Lately I soak each G5 for 1 day before bringing it “on line”. That way, day one provides accurate numbers. Yesterday morning I switched sensors to start a soaked one and it worked great all day. I then went to bed and after a while felt something poking me in my ribs. The sensor had come out more than half way. Dumb me hadn’t bothered to apply Skin Tac, nor applied the Dexcom-provided clear dressing. Big mistake. SO there I was around 10:30PM with a perfectly good sensor now useless. I seriously need to follow my own normal procedures from now on. Skin Tac and transparent dressing on ALL sensors!
I have never used Skin Tac - I just make sure that application area has been shaved and cleaned with alcohol swab. Apply sensor and then apply a donut style patch I make from a roll of Opsite Flexifit. Patch is same shape as sensor adhesive but about 1/4 inch bigger all the way around with a cutout for the transmitter.
I have never, ever had even 1 G5 sensor come off or even come loose after a few weeks including intensive exercise, daily showers, change of clothes, etc. using this method. I know patches can be had for free from Dexcom but Opsite Flexifit roll from Amazon cost me about $0.20 per patch to make and are worth every penny in lack of frustration or worries that a sensor could come loose, lose readings or come off all together.
That’s super frustrating. Ibe been having more trouble than usual lately with both my pump and dexcom almost coming off or actually coming off once when I just took my shirt off. I guess maybe its getting warmer so I’m sweating more. A month ago I took off my dexcom and a chunk of skin came with, and now I cant get it to stay on lol. This is a new box of sensors, so I wonder if the adhesive is not equally strong across all boxes?
I have no advice since I clearly haven’t figured it out, but just wanted to offer my condolences. That sucks.
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Ugh, that’s a bummer.
When you soak the new sensor, are you without dexcom for a day, or do you have a nonfunctional transmitter inserted until you are ready to start the new sensor?
I have a functioning xmitter and sensor running beside the one that is soaking for 1 day. That “soaker” has an old xmitter installed to keep things intact. When I’m ready to start the new sensor I do a STOP SENSOR, install the active xmitter in place of the old xmitter in the new sensor, and do START SENSOR. If the new sensor seems good, I’ll then rip off the previous sensor.
BTW, I install a new sensor on day 6, so that rather than restarting a sensor only to get 2-3 more good days out of it, I start a new sensor when I’m just a few minutes from the warning to replace sensor NOW. That new sensor has soaked for 1 day, making it far more accurate than one that has just been installed.
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Dave, do you add the new transmitter while the soaked sensor is on your body? Do you use their plastic guard tool to get the old transmitter out or do your use your fingers? Still have problems installing the G5 after almost a year.
Not a new xmitter. I’m using an active xmitter, and an old [edit] xmitter which is used solely to protect the new sensor. I use fingernail to release one side, then the other side. takes about 5 seconds to release an xmitter from a G5.
Setting up a new xmitter (ie, inputting a new xmitter code into the receiver) isn’t related to the process I’m describing for soaking a sensor.
I’m happy to report that the sensor I installed late last night quickly became accurate, which is nice because today was one of my hiking days.
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I think we have a goof here. S/B Old transmitter to protect the new sensor???
LOL. yeah, that was supposed to read, “old XMITTER which is used solely to protect the new sensor.”
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What’s the chances I can change to a new transmitter while the sensor is still operating on my abdomen?
I’ll have to stop sensor, put in a new serial number for the transmitter, replace transmitter while sensor on my abdomen and start sensor and wait two hours.
Sensor is only two weeks old and I usually get four weeks out of a sensor.
Pretty near 100% - The sensor is just a dumb piece of hardware and does not have any intelligence to know what serial number is on the transmitter you just put.
Yes, u can install a new xmitter to a sensor that’s working with a previous xmitter. if using dexcom s/w u will do a 2 hour warm up and if you had xdrip u would tell xdrip u installed the sensor days ago. doesn’t matter how long ago, as long as it’s more than 2 hours prior. that way you will get it up and running after 15-20 minutes.
Thanx
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