I got an email from Dexcom that my Gen4 will ship later this week. I’m very excited but also a little scared. I’ve read great reviews of the Gen4 and also critical reviews.
I’ve been fairly happy with my Dexcom 7+ and have found it to be so much better than the Medtronic system. My biggest problem has been false alerts of lows during the night. I often flatline at a perceived reading of about 60 where I have my low alert set. It wavers at that number down to the built-in alert at 55. So I get alerts all night long when my meter says my BG is about 80-90. I often just shut it down for the rest of the night, but that defeats the purpose of having it.
I called Edgepark to order sensors because I couldn’t find them online. I assume they’ll go through insurance OK because normally my insurance doesn’t care what brand of sensors you order as long as you’ve been approved for them. I’ll keep my fingers crossed on that.
For what is hopefully my last 7+ sensor, I used an arm insertion for the first time. It was easy to do and I’ve read of others having good results with this location.
One of the best things about the G4 for me so far - no false lows at night, not a single one!! It screamed me awake the other morning, and my first thought was.. oh (fill in the blank). It read 43. Did a fingerstick to be sure, cause I was pretty sweaty... 45!!! Never been so happy to be low LOL. Same thing happened later that day... 153/156. It's been amazingly accurate mid-range as well, including the first day.
Gotta say I'm impressed so far. 12 days in, one restart so far ;)
I am on day 8 and last night I had a similar experience. The Gen4 hollered at me that my bg was 40 and I was actually 41.......was very grateful to catch that night-time low. Also, one restart here w/o any problems at all. I was glad to learn that the sensor can go more than 7 days as my insurance does not pay for the CGMS system.
I have resorted to putting the 7+ in the closet at night, as it will wake me with a false low 5 out of 7 nights, I only sleep 6-7 hours at night as it is, I cannot afford to wake up to a low alarm at 55 when my fingerstick shows 101. I hope that I have the success you have had:)
I hope to have the same success that you're having and I hope you keep having that success.
I'm having a typical start with my 7+ sensor. I did have a high last night of about 250, but the Dex kept climbing up and up and was alarming at almost 330. During the night whan I had gotten down to 90, the sensor kept waking me up alarming at 160. I put in a calibration and at least it didn't alarm until it woke me at 58 when my meter said 72. I did not calibrate just to let the sensor adjust itself. When I got out of bed within 10 minutes the sensor showed a straight up arrow. It's finally leveled out at 117, but according to my meter I've been between 70-80 the whole time. I'll calibrate now that the sensor is showing a level arrow.
Fortunately the 7+ sensor usually finds its way in a day or two. Sometimes I calibrate a lot to get things on track. Other times I try to minimize calibrations. I haven't found the "right" way yet. Hoping for great success with Gen4.
Yea! Glad it is a better Dexie! I have three boxes of sensors to get thru before I can use the G4. Thats at two to three weeks per also. I plan on ordering the G4 before year end as I am up to my 'out of pocket' for the year so will probably save some bucks on it if I get it in 2012. Great to hear how much others are liking it. ☺
re: calibration on the G4... they actually recommend that you calibrate while having a high and a low. No such thing as confusion from 'too much' calibration any more. The nicest thing is that it reminds you to calibrate 12 hrs after the last one... not 12 hour after the last reminder.
