and was wondering how one can soak a G6, given that you can’t easily remove a transmitter. When i install a G5, I place an old xmitter into it, to keep the sensor connection from catching on something which could pull out the wire; not to mention showering with it exposed.
I am going to try and “soak” a G6 sensor this next time I swap it out. Nothing to lose because the last 3 have needed 6-8 hours to start reporting properly after insertion (they have worked just fine for the rest of the 10 days). Probably not a full 24 hours but I will likely insert one in the morning after a shower and before I’m doing anything active perhaps covering it with a big bandaid if needed.
Please let me know how that works out, ok? BTW, the one that I soaked for a day has been working fine on day one!
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I’m due to swap out the sensor on Tuesday so I will report back then!
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Update #1
I inserted a new G6 sensor this morning after showering around 10am to “soak” while I ran down the clock on the existing one. I didn’t cover it at all as I felt it was fine given my plans for the day. If I were doing something more active I might have just put a bandaid over the top of it.
It’s now 7:25pm and the two hour warm-up just ended and the first reading is 95 with a steady arrow. I did a finger stick which is 111 so the variation isn’t that bad for an initial read. I’ll let it get some data points and then enter a calibration and report back.
Feeling hopeful!
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I’m not sure I understand the question? But I get them wet all the time. I take a shower with it and I go snorkeling for an hour at a time. As long as I have applied it with Skin Tac, they don’t come off and I don’t remove the transmitter. I have had no issues except for the adhesive that comes with the sensor. But the sensor has always worked fine.
Update #2
I calibrated it around 8pm which it accepted and it’s been working accurately since. It was awesome not to have to be stuck in the never ending loop of rejected calibrations and temporary errors.
Guess I am just one of those people that need more than 2 hours for a sensor to marinate in the fluids for it to work as expected. I will continue to “soak” the sensor moving forward.
This isn’t about the sensor getting wet. This is inserting a new sensor well in advance of starting a new sensor session to “soak” in the interstitial fluids. The G6 is advertised as being accurate after a 2 hour warm-up period. For many, myself included, this is a crap shoot. The last 3 sensors I’ve inserted have started out with urgent lows, rejected calibrations, and temporary errors leading to many hours of frustration and need to endure repeated finger sticks.
@lumi73 LOL Thanks!!! Didn’t even get that! Now it all makes sense~!
Mine seems to start working pretty quickly. I do usually do a calibration within the first half hour and sometimes a second one. When I had my Libre Sensor that took about another 2-4 hours after the 12 hour warm up.
I’ve had the same experience, to the point where I turned off my phone as the “urgent low” alarms (all false) kept waking me up. I hadn’t heard of soaking a sensor, but I’m going to try it.
It makes sense. From what I understand about G6 sensor behavior and factory calibration (from a Dexcom patent application), the calibration curve is changing continuously during the session -very rapidly during the first two days. After that the change is smaller and more consistent. The G6 sensors are ‘factory calibrated’ based on testing sensor(s) from a manufacturing lot and applying the resulting data to all the sensors in that lot. I imagine if an individual’s environment around the sensor is different than the factory calibration model, lots of invalid readings could occur during the rapidly changing first hours of a session. After the evironment around the sensor and the calibration curve rate of change settle down, things fall back into place.
Try it and report back!
Results are only for one sensor, but things were much better after a 24 hour soak. Numbers matched well right from the get go. I still had some erratic readings that night (roughly 35 hours after insertion), but far closer to realty than before.
Thanks for bringing this technique to my attention!
That’s great! I’m also going to do this moving forward.
Update #3
Soaked sensor #1 performed fantastically well the entire 10 days. Inserted next sensor at 10am, soaked sensor #1 expired at 5:30pm, started new session with soaked sensor #2 and after the two hour warmup it started reporting straightaway an 88 and finger stick was 98.
Hope this helps someone!
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Yesterday I started a sensor that soaked for 1 day. It was maybe the second sensor I’ve ever installed that caused visible bleeding upon insertion. It didn’t work worth a darn, so I removed it and had to start a brand new (unsoaked) sensor, which thankfully is working properly. I know some folks have decent luck with sensors that caused bleeding, but for me, is it just coincidence that a bleeder didn’t work (rhetorical)? The current sensor read just 1 point different than my finger stick, at breakfast time. Most excellent!
The one I inserted yesterday gave a little spot of blood but stopped almost immediately. Several sensors ago I had a bleeder that I thought wasn’t going to work but ended up working fine. I think it’s a crap shoot.
It’s hit of miss for me. The sensor almost always works initially, but in some cases doesn’t last the normal 7/10 days. In some cases it will stop in as little as 2 days. In some cases the insertion site becomes tender so I’ll pull it even if it is working. My overall success rate is about 75%
One thing Ive not have happen in 18 months of G5 wear, is an uncomfortable site. I’ve had about 3 bad sets, the rest have worked very well.
