Anyone get obsessed with their readings?

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.

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LOL… I don’t think you are being negative. Just being real!!!

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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

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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!

They do now. Mostly manufacture in San Diego. However for the g7 they are looking to do it overseas because labor is cheaper. We will see how that pans out.
The product. Is relatively light so shipping won’t matter that much.

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Basically, because customer demand outpaces the abilities of the US population to build factories, hire, train, and produce a sufficient quantity of a good quality product in a timely fashion at a reasonable cost. The public thinks that we as manufacturers only go overseas, sometimes don’t see our families for months, have to eat strange foods while staying in strange places with the risk of contracting strange diseases while being careful not to offend the natives in order to save or make more money. Most, not all of us, manufacture globally in order to deliver the highest quality product, on time, at the most reasonable cost to our US population and it is certainly not easy to do that well.

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jean63 wrote: “I have noticed that I feel a sense of freedom not wearing” (the sensor). I’m a type 1 but noticed that when I got my first CGM. I have a very smart friend, a veterinary doctor, who was initially unhappy with this device beeping when outside the limits. I think all that is understandable. But I have found I now really appreciate knowing my BG levels as they are happening. I guess that is actually a bigger peace of mind over the long run. And I am still in control of my life – I decide how to react to my CGM. Once you decide you are in control, there is no loss of freedom when wearing your CGM all the time.

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CJ11f wrote: the CGM “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.” Is that backed up by reliable data? Does it apply only to people with certain metabolisms or other body-specific characteristics?

I ask because when I got my first Dexcom CGM, I didn’t trust it and would test it with 2 meter tests quite often. I found my CGM is very accurate from day 2 through day 10 of a new sensor. And it is accurate below 75. It even remains accurate in days 11-20 when I choose to restart. My only issue has been those 1st 24 hours of a new sensor, and recently the batches I’ve received have been reasonably accurate even during the first 24 hours.

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Restarts using the method @samg explains have been 100% successful for me. I am one of those who restarts sometimes to have a small extra cache of sensors in case of weather or supply problems. I have found the sensors to be just as accurate on day 20 as they were on day 9 or 10 – which is to say, quite accurate when checked by 2 meter tests at a time.

I would add to @samg’s process that first either stop the sensor or let it shut down on its own. Then pop the transmitter out of the holder using a test strip or thin card as described, leaving the sensor in place. I always wait 30 minutes. Then just restart normally, as if it were a new sensor. Obviously you need to keep the code around for that 2nd startup.

I am one of those who uses meter tests if or when I am not sure of the CGM reading. Over time, I have discovered I really don’t need those meter tests, but it is always a good idea to test by meter if the CGM reading does not match what you are feeling.

Again, in my experience, the Dexcom G6 sensors are every bit as accurate on days 11-20 as they are on days 2-10.

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I am not sure what you mean by reliable data. It was a statement made by Kevin Sayer, President of Dexcom at the last financial conference call to investors a few days ago. Companies develop and produce better products based on customer demand and complaints on existing products. You would need to be more specific as to what you would accept as reliable data. As for body types, I know that a lot of the complaints have revolved around bodies with low BMI (20 and below) as I am one of those. Every Dexcom version has improved, but problems are not yet all solved, as you note yourself, you don’t trust day 1 and have had issues with some batches.

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Count me in the obsessed category, at least for awhile longer. It’s the 2 years I have felt most in the know about what influences my blood sugar. I’ve had decent A1c for most of my T1 life, but hated the “What the heck?” of unexpected results with random fingerstick tests. The trend arrow of the CGM has been very valuable to me, which I can’t get with a meter.

Definitely obsessed. I look at it way too much.

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