I’m going nuts trying to time my Dexcom G5 transmitter deliveries, so I can get one before I am overseas for a month. Dexcom customer service is saying the transmitter will turn off after being activated for 90 days. Unfortunately, my 90 days will be up a week after I start a 30 day overseas trip. Dexcom says they can’t move up the shipment to before I leave for overseas, and they do not have an option to have FedEx send it to my overseas address. The “customer service” recommendation is to have it shipped to neighbor here in the U.S., and have that neighbor ship it to me via FedEx (or DHL or UPS). I don’t want to have to change the 90 day schedule for activation or anything for Medicare. And I’m not trying to squeeze an additional transmitter out of Dexcom or Medicare. I just want to have a new one in hand when I leave on my trip, so I can activate it while I’m overseas, and not have my current one “die” a week into my overseas trip, and be without a CGM for the final 3 weeks. Is the only solution to “hack” the transmitter to extend its life? Or, is there a simple way to just not change the transmitter until it dies (sometime beyond 90 days)?
I always plan my overseas trips around Dexcom when able and it is an incredible pain but have yet to find a better solution beyond the Dexcom recommendation. I receive all my Dexcom supplies at my company and the Dexcom FedEx packages are easy to identify so having office forward the supplies works when needed. This is also an issue if the any of the Dexcom components fail during an extended trip so a backup plan is always advisable.
That being said, I am off to Shanghai and other cities in China tonight for a few weeks.
Or do a swap with a friend who has a G5 transmitter on the shelf.
If they don’t have immediate need for it.
You take their G5 transmitter now. When your G5 arrives, you backfill your friend’s shelf.
I’m a newbie to Dexcom, and have yet to get a new transmitter. How does one end up with one “on the shelf” as it were? With my upcoming trip, I’m trying to milk any extra days off my current transmitter, so I can hopefully extend it by 2 weeks, and extend the next one by 2 weeks, so that would cover me for my trip. I guess if you do that for a couple of years, you’ll end up with one “on the shelf” that would cover you for future Dexcom emergencies.
It is not unusual for people to receive two G5 transmitters in a single shipment every six months. Depends on the insurance and supplier.
For the past year I’ve always had a boxed reserve G5 transmitter (on the shelf) to replace active transmitter. And for the 2nd time in 4 months, the “new” G5 failed within an hour of installing.
These are fresh with Ship Before dates well into the future, making it all the more frustrating. Canadian Dexcom only warranties new transmitters for a maximum of 5 months post delivery date.
I contacted Dexcom Tech (Ohio) last Thursday and was guaranteed 24hr delivery for Friday, even though it was good Friday. Yesterday a follow up call revealed the transmitter never shipped last week and in fact won’t be here for another 2-3 days (they sent it slow-post aka Canada Post).
Over a week wait for a CGM that was promised next day. It’s left me with a bad taste in my mouth 
Technically, Dexcom (Canada) only warranties the G5 Transmitter for 3 months after shipment.
Which is a significantly worse warranty than is provided in the USA.
Fortunately they missed that Memo this time Tim.
When my replacement does arrive it is Gratis (originally shipped Jan 3rd).
Jim, I once had an xmitter that failed 2 days after 90 days. Dexcom said “sorry”.
Dave - Last fail (New Years Eve) it was 5 days beyond their “5 month Canadian” policy.
They also gave me the big 
Dexcom wasn’t able to get me a G6 transmitter before the one I had expired (due to mistakes at Dexcom). I had no choice other than hack the transmitter with an iOS app called Spike. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s available for the moment because of a dispute with Apple. Check Spike-App.com or their facebook page to get an update.
I also found this process, but it’s cumbersome and I haven’t tried it.
I use the Beta version, called xDrip for IOS, which is still available (I just updated mine). Of course if you have an Android phone it’s moot—just download a copy of xDrip. The great thing about Spike/xDrip is that it just totally ignores the 90-day software timeout and lets you keep using the transmitter as long as it actually has juice, which can often be weeks or months beyond the software boundary. Perfect for situations like the one you’re running into, @jkirkmd, where you need a bridge to get you past the gap between the artificial battery limit and your next transmitter when there’s a delay involved.
I didn’t realize X-Drip had an iOS version. That’s great news! Do you know how I get it? It’s not on the App Store.
Do you know if you can reset the transmitter and then move back to using the Dexcom app?
Nope, can’t do it, not on the same transmitter. It still keeps sending whatever signal it is that the Dexcom app interprets as Dead Battery (as if). It’s not really a reset in the transmitter; xDrip just ignores that signal. The Dexcom app can’t.
So this is the slightly complicated part because of the whole Beta thing. It’s a development project under GitHub, and Spike was a fork off of it that went into production status. So kinda-sorta the same thing at root, but you can’t download it directly from the App Store. Instead you need to:
- Download an app called TestFlight that is used for distribution of beta apps through the App Store
- Get an “invitation” from the developer that allows TestFlight to deliver the app to you. After that it’s just an ordinary install.
#2 is the hard part. Usually there’s a page with a “request invite” link, but I think I got the invite automatically when the developer moved it into TestFlight and haven’t been able to locate a link for you. The chief developer, Johann Degraeve, has always been very helpful, though, and there’s an email address on his “xDrip For IOS” GitHub repository page, which is here, so I’d give that a try.
Once you get the app, the interface isn’t maybe as slick as Spike, but it works perfectly well. You can start getting data from your “expired” transmitter, you can see how much power you actually have left, and you can even skip the warm-up period when starting a new session or rolling over an existing one. The one trick is that the Dexcom won’t allow two Bluetooth connections at the same time, so you have to “forget” the G5 one in order to pair with xDrip.
Something not adding up here. I just had them ship me a transmitter, and extra sensors, for a trip into a remote area. Arrived today, no problem.
You sure you’re explaining things correctly?
I am not sure whom this refers to but if it is about getting extra G5 Dexcom supplies, it all depends who is paying for them. If you are paying out of pocket, then sure, anything is possible. If it is an insurance company paying, then it is hit or miss. If it is through medicare direct shipments from Dexcom, whenever I have asked, the answer has always been no and I have asked several times due to inconvenience.
In my case, it’s because I am on Medicare.
I’m a, reluctant, Medicare dependent.
Your example is why I am in process to switching to the new advanced SENSEONICS EVERSENSE IMPLANTED CGM