Curious if anyone else is having this problem.
I have noted it several times over the years of use.
It has appeared more prevalent with the G6.
What happens is in the last hours of life the sensor goes erratic. ie. Glucose level running steady them does sudden drop. Must recently from 155/150 to 42 in less them 5 min. Only alarming at critical low. Then usually ends up going off line for extended period of time. When it recovers , it’s good to replacement time.
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Yes, the G6 has had a lot more issues with wonky sensors than previous versions, this issue just being one of many. What is worse is that some of the other sensors from the same box, if they are from the same lot can have the same issues so it is possible to have the same issue ongoing for several weeks. Arrrrgh, we all wish for better, and better will hopefully come but in the meantime, G6 still beats repeated finger sticks plus the trend line, and the value of the cumulative information, is often more important than the actual numbers for a short given period of time.
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In my experience, when the sensor starts doing erratic acrobatics, it means it’s at the end of it’s life… No matter how many days old it is. I can usually get 30 days out of a sensor, 42 is my record but I seldom try for a 4th session. I don’t start a new one until the data is doing nonsensical acrobatics. Usually it likes to tell me I’m dead (flatlined and reading LOW), followed by random jumps and falls, and settling back down to LOW.
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I think this happens to many of us. Sometimes the last 2-3 days can be wonky for me. 
You are WAY more patient than I am!!
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I seem to have wacky readings around day 9. I will change the sensor and hope for a better one.
The higher your sugars run the quicker it gone nuts.
Mine rarely go bad before the 10 days, but if I’m having issues and my sugars are running g high, it sometimes will.
There is only a certain amount of reagent on the sensor and it gets used up
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John, wonder it your Dex is no longer secure to your skin. A few people find they get longer wear & more steady numbers if they use an over tape of some type. Worth a try!! Dexcom’s over tapes are free, others get ones from Amazon. Hope something works for you - every body is different. (My G6s read accurate to 30 days & I apply their overtake about 15-20 days in…)
Jeannie
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Jeannie. Yes I use Dex’s over tape and also tagderm film. I am concern on your part of stretching use time out to 30 days. I never from my G4 days been able to restart a sensor.
But may be if I had to foot the price. I would try harder. My are supplied by the V.A.
But thanks for the response
Hi John, I only restart because the numbers are so close, and then I can give sensors to others in my large community who have insurance / refill challenges. (there’s also 2 groups of backpackers going out this summer & not all the teens will have their own Dexcoms…) Darn for the 2 hour warm up but good thing Dexcom replaces them when they stop early.
Best to you,
Jeannie
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The sensor is essentially just a piece of coated wire. All the complex stuff is in the transmitter module, not the sensor.
Why would a newer version of a relatively simple technology seem to fail as you use it more often? There’s no reason for Dexcom to make it’s special wire cheaper.
Imo It’s NOT the sensors that fail more; it’s our sites, for the same reason that our plumbing, the infusion sets , fails.
Our bodies don’t like things sticking in them and resist by scarring and becoming less permeable near sites used often. Insulin promotes local fat cell development, helps it build defensive walls of fat that slow movement of interstitial fluids and eventually stop it.
I have trouble finding sites for sensor and infusion that last for the rated lives of the devices. They often failed after 1or 2 daysof mediocre performance. 3/9 of the first G6’s and 4/10 of the first infusion sets I used didn’t survive for 2 days. The G6’s that worked for 3 days lasted the full 10; I hated to remove them, never knowing if the next site would be good or bad.
Once I get more comfortable with the stuff, I’d like to l try seeing how long it works well in good sites. .
Update: I hadn’t planned to but I found out what I wanted to know.
The G6 sensor that I’m wearing now was giving flaky readings, stalled near a value after I took a shower 5 days after insertion.
I have experience in electrical engineering. If something stops working that’s exposed to water my first thought is shorted contacts. So I popped the transmitter out of the sensor, cleaned off the moisture across the contacts, and reinstalled it and forgot about it. It’s been running perfectly for 15 days. That’s long enough for me.
If i start getting weird/nonsensical readings within the last few days, or the sensor simply stops giving readings for an hour or more at a time, i reach out to Dexcom. These things are too expensive to fail in under 10 days. And 3 sensors per month is all my insurance covers. It may take a week or so, but I am always shipped a new sensor at no cost.
Fill out the form at: https://dexcom.custhelp.com/app/webform
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How do you pop the transmitter out? I’ve been trying to do that to extend the life of my sensors, but I’m successful about half the time. I use a stiff guitar pick, and it’s never easy. It never just “pops out.” Any tips? Thanks!
A credit card or guitar pick is too thick to work reliably. With sensors being expensive, it didn’t make sense to use an inferior tool to remover transmitters.
I use a spring steel feeler gage from a set made for checking/adjusting engine valves. It’s a tool that a DIYer can use to save $150 every 100,000 miles, and has been sitting in my tool box for years. One that I never use is perfect for this, just slide it into the seam and across each tab and out the transmitter pops. I keep it with my Dexcom supplies.
Here’s a set on Amazon for under $5.
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I use a metal hair barrette that I got at the dollar store (2-4 pack).
Looks like this:
I’m almost afraid to say this out loud but since I have been using Dex, I have always gotten 20 days with never an early failure. I do not push it to a third try.
However, I can’t always get the test strip to work to ‘flip’ it although everyone on youtube makes it look so easy. It takes many tries for me and occasionally I give up and just change it at day 10. And I have viewed all the ways to insert it and even mark my transmitter with ink beforehand on where to insert to hit the tab!
I may look at barrettes, though that would be a funny purchase for me!
The other new problem for me is that with new Tandem use, I have had transmission stop with the Dex 13 inches away across from my R. upper front arm to over-shirt pocket on my left side. It may be shoved a bit towards shoulder but it is still straight across body.
My endo this week said he thinks it is the Dex transmitter, not Tandem.
Of course, he thinks that. He wanted me on Tandem!
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My guess is that it’s the fact that the Bluetooth signal is traveling across your body that is causing the signal loss — not the 13 inches or anything to do with the transmitter.
Your pump should pick up the signal just fine as long as it’s on the same side of your body as the transmitter.
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But it is not traveling ‘through’ my body. It is essentially “on the same side” if you think of a tape measure held across your chest, it does not go through you but just in front of you!
Anyway, my older dex would transmit to its receiver from two rooms away. Not a pump but from the transmitter to the portable receiver. An the G6 did the same with my portable receiver. I never did get into using phones with it. oh well.
Do you mean frequent signal loss or the end of the session entirely?
BTW, you could keep using your receiver at the same time. You can transmit to two separate devices.
I was told I had to choose one if i did not use a phone which I did not want to. Will check on the portable then.
It doesn’t happen frequently. Just enough to be a minor irritant. Technology should allow the transmission to go through a body; certainly should allow pump to be on opposite side of Dex insertion or within a reasonable physical range. I mean really. What is with the engineers? An advance seems to require you get one new leap forward and give up 2 excellent features in the older version.
Back to creating a presentation on using an intranet…another forward/backward technology!!
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