Our 12 year old son, Matthew (T1 diagnosed at 16 months), recently took both the MinMed and DexCom CGMS for a “test drive.” After wearing the MM CGMS on his abdomen for 22 hrs, he could no longer take the pain/irritation and we decided that there was no sense in prolonging his pain any longer and removed it yesterday morning.
Placed a call to his Endo yesterday and asked him to submit the paperwork for the DexCom 7+.
Other than the abdomen, where are folks getting good solid results w/their DexComs?
Since I started the Dex 7+ in September I’ve only placed about five sensors. I’ve used my “love handles” on both the right and left sides. I aim for about an inch or two above the top of my belt and an inch or two below the bottom of my rib cage. I’ve varied the front-to-back position from just above my hip to an inch or two forward of my hip.
I’ve received very consistent readings overall and every sensor except one has gone at least 10 days with the longest lasted 16 days. The one exception was a sensor that I removed after four days because the site was growing painful.
I haven’t experimented with any other sites yet. Good luck. I think you’ve made a good selection.
Thanks for the info, Terry. I think we’ll probably start with his stomach because that’s what he’s used to with his pump. A couple other folks have suggested the upper arm which we might try as well. He’s very excited about getting and that’s half the battle.
Thanks for the info, Shannon. I was hoping that the upper arms would be a good option. He’s willing to have the pump and CGM im his stomach but he’s not crazy about having 2 devices I’m the same general area. Have you ever heard of anyone using the upper thigh?
For the most part, I like my Dex. However, I’m on my first sensor and experiencing a lot of ??? errors. The first was about 2 days in and lasted almost 12 hours. The second was a couple days later and lasted for around 4 hours. Tech support acts like this is a normal thing? Is it for you guys? Luckily I had my MM sensor on as well… For comparison. Do you guys have any input on this?
Thanks for the info, Mike. We have only trialed the DexCom and MM CGMS. We started the DexCom paperwork rolling last week and hope to have everything w/in a couple of weeks. Can I ask where you’re wearing your CGMS? Sticking w/your abdomen or have you tried anywhere else? Our son is willing to go the abdomen route but would prefer another site (IE upper arms as Shannon previously suggested).
I’ve had the Dexcom for 11 months, and for me the stomach (height of bellybutton or just above) and the top of the butt (just below beltline) are the best spots.
Thanks, Christian. Thats def where our son will begin. It is certainly what he feels most comfortable with (his four sites being both sides of his bellybutton and upper left/right buttocks). He’s mentioned that he’s not too crazy re the idea of having two things stuck in is stomach though. He’s a very positive kid and (I know that I’m prob jinxing myself here…) takes it all in stride. He was diagnosed T1 when he was 16 months and doesn’t know any other way.
So far I’m sticking with the tummy. I actully just got off the phone again with tech support, and again was told that I should just wait it out. She said I needed to get a feel for where to place it. I put it where the manual told me to. So far I’m pushing a total of almost 20 hours w/out readings. 12 hours being the longest amount. They’ve yet to replace it, but keep “noting my account”. Should I insist on a new sensor?
So far I’m sticking with the tummy. I actully just got off the phone again with tech support, and again was told that I should just wait it out. She said I needed to get a feel for where to place it. I put it where the manual told me to. So far I’m pushing a total of almost 20 hours w/out readings. 12 hours being the longest amount. They’ve yet to replace it, but keep “noting my account”. Should I insist on a new sensor?
You are way too patient. I would have pulled the sensor after a couple of hours. I saw ??? for about an hour once during my 5 months of usage. Not counting the ??? which signals the end of life for the sensor (day 12+).
Should I insist on a replacement? I even explained that I just got it, was not happy with the MM sensors, and was still wearing the MM sensor for comparison. If I was the rep there, I’d be doing whatever was necessary to keep me using the Dex! I just don’t get it! I’ve lost almost an entire days worth of data. I was leaving MM for Dex, to get more reliable data… Not completely missing data.
Well, I just emailed there support staff about my being dissatisfied. We’ll see what happens.
As a new Dexcom user, I wanted to let you know how dissatisfied I am with my current sensor. I’ve lost nearly 20 hours of data because I keep getting the ??? error. The longest lasted nearly 12 hours. I called support and was told to wait a couple more hours and see if it comes back. Luckily, I don’t have hypo unawareness, as most of this was when I was sleeping. A couple days later, it happens again for nearly 4 hours, comes back for an hour, then happens again. I call support once again, and I’m basically told that this is normal. As expensive as the sensors are, I should hope that this happening so often, is anything but normal. I’ve posted my complaints on tudiabetes.org, and have been told that I’m being too patient, and that most people have never had this much ??? in a 3 day period. I’ve been wearing my MM sensor as well, for comparision, and while I truely don’t like it (painful insertion, a pain to tape down and keep down, and unreliable trends), it at least continues to display some kind of results. Please let me know what can be done about this. Is a replacement in order. Is my sensor faulty? Is this what I should continue to expect?
My son has been using DexCom since early September and has used his tushie exclusively and we have gotten very good results. The only time we have had ??? is at the beginning when we were placing the receiver on the nightstand at night. Since placing it in bed with him, the ??? are gone. The one exception I do find however, is the first night on a new sensor is completely unreliable. He goes to bed with DexCom in range, then shortly after falling asleep it rather quickly rises, rises, rises (falsely) and then goes into ??? until about 3am when it comes back on and is again in range with his blood sugar. I have heard other children have this same exact issue. It is only the first night.
Just a quick update. They are sending me a replacement sensor, but the funny thing is, she said that their cut off is 3-4 hours for issuance of a replacement. So why did no one offer me one until I emailed my complaint and mentioned my post here???
I agree with Helmut about the loss of sensor readings as indicated by ??? I rarely see ??? and they usually resolve within 1/2 hour. When I start to see them with increasing frequency after about day 12, that tells me that my sensor is starting to fail.
I use my left and right sides (above the beltline, below the ribcage). Maybe you should experiment with sites other than the abdomen.
