Good morning everyone,
I’m type 1 diabetic since 7 Years old and now I’m 30 (23YO), these few past years I’m experiencing some disturbing thing, i’m in total dark i don’t know when i’m in low or high BS i lost the senses and sometimes i inject my self thinking that my BS is high when it really is low, don’t need to tell or explain to you the panic that comes right after.
Any way i saw a device i didn’t know it’s existence (Dexcom G4 sensor), i would love to have one.
So, is it worth buying it? or is there others better than this one?
Waiting for your suggestions and thanks.
Absolutely YES to both, especially if you’re experiencing the loss of sensing low BG. I finally broke down and got a CGM–a Dexcom–about a month back before travelling to Europe because I was concerned about managing the six-hour time change. It was enormously helpful. Saved my a** a couple of times.
The Dexcom is pretty much the industry standard. The other one a lot of people have is Medtronic. I believe those are approaching the same accuracy as the Dexcom now but their record was pretty uneven in the past. There are advantages to it if you’re using a Medtronic pump, but from everything I read when I was researching this the Dexcom seemed to have the best algorithm–same one they’re using for the prototype Artificial Pancreas I believe.
Either way, from what you describe you definitely should pursue this.
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I use the Medtronic pump and the Dexcom CGM. I love the Dexcom. It is very accurate. Like you, I was starting to have more problems sensing what range my BG was in. It provides a level of comfort about my BG that I have never had. Strongly recommend Dexcom.
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I fully understand having hypo unawareness. what I don’t understand is that you inject when you are low because you think you are high. Don’t you have a meter(s)? Using a meter before injecting is the way to go. 
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I have been a Dexcom user for at least 5 years (my first one was the Seven+, which was their G3 product, now they are on their G4, as you mentioned).
I can only say: Dexcom has saved my life so many times… Going off overnight while low, while I’ve been by myself traveling. That is priceless!
Hope your insurance doesn’t give you too much trouble getting it covered. Dexcom can be a big help, through the steps you will need to get it.
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I know, right? It only takes seconds to check BG but sometimes the laziness takes over. Does that make any sense? 
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Literally? No. But in reality, yes it does.
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Thank you guys, it’s exactly what i need, especially when i’m on bicycle i won’t be needing to make stops to check BG and that’s why i want it.
Is it possible to take it off and put it again any time i want? or once i take it off there is no use for it?
I’m asking because i’m from Algeria, and here we don’t have this or the pump so i guess i’m gonna have to buy it and since the needle needs to be changed every 15 days, i will try to buy some needle sensors as much as i can afford.
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Younes - Once you remove the sensor wire from under your skin, that sensor cannot be used again. The Dexcom G4 system runs in 7-day sessions and may be restarted more than once. I usually get 14 days from one sensor but many people here report 21-day sessions, sometimes even more.
The system may be employed intermittently if you wish to save money but it works best when you use it every day. I’ve lived with Dexcom CGMs for 5 1/2 years now. It’s a device that I wouldn’t want to live without.
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There is an introducer needle to allow installation of the sensor. As soon as the sensor is placed on your body, you remove the introducer needle, leaving a flexible sensor. That is why you can’t remove/replace the sensor following the one and only insertion.
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@Terry4 I’ll use it intermittently if so, it’s not only about money, we don’t have it here in Algeria.
@phoenixbound I see, i just have to buy the sensors as much as i can.
Thank you all for your help.
How often are you checking your blood sugar now? Even if you get the cgm, you will still need to check, to calibrate. I would suggest you first try checking more and keeping a close watch on your logs.
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I thought we check only when we put a new sensor to calibrate, right?
No @Younes,you calibrate several times/ day. It’s also generally recommended to test for “decision making” events such as bolusing or if there’s a low indication or you don’t feel right or you are going to exercise, the list goes on! LOL. CGMs have a “lag time” of about 20 minutes, sort of like steering a large ship, you are headed on a 90 degree heading and haul the wheel over to head for 180 degrees but it might take the ship itself a bit longer to come about. It’s the sort of thing that you can get very used to. I know many folks simply dexaway and don’t bother metering regularly however I still test quite a bit and I think that it helps nudge my results to be a bit better. I also use a pump and have fairly tight goals set in my pump (target BG of 85 and the CGM alerts on 70-130…this is probably not anything a doctor would recommend but well, it’s worked ok for me…with lots of practice!) so that if my BG is 110 and I’m bolusing for dinner, it will deliver a smidge more insulin than if say my BG is 90 or 95 so I want to know with meter precision (ha ha) rather than relying on a drifty CGM reading.
I’m not sure how often you calibrate a Dexcom as I’m using the Medtronic Enlites. I calibrate 3x/ day on day one (2 hours post insertion, 3 hours after that and at bedtime…) and then twice/ day thereafter (AM and PM, sometimes, I toss in another calibration at bedtime because I don’t want a METER BG NOW alert at 5:00 AM…).
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Yeah, that’s something like I thought before I got CGM. I’ll only need to use it for a bit. Just clean up some of my pump settings and get myself on track. Sort of like a BG meter on steroids …
You may find once you actually start using a CGM that your perspective changes. Mine certainly did. In hindsight I’m a tad amazed at how quickly I flipped from “use it only enough to get/stay on track” to “I can’t live without this!” 
For me, CGM was sort of a “game changer”. I think a number of the others using it might agree with me on that. So … think about it. Since this may require a large financial commitment on your part, it’s probably best you understand as much as you can about what going this way might entail for you.
I would put it that it’s a kind of stupidity that I can empathize with and have certainly been guilty of myself on (too many) occasions. But it is still something to work hard to avoid no matter how much we might emotionally relate. No?
Also, if you are reluctant to test with a BG meter then a CGM may not work as well for you as you hope. You need the collaboration of the two devices to get the best results in my opinion.
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