FYI, US customers, if you haven’t tried an Enlite in your arm, I urge you to give it a try if you are having terrible luck with Enlites in the only FDA-approved location, the abdomen, which never works well for me and I know it doesnt work well for many others. I have an ISIG of 41.14 with an SG of 148 currently. That is AMAZING, if you know anything about ISIG’s.
The accuracy has been mind-blowingly phenomenal–sometimes identical to finger sticks or just a few points off when bg’s are stable, and gives an accurate representation of the direction of any bg movement, predicting both my highs and lows as they occur…
I’m keeping this sensor in until it dies, which may be some time next year.
In 6 hours, I’ll be starting DAY 25! So much for the truth (NOT) in a statement made to me by a Medtronic support person that ISIG’s drop after a “coating” on the sensor is depleted by being exposed to glucose, which is why the sensors can deteriorate quickly from high interstitial fluid glucose. Medtronic refuses to admit that they BOTCHED the US release of both the Soft Sensor and the Enlite because testing submitted to the FDA did not determine that ISIG values are often not sufficient when either sensor is placed in one’s abdominal area and that other areas of the body are far more suitable. Outside the US, Medtronic has approval to tell patients to use their upper arm and THAT’S WHERE IT WORKS WELL. Gawd, I hate incompetence!
At the moment, the ISIG is 27.20 with an SG of 149. A very decent number that I could never have gotten after as few as 11 days for a “good sensor” in my abdomen, and I had more than 13 sensors since December 2014 that were replaced by MM due to total failure to deliver usable ISIG’s after less than 3 days (in the abdomen).
Glad it’s working well for you! I recently started the Enlite, but have had so much frustration in finding a spot that works for me. I have had to abandon about 2/3 of the sensors so far for various issues, and when I pull them out they are either bent or squiggly. I do call the help line to have them replace them, but as you know that is very time consuming and frustrating both for me and them. The back of my arm has been the most reliable, but both times I did it there the CDE or trainer helped me insert it. How do you manage to contort yourself with the serter without tugging at it when releasing? Would love to see a video of you doing it if you can manage it. Also, how are you getting multiple 6-day sessions out of it? Do you just keep doing “Reconnect Old Sensor”, or do you “Connect New Sensor”?
I cant self-install on my arm either. My wife does it for me. She also has to help remove the 2 IV3000’s and reinstall 2 more tapes after an xmitter recharge. My head doesn’t move like it should due to 2 cervical fusions so I can’t contort myself enough to do the sensor installs myself reliably enough for my comfort. I can hold the installer OK for the sensor install, but after that, I need assistance with the overtape (only installed over the sensor–I don’t do overtape over the xmitter) and 2 IV3000’s, overlapped about 1/4" near the junction of the sensor and xmitter. Keeping the sensor rock stable is SO important to having good luck with accurate ISIG’s, not to mention the PERFECT location. I simply can’t get great results anywhere on my abdomen or side. I get so-so results in those 2 locations about 50-60% of the time and now that I have to self-pay for the sensors, no way am I going to pay $50 each and end up after 2 days having to remove the sensor because the ISIG’s are in the single digits. Calling MM is such a HASSLE (time consuming!!) that if I have a 50% success rate I’d just give up using sensors. If I continue with arm locations with a minimum of 12 solid days of acccurate results I’ll keep buying the sensors on my dime. If failures start happening with arm locations, I’ll resign myself to testing on a meter more than 15x a day. ugh. I hope it doesn’t come to that.
You MUST choose “connect new sensor” to go beyond 6 days. You MUST recharge the xmitter for each 6 day period, or the battery will go dead about day 7 or 7.5. Save grief and recharge when you reach the end of day 6. it only takes about 25 minutes to recharge. BE CAREFUL not to disturb the sensor. If it comes loose, you probably will have to toss it.
I start Medicare next month and found out that because I have to pay for sensors myself, MM gives a discount of 45% from list price. I hope they do the same with the xmitter.
You can find quite a few videos of people installing sensors and xmitters on Youtube.
The Enlite “self-help” demonstration videos I’ve found so far have not really been all that useful to me. If anyone has one they want to recommend, please post a link to it.
When I searched just now I only found three videos, one of which was for the older “Harpoon” sensor, not the Enlite. Of the two Enlite demonstration vids I found, the one below seemed more useful.
In the video above, the person seems to completely skip the Medtronic overtape step. They just slap on the transmitter after inserting and applying the back tape of the sensor. Then, after the transmitter is connected and the tape tab pulled over it, they overtape the sensor/transmitter combo with two pieces of a tape I didn’t really recognize. (It wasn’t transparent?)
I’m not sure yet whether I’ll try this or not.
OTOH, I’m always looking for a “better” spot to insert the Enlite.
OTOH, I have my doubts as to whether or not I can find an accessible spot on an arm where I won’t hit muscle when I insert. The best spot for that is the back of one of my arms, but I couldn’t insert there unassisted … which is how I have to do it.
Oh, FWIW, “Schritt” is apparently the German word for “step”.
looks like today is the day that the sensor ISIG has finally dropped into the single digits when my bg’s are in the 60’s and I think I’ll have to replace the sensor in the next few hours making the sensor a 25-day sensor. i can live with that! if it recovers to a good value, I’ll post that info, otherwise let’s figure this one is done.
It just suddenly died. ISIG dropped to 4.4 when BG was 76, and of course, at such a low ISIG it displayed “Below 40”. It’s now officially been my best-ever sensor, having lasted 25 days.
New sensor, 1/2" from previous 25-day sensor. Readings are perfect. In my abdomen, I’d be on the phone with MM on day 2 or 3 complaining about low ISIG’s.
Right you’ve thrown down the guantlet! I’ll be happy with 14 days First sensor has been in my abodomen since Friday, ISIG been mid 20s which I am happy with.
I’m paying $90 sensor at the moment as there are no discounts from list price in the UK!
That’s what I like to hear! I have another sensor in my arm quite near the 25-day sensor location, and so far it’s super accurate. It woke me up in the middle of the night with a high alarm, so I was able to bolus and get my bgs back down to 96 by 6AM. If I hadn’t gotten the alarm, I would have gotten up in the AM quite high. Please keep us informed as to how long your sensor goes, ok?
The biggest issue I have with sensors on my arm is that I lose the signal if the pump isn’t in one of the exact locations it needs to be in. I now have to clip it to my shirt when sleeping or place it near my right arm. That’s not to say I haven’t had WEAK SIGNAL or LOST SENSOR occur with abdomen placements too.
I pull it out when the ISIG’s are too low to support the correct sensor glucose value.
Do you get “LOST SENSOR” or “WEAK SIGNAL” messages? I get WEAK SIGNAL more than I like, due to the location of my sensors (arm) and placement of pump (waistband). I have to get creative to keep the signal “flowing”. If I put the sensors in my abdomen I get terrible results but fewer WEAK SIGNAL messages.
What country are you that you are paying $75? I go on Medicare in a few days so I called MM to inquire about the cost for self-pay. They said they give a 45% discount which brings them to roughly $50 each. It will be a while before I place an order, as I still have a nice stash of sensors.
No I have never seen the “WEAK SIGNAL” message but I have had one “LOST SENSOR” before, apparently due to interference. I have only been using the system for a few weeks so I don’t have much experience.
The main error I get is the “SG value not available”, not sure what it means, need to research it more.
I’m in Australia, cost can be reduce to $50 a sensor with a subscription so it’s not too bad.
Does the ISIG value go permanently low or does it jump up and down?
when it’s at end-of-life, or it’s in a bad spot, the ISIG tends to just be constantly too low to be functional. For example, if the ISIG is under 10 and your bg is in the 100’s or higher, that sensor is toast. I want to see an ISIG of at least 18 if I am 100. Calibrations should be ISIG times 3 to 8.3 = bg. If you go well over 8.3, then you will likely get a CAL error. Two errors in a row causes the system to prompt you to replace sensor. You always have the option of restarting the sensor instead of replacing it, if you think it might improve.
