Anyone have any experience with this? Today was the first time that I've ever been able to do this: place a new sensor and switch over the transmitter without bothering to stop & restart sensor (& having to wait 2 hours for recalibration). In the past I've gotten error messages when I tried, but this time it worked like a charm & frequent finger sticks seemed to indicate that it remained accurate for glucose assessment. My glucose was at low end of normal at time of switch, in case that has any bearing on success. Interesting. Bob
Wow. When I changed the G4 sensor the first time last night it started automatically. I was freaked out so 'stopped sensor' and restarted to permit the two hour window. LOL. Guess I will disregard that next time. Progress!
Oh yes I was below 60 at the time too. HHhhmmmmm.... Maybe a new
safety feature?
I usually didn't do it after a few tries led to having awful readouts for a while and then failing - basically resulting in 8 hours of no quality readings instead of just 2.
So MAKE IT do the two hour calibration is what you are saying here?
I highly recommend not doing this. Over time, the body starts to “wall-off” around the sensor filament as your cells see it as an intruder. This lowers the relative Oxygen around the sensor. Oxygen is one of the elements in the checmical reaction with sugar that the enzyme coated on your dex sensor filament uses to work (main reason for expiration date of sensors). That’s why we calibrate twice a day, so the system adjusts its algorithm to relative oxygen values your sensor sees.
In short, why comprimise the accuracy of a sensor just to get 2 extra hours of comprimised readings?
7+ has a timer, so when the 7 days are over, it will stop by itself.
You will need to restart and wait 2 hours anyway.
Right, but then on day 10 for example, you could put in a new sensor without restarting the 7 day cycle. It may not be successful though, kind of hit or miss whether it's worth it.
I think you may have misunderstood me. I placed a new sensor, just didn't bother with the restart & it sailed along fine. The relative oxygen must have spiked if your description is valid, but the sensor accuracy seemed right on (this at about 10 days since 1st sensor started.) So in this case relative O2 concentration appeared to be insignificant. Dexcom has been tracking one touch bgls fine since I tried this.
I'm using a G4 which is the same as the 7+ in this regard, but I still have 4 days that I can use without dealing with a 2-hour intermittent period with no tracking of my sugar before I need to restart again.
Do what you like! I happen to like 'experimenting' so that's why I tried to see whether it would work. As for Andy, I had a couple of failed trials at avoiding recalibration in the past so had stopped doing it. Interesting that you had it start up automatically when at low blood sugar. I suspect that was some fluke, but who knows? Maybe it will consistently keep on running on a new sensor without recalibration or error messages if one's blood sugar is on the low side when switching sensors.
I've done this a bunch of times, with no apparent 'burps' in accuracy.
No I gotcha. Keep us posted on how it works. I'm just amazed the raw data being processed by the transmitter/receiver didn't change significantly enough to noticeably decrease accuracy.
There are a lot of users who don't calibrate for days and have no accuracy issues, so perhaps it isn't as important variable as the manufacturer says it is. Regardless, an amazing technology I feel we are all blessed to have access to.
12 hours after non-restart, dex is reading 95 and onetouch is 97.
I don't understand something here. The Dex times out and stops the sensor after 7 days, so how can you continue to use the transmitter without a restart?
mom, we're talking about using the same sensor past 7 days. If you stop sensor/start sensor when it 'runs out', it'll keep going. So, say, at day 10 there are still 4 days left in the second week. Fooling the transmitter. Does that make sense?
Thanks, jrt :) Yes, we do that all the time. The OP is talking about changing the sensor without restarting the transmitter. That's what I don't understand.
If it's not at the end of a 7-day cycle, there's no need to stop/restart; it won't know you've changed the sensor.
I think you've lucked out by inserting the new sensor at a site that happened to correspond closely to conditions at the old insertion site.
I can't imagine that this is going to reliably be the case over multiple repeats of this. Not impossible, of course, but it would be quite a surprise given how the system is designed.
Additionally, it may not work for others even if it works for you. If you were especially trim, for example, or not an insulin pump user or a recent starter on the pump, I can imagine that dermal site variation might be lower for you than others (me, for example). It's a bit of a roulette game; not worth the few hours without readings IMO.
What's with you perfectly-consistently-skinned folks??
I'm Mr. Lumpy. Even when I do calibrate I never know whether the site I've chosen is going to be a winner until a couple days in.