Dexcom Madness - Just Getting It Off My Chest

Type 1 and LADA
1

I actually KNOW better, but this is a combination of being exhausted and not thinking until it was too late.

Last night I started a new Dexcom G6 sensor. Lately, I’ve noticed that I really do need to calibrate initially. The readings are just a bit too off from my finger stick results. This is a new change as I’ve not had to calibrate the G6 for a while, but I’ve got other things going on like I’m on Zepbound now. It’s essential that my CGM is as accurate as possible.

So this is what happened. I switch to a new sensor just before 7:30 pm. I go through the two hour warm up. Okay, great, It’s bedtime. My sensor starts screaming that I’m low and says I’m in the 40s. I’m tired. I’m not thinking “do a fingerstick”. Instead, I drink some juice because I just want to go to bed. I get another alert a few minutes later, I drink more juice.

I realize, duh, I should have measured my glucose level. I do that, and it’s over 500 mg/dL. Great. So much for a restful night of sleep. I correct knowing my CGM is just wrong. I also try to calibrate, which throws my G6 into that awful cycle of “test again at…”. Great. I’m in that loop for a bit, and finally just give up. I set my phone’s alarm to just wake me up in an hour so I can check that things aren’t going off the rails. That works. I’m slowly going down.

I finally get some sleep. I wake up. My CGM says I’m around 160 mg/dL. If that’s true, that’s doable in terms of correcting. I test, it’s nowhere near a match, so this sensor is trash.

I start a chat with Dexcom. The person eventually asks me to share my readings. There are a lot. I guess I took too long, and they disconnected the chat with no warning. I’m now not only tired with a high blood sugar, I’m mad. I call. I get a helpful attendant who finds the conversation that I just had and updates it from there. She sets it up that they’ll send me a new sensor. Okay, great. Now I’m in warm up mode again. I checked my blood sugar, and it’s really high and I want to eat. It will be low carb because I don’t want to deal with any other variables right now.

Maybe after that I can finally take a nap and catch up on some decent sleep.

As an aside, the Dexcom G6 has worked really well for me. I usually don’t have to deal with stuff like this, and part of it was me and human error. I should have calibrated right away.

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Mine can be pretty far off with a new sensor, or completely close and then go awry the next day. They also have a tendency to slowly read lower than I’m at and need some adjusting within the first few days. It’s one reason I stick to the G6 to be able to restart them. They are always way high when I restart them but I get it close within 1-3 calibrations within the first 4-6 hours and then they are usually gold.

I know one time I was really tired and it woke me with a high alert and not remembering it was a new sensor I took some insulin, then it woke me again and I took some more insulin, remembered it was new and told myself I better check and sure enough I was around 100 with now a bunch of insulin in my system. Sigh, wide awake at that point and eating.

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Yeah. I know that for some you don’t need to calibrate. I didn’t need to for a long time, but there is something going on with me or the sensors I have now, where it’s a better move for me to calibrate pretty soon after they warm up. Last night, I was so tired that it slipped my mind until it was too late. Lesson learned. I won’t do that again. This morning with the new sensor, I already knew my glucose was high. The initial reading was high, but I made sure to double check that with a finger stick. This sensor is much more accurate, which is a relief.

I’ve never had luck restarting them, so I’m glad to hear that you’re able to do that!

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Yikes!! I always start new sensors in the morning so that I have a chance of getting them on track before going to sleep.

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With the g6 I would put it on at bed time and start it in the morning. With g7 I just put it on when the old one runs out

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Right? You learn how best to use the G6 and then when it does fail it fails big. I had to request two replacements last month. I can’t remember the time before that, its been way over a year since I had to replace a sensor early.

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I’m back to morning starts now. :sob:

I think that over time, I ended up having evening CGM starts. With the G6 two hour warm up that means if you put it on at 7 pm, it’s not ready to go until 9 pm. This incident means I’m back to morning starts. This time I’ll make sure stop sensors early or something to make sure I stay in that window too.

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Yeah, I’ve heard about soaking the G6 sensors beforehand. I’ll look into that. Right now, I’m back to starting it in the morning, so I should be fine for now.

I won’t be switching to the G7 until they make me, so that’s a non-issue for me. :joy:

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That was my feeling too. I’d had a good run with no failures and no huge issues, and then :collision:. Between a failing sensor and tons of insulin in my system to correct the high that I caused, I was like “Will I make it through the night?” Clearly, I did, but that’s not a fun thought to have.

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I have fewer connection issues with the g7. As far as accuracy, they were both Pretty similar. Never spot on, but close enough

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I don’t have any connection issues with the G6. For now, I’m still seeing too many complaints about the G7, so I’m going to err on the side of playing it conservative.

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I’ve had the same issue. It appears that it has gotten worse over the last few months. I never had that issue before. I have to say it is getting on my very last nerve.
I have also have recently had instances where the sensor never deployed.

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My G6 sensors almost always read high when the finish warmup. My meter might say 93 but the sensor is 185 with up arrows. I use Tandem right now so that means the pump wants to start giving me extra insulin. My fault, as I never remember to turn off CIQ and switch to my manual profile after removing a sensor.

I let it go for 15 minutes and test again. It is usually off even more. I know that the calibration won’t be accepted so I do it in steps. If sensor is 90 but meter is 200, I might calibrate at 170. Wait 10 minutes and do it again. It usually takes me 3-4 calibrations before the sensor settles down and then it’s good.

People keep saying “don’t calibrate in the first 24 hours!!” but then I can’t use my pump’s algorithm and when I have waited, the sensor stayed high.

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14

Oh, sensors not starting is annoying. I Loop, so it’s really important for my sensors to actually work. It was definitely a learning moment for me because with the G6, I got used to not calibrating. Now I have to bring that G5 behavior back. I can’t risk another night like that.

What’s good is the failure meant I started a new sensor in the morning vs. in the evening. That just gives me a lot more time to sort things out. I will look into inserting my sensor early. Maybe “soaking” it as they call it might be the way to help my sensors kick off with less hiccups.

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Yeah. I think people saying that aren’t on closed loop systems. We need the CGM to be accurate. That sounds like a good way to do it. I’ll keep that in mind the next time I have one that’s wildly off.

Thank you.

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Welcome to my world. Over time. (G4 Days ) I found that presoaking didn’t do much for me, What I had to learn and STILL have to stick the finger. What gets me is when it’s going in to “Sensor Error” and I over react like you and and bring my GL level up to high.

But take heart if you believe in the trash on FaceBook. Just drink Apple Cider Vinegar, and you won’t be diabetic anymore

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