Dexcom: when sensors expire

Question about this: I’ve normally seen people describe the symptoms of a sensor expiration as that the graph gets all erratic and jittery. Has anyone seen the opposite? I’m up to about day 17 on my current one, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it was crapping out, but it seems to be doing the opposite of what people describe. Instead of jittering around, it’s becoming “sticky” and unresponsive, for instance staying level at 117-ish from well before to well after lunch, whereas my finger sticks showed I’d spiked up to the 150s before starting down again. I rely on it for preventing me going low on the homeward bike commute and I’m not sure I can trust it now. Anyone else see this effect at the end of sensor life?

I pretty much see that all the time.
:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Yes! I just finished a 32 day run on my sensor. The past 36 hrs it was sticking at 101 for 30-45 minutes. Then would drop out completely. Before that 36 hours it was spot on, a 2-4 point variance from my meter. I guess some sensors just Peter out and others just die quick like.

Irish

2 Likes

I’ve encountered both types of sensor end-of-life indicators. Most times it’s the jitters but every now and again I’ll get one that’s just unresponsive.

1 Like

17 days… Change it out.

Mine nearly always die prior to day 12, so I just instituted a new procedure: I’m going to change my sensors at the end of day 7, as I’m tired of restarting them, only to have them go bad on the 9th, 10, or 11th day, which means another 2-hour restart. If they go only 9 days, that means I’m doing TWO 2-hour starts in 2 days–that’s a drag. I envy anyone that can go well over 2 weeks.

Yeah, that’s what I did.