went to remove the xmitter to recharge it for the next six days, my finger slipped off of the sensor as I was trying to hold it tightly so that removing the tape wouldn’t dislodge it. It dislodged. A perfectly good sensor is now in the trash, unable to go another 6 or 12 or 18 more days. AARGH! Not only does it cost me money, but a great sensor is not something to waste. I won’t know if the replacement will work as well—it’s always a crapshoot. Sometimes I have a black cloud over me.
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I don’t use Enlites but I’ve had that kind of thing happen. It’s frustrating!
It’s best to just move on and direct your attention to something that you can influence. I know – it’s easy for me to say! Patience is not my strong suit. Good luck with the next sensor.
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LOL! that’s what my wife said a few minutes ago—“just move on”. I hate wasting things and moreover, the sensor was one of the two best sensors I’ve had since December 2014.
Were you trying to remove the transmitter from an Enlite you had inserted on your upper arm? In other words, were you trying to replace the transmitter one handed?
I have also been experimenting with this spot and I managed to insert two sensors on my upper arm … first left & then right … without any assistance, I used the trick of using the back of the chair I’m sitting in to roll the back of my upper arm so it is easier for me to reach when I insert and apply the overtape.
However, I still don’t have any idea how I would get the transmitter on/off to try to take a sensor in that location past 6 or 7 days. Maybe it would stay in place if I wrapped something around my arm? It would have to be tight without being too tight. Yet another Goldilocks situation. 
We were trying to remove the IV3000 (it was almost all off by the time my finger slipped), so that we could pull the xmitter for recharging. I’m still bummed about wasting that particularly accurate sensor!
Today was the start of DAY 7 of the replacement sensor (it’s also be an excellent performer). This time, I made sure to have a band-aid handy, to secure the sensor while waiting for the xmitter to recharge. The thought of losing another good sensor makes me nervous. My wife did a great job of stabilizing the sensor with one hand as she pulled the xmitter off of it.
The nice thing about putting a band aid over the sensor is that when removing it, there is no adhesive over the sensor which might dislodge it during removal. Can’t say that about the IV3000’s… 
I lost another perfectly good sensor yesterday. I got so bummed because I’ve had a number of bad ones recently. I removed the tape and xmitter for recharging at the end of 6 days. I covered the sensor with a bandaid and put a bit of Mastisol on the skin under the adhesive patch that goes under the xmitter, because it had gotten loose. I pressed it down and checked it for adhesion–it seemed like it was holding. THEN, I put a Tee shirt on, and AAARGH! the sleeve caught the leading edge of the patch and yanked it and the sensor right out of me!! AARGH! I’ve got to come up with a foolproof way of not disturbing a sensor, on day 6 when I need to recharge the xmitter. Some of them had gotten totally loose on the first 6-day session, and all that held them still were the 2 IV3000’s that I always place over the sensor and xmitter. The adhesive that they use on the sensors just isn’t up to the task of holding well for 6 days and MM is the first to admit that. They don’t want to switch to stronger adhesive because patients have complained about problems with the overtapes bothering their skin. Using the overtapes has caused problems for me, when it comes time to recharge the xmitter, as there is so much tugging at the tapes to free up the xmitter. It’s easy to accidentally move the sensor to the point where it comes out of my body, which of course means I have to discard it. If I just use the IV3000’s, there is less tugging involved to get at the xmitter, but that doesn’t solve the issue of the sensor not sticking to my skin, once those come off.
suggestions are welcome. I need a different procedure!
You can always try applying the skin adhesive of your choice (Mastisol? 
) on top of the of the sensor adhesive pads after you have inserted. This is what is recommended, starting around time 2:51, in the “tips vid” from John Pemberton below.
Note: This video has already been linked to a few times in earlier posts to other threads. The link below should start at time 2:51 where he talks about applying skin adhesive to the inserted Enlite.
Actually, Medtronic has already made some sort of change to the sensor adhesive. This is one of the small “tweaks” to the Enlite which compromise the … ta-da! … Enhanced Enlite. But the change as described is to attempt to address the second concern you mention, skin irritation. So it may not “stick” any better than the current Enlite adhesive does. 
For whatever it’s worth, here are once again the bullet points of what Medtronic said in a September 2014 news release on their Canadian web site.
The enhanced Enlite improvements include:
- An 80 percent reduction in implanted volume (the size of what goes inside the patient’s body) for a more comfortable experience
- New chemistry pattern and layers, designed for more consistent daily performance through the life of the sensor
- Improved sensor-to-transmitter connection
- Updated sensor adhesive patch design to help reduce likelihood of skin irritation
I believe Medtronic is shipping this (slightly) enhanced version of the Enlite everywhere in the world except the U.S. (Apparently it requires yet another formal clinical trial before you can re-release a device, no matter how small those changes might be. 
)
Isn’t it amazing that the US gets so many things years after other countries? If MM would make two SKU’s for us, I’d opt for the one with the strongest possible adhesive under the sensor. That would probably save me from wasting so many sensors. Since I lose them at the end of 6 days, it’s not like I can call them for a free replacement, so the cost and aggravation is all on me.
its nice to have a wife/husband/partner who can assist in these tricky situations. when i put my sensor on my back, i need help putting on the Tegaderm. i am just not the contortionist i used to be 
also, i just love it when i’ve gotten a good and accurate sensor in. it stinks when you get a dud and you have to go through the entire calibration thing again and then hope that the next one will be a good one too. ( i don’t use the elite though. i use the dexcom and the transmitter does not have to be removed to continue using the same sensor for the next week (or so).
sorry to hear about your woes. good luck w/ your next one.