Hi! I am a type 2 using the Dexcom 6. I was on insulin at first but now I am just on Ozempic. However, if I eat some carbs, I need some Novolog.
Anyway, I ran into a problem inserting my sensor and am waiting for a new one to arrive. I have noticed that I feel a sense of freedom not wearing it. I find that I am always checking my readings and it can be a source of anxiety if it’s not where I want it to be. I find that I look too much even when I don’t need to.
Of course, it has been a HUGE help learning about my blood sugars and lifestyle. I just think I get too obsessed with it and check it too much.
It’s costing me a ton of money and while I’ve been off, I find my sugars have been quite good and I wonder if I really need to be spending my money on it. It’s $250 for me ever 3 months. Does anyone else find they get a little too obsessed?? Maybe it’s not a bad thing, but why do I feel a sense of calm and peace without it on me??
Although I think that Dexcom is currently the best CGM on the market, I wonder if the Libre would be a better fit for you. The problem with Dexcom is that if you start a transmitter, it will die sometime between 90-110 days whether you are using it or not. So you can definitely use Dexcom sensors sporadically, but you’ll always have to shell out money for a new transmitter on schedule.
With the Libre, you can use a sensor for 10-14 days and then wait a month or two to do it again. There is no transmitter clocking down to expiration. Plus the Libre is cheaper than Dexcom. I don’t think that the Libre is quite as accurate as Dexcom but it is pretty good. You’re not dosing insulin off of it and you get lots of trend information.
It is easy to go overboard with watching CGM numbers. As someone with Type 1, I often do something as a result of the numbers I see. Take an insulin bolus or eat carbs. But often I would be mentally healthier if I just let everything go and only reacted to Dexcom alarms of Too High or Too Low. As a Type 2 not currently taking insulin, you can definitely learn a lot from your CGM tracings. But you can’t do much about them in the short run except eat a snack or walk around the block.
Information is good but only if you’re going to do something about it. Mental health is also important and sometimes that is the hardest part of diabetes.
Keep up the good fight. And if it were me and I was self-paying, I would consider switching to the Libre.
Thank. you for your insight Laddie. Good suggestion for the Libre!!! I might give that a try instead. It won’t cost as much to try it as it has the Dexcom. I heard the Dexcom 7 is going to be cheaper and easier to use but that could be another year. Good luck to you!!! The Dexcom did wake me up for a critical low one night and probably kept me from gaining even more weight while on insulin. I could see how much the carbs would increase my sugar and it would make me change my eating pattern, so all was not bad. It also probably kept my A1c Lower as well… Be well !!!
Everything is a year off.
However if you look at the old press releases, the dexcom 7 was supposed to be released early in 2020, then june2020 then early 2021 and now advertised as mid 2021.
It seems like everyone does this 6 months to a year tease so you will be more likely to wait for it instead of investing in a different system.
Well that’s my pessimistic guess
Yes, so this ^ is exactly the cause of the problem which you want to prevent from happening. I found that ‘self regulation’ is the only solution 
:
What i do is, i use a timer app and only allow myself to check my SensorGlucose when the timer fires.
It really helps (of course i still check whenever i feel symptoms that might require immediate intervention…)
I really don’t think the tease with Dexcom is intentional. They are doing the best they can under the current circumstances which to a large extent are out of their control. The G7 will be manufactured in their new Malaysia factory which is just getting its final touches at this time. This is Dexcom’s first venture in foreign manufacturing and they are on a steep learning curve in growing international trade disruptions. Even when they have the product manufactured in hand, the availability of containers and delivery time from Asia to the US is currently unknown. Shipping costs are 2 1/2 times what they were just a few months ago and shipping delays are roughly doubled.
What I was more interested in at the last Dexcom conference call a few days ago was that Dexcom president Sayer finally acknowledged that there is a group of diabetics among their 900,000+ users that maintain their blood glucose between 70 and 120 and that none of the Dexcom products to date are capable of properly handling that range and neither will the G7, however, we are on their bucket list for future product development. Hence, those of us in that group get 1/2 use out of the CGM as it does a great job of dealing with our high BG values above 120 but is near useless and totally unreliable for low BG readings and hypoglycemia events. Bogus nighttime low alarms drive us nuts. The G5 algorithm read artificially low, in that range giving us tons of false low alarms at night. The G6 algorithm tends mostly to read artificially high in that range so not so many alarms, but bogus reading frustrations. I think that most of us can agree that even getting 1/2 the use out of Dexcom in this range beats repeated finger sticks hands down and does greatly help with our daily diabetes management. Our A1C’s are lower, time in range higher, standard deviation variability improved as well. I just got my latest A1C report a couple of days ago and at 5.5% I as well as my endo are pleased with that result and it is thanks to Dexcom.
Sayer also alluded to a possible few surprises and my guess is that one will be to deliver G7’s to the US this year.
My numbers are well behaved right now. I find that I don’t really need a pump right now. But, if someone uses a pump, I am a firm believer that it is unsafe not to use a sensor.
If your not on a pump, I don’t think you HAVE to use a sensor.
But, because we are in a period of high risk for another 6 months, I would urge you to stay on the sensor for that period…just because its worth it to stay out of the hospital. I don’t believe you want to have hospital transport right now - for your own safety and everyone else’s.
Here I go again…being the grim reaper…Gosh I’m sick of me.
I am on a 670g/Guardian3 system which tends to keep me above 120. In this regard, When there is no insulin on board, I check my numbers every hour or so and if I am above 12o and there are no down arrows showing, I will use my “fill cannula” option and infuse .8 units to get me back below 120. I find I am doing this three or four times a day.
Since starting this procedure several months ago, I have reduced my 30 day average BG from 152 to about 144.
I think the G6 handles my 100-105 average just fine. Normally when I check it, it’s only 2-6 points off. I calibrate it so it stays within 5 points. I always calibrate mine when it is 90-105, I find it gets more inaccurate as my numbers go up. I expect that and don’t care.
It’s scary that they are bringing up it’s not reliable under 120. I hope they are not setting us up for the G7 to not be as good at the lower ranges.
LOL… I don’t think you are being negative. Just being real!!!
Mine works fine between 60 and 200.
I believe I am obsessive about my readings. Just because it’s there and I can? I realized that early on. But being reliant on what my blood sugars are at and taking insulin to handle makes it sort of the thing to do for optimal control? I always explain I’m OCD about it.
But because of that I purposely go without it either for a day or sometimes days. It feels liberating as I ignore what I am at more. After all I am not going to do a finger stick every hour unless there is a very good reason. I think it’s good for me sometimes to ease off.
Since I restart my sensors I generally do the breaks when I am actually going to replace a sensor, so that is once every 25 days give or take.
In talking to my non diabetic endo. She wore a Libre for 2 weeks to see what it did and what it was like. She said she found herself constantly looking at it and asked if I did that. She said her husband asked why she kept looking at it and she told him it’s because she can and she wanted to know what it kept reading. I told her yea, I did, because it’s there and that was why I decided to take short breaks sometimes.
I am glad I am not the only one! Thanks for sharing your stories. I am going to pick up a Libre this week and give it a try. Since it requires a receiver and it’s not on my phone, it won’t be as tempting to look all the time.
@jean63 You still will look, but because you scan it instead of just looking at the reader I would say you scan it a little less, it is an extra step. But the reader was in my pocket so easy enough to reach and use.
I have the benefit of having both on half the time? I use the Libre to swim in the ocean because it scans underwater. So depending when I take it off or what the weather is like I don’t always have one on. Otherwise I don’t use it if my Dexcom is on. But this last time I had gotten disgusted with my Dexcom, a restart that was all over the place and a transmitter that was on it’s last legs before it’s time, and a temporary old receiver as I was waiting for new everything to arrive. (I do have back ups of everything, I was just aggravated at it all). I decided to go Dexless for about 7 days?
I still had the alerts to turn on with the Libre, but I found me leaving them off half the time as the lowest alert setting for a low is 60 and it was 20-30 points under what I was. I was not going to go high enough to not set off the low alert and it waking me or for during the day either… But also because it reads low I was finger sticking some each day to verify what I was at. I just hardly do that once I have my Dexcom calibrated and on track.
I was delighted with my Libre before my Dexcom, but once having a Dexcom,I definitely prefer the Dexcom. If you restart the Dexcom sensors you can save a lot of money depending how long you get them to last you. You can not restart the Libre’s. But if you are not restarting the Dexcom, Libre is definitely cheaper.
I did not have any success trying to re use my sensors past 10 days… it seemed like it would work but then I got an alert saying to change my sensor…I had a G6.
There are a ton of posts here on how to do it properly.
You need to clear the cache by starting stopping and restarting again. You also have to remove the transmitter from the sensor and then put it back in
With that message to start a new sensor, it seems like the process might have been off?
Restarting sensors
What does clearing the cache mean???
So your dexcom stores some data in it in case you lose connection to the receiver. I think it’s 20 min of data.
If your receiver sees that you had a sensor and it was less than 20 min, it will assume it is the same sensor and not let you restart.
Therefore you can clear it by starting a new sensor without code. Let it run 20 min and then start again with the old code again.
Some people just put the transmitter in the microwave or another room for 20 min to allow the cache to run out.
I have not noticed significant variance in this range. I target this range and Dexcom is usually pretty close to my finger stick when I check, excluding the first day which can be noisy. Admittedly, I don’t do many finger sticks now that I’m pretty comfortable with the G6 after using it nearly 2 years. My a1c is usually .3 to .5 higher than what Nightscout shows for my CGM data. I trust the CGM data more than the a1c though.
However, I hope, as @Marie20 mentioned, Dexcom is not planning to reduce the accuracy for this range!
On another note, you describe the manufacturing process overseas as being riddled with hurdles (my interpretation!), which I totally believe. As naive as I may sound, but why doesn’t Dexcom just manufacture in the US for the US market? Shipping costs would be greatly reduced and less fuel required. At least that would reduce one hurdle!