My husband just started with the G6 three days ago. His first device ever. We had a scare again the other night, so we decided we need some type of alarm. But…in the first three days we have calibrated 2 times a day every day and it can be off 40 points some times. He has always been intense about monitoring. So, do you see the same thing with the G6? Do you have to calibrate every day?
He’s now going to monitor with another meter and see if we are having the same concerns with the G6.
We have lost signal several times, but day two and three seem better than one, so we are positive.
We never calibrate the G6. If we question the readings we use the Freestyle strips on myt daughter’s Omnipod and they are always within 5 to 15 points of each other. When we were using the Verio One Touch it would be 39 to 80 points higher than the G6 or the Freestyle strips so we no longer use the Verio. You shouldn’t have to calibrate the G6. Only time we did was when we had no arrows,
Normally my first week accuracy with a G4/G5 sensor is really good and calibrations are normally just tweaks. But when I restart a sensor to get more life, calibrations are really important for the first couple days to get it accurate. I’ve read the same thing happens on a G6 if you try to restart a sensor in that you have to use calibrations rather than the code as the algorithms assume it is a fresh sensor and just putting in the code may no longer work for good accuracy?
Alright, so. An update.
I ended up with an emergency c-section at 34w6d before I was able to get the new G6. Omnipod and Dexcom (G4 still) both stayed on during surgery and subsequent hospital stay. The nurses “allowed” me to manage my blood sugar and insulin. When my blood sugar ran a little high after surgery, they had a hospitalist come in and say “Sounds like you know what you’re doing” so they could cya.
Anyways. Once we were home and settled in, I started calling Dexcom to get them to get their act together and send my G6. I thought the ball was already rolling and they were just waiting for my current warranty to be up mid-August. Long story short, I still don’t know what the issue was and why it took so long for them to get my new system to me. Excuses were made, but everyone pointed the blame elsewhere (Dexcom -> insurance -> Carecentrix… whatever). I got the G6 on Sept 29th and started a sensor that day.
Initial thoughts: wow, this is slick. The touchscreen is nice but a bit laggy compared to my phone. The provided cases are nice to have but can we PLEASE get some different color options?? A nice dark purple or teal or even a clear sparkly case for those who’d prefer that! It’s almost 2019 - options, people!
Original (black, pink, blue)
Trendy (purple, teal, maroon)
Kids (glitter, glow in the dark, neon)
Sporty (camo, black, green)
Ideally they’d offer one set for free and have you pay a small fee for any more that you’d want. Anyone from Dexcom reading? Just throwing that out there…
Back to my review.
I’m a bit chuffed that I didn’t realize the G6 doesn’t work with my glooko app yet, so in order for my doctor’s office to receive my numbers I had to download and use the actual G6 app. What a pain. I hate the alert options and had to turn all of them off. I like that I can actually use the Share function now, except a blood sugar 1 unit below my threshold of 70 causes 3 devices in my house to all alert like its the end of the world - hence, turning off the alerts. I have a newborn, I don’t need that ish.
The battery life seems fine but maybe a bit less than the G4. The range is a bit inconsistently crappy and it has lost signal when it shouldn’t - sensor on my right side and the transmitter in my left pocket. I have to remember to take it with me everywhere so it’s not alerting and waking up my entire house.
As far as accuracy: it’s definitely better than my G4 so far but its still not as consistently accurate as they make it sound. I do still do separate finger sticks at least twice a day. And that could partly be out of habit too, since I still feel “lazy” if I rely on my cgm for a blood sugar reading before meals. And I’ve had at least one “sensor error” reading that picked back up accurately within 15 minutes and one that asked me to calibrate.
I haaaaate the unlock screen. Not sure why, other than the fact that I hate having to unlock devices to begin with. But at least part of the reason is that as previously mentioned, the touchscreen is a bit laggy. I wish I could swipe to unlock, instead of two separate taps.
The sensor applicator is pretty nice, if a bit bulky, but I don’t much care about that. I’m not having any issues with the adhesive like others have mentioned. I don’t know if I’ll try and restart the sensor or what. I’m sure I’ll try it at least once, but I don’t know if I want the frustration on my first one. It’ll probably depend on if I’m at home or at work when my sensor times out.
Overall, not too bad, better than G4, but definitely not as good as hyped for me just yet.
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First of all, congrats on your new baby! I was encouraged to read that your hospital permitted you to manage your diabetes. I’m sure your confidence and apparent competence had a lot to do with their choice to permit you to remain in charge of your diabetes.
Nice G6 review. I’m following a lot of discussions about the G6 but am happy to be using my current G4, especially with a good stock of supplies. Good luck with your busy life!
Just to check - Has someone gone over calibration technique with you? You know that you have to be very disciplined about how you calibrate? I dont, for instance eat within a 2 hour period of calibration. I also don’t have any active correction insulin on board when calibrating. That will make for less reliable calibration. Also, don’t over calibrate. One good calibration should set things right for a long time. If you are calibrating more often, then theres a higher risk of a bad calibration. You might know all this…I’m just checking.
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I knew about not having any active insulin on board but hadn’t thought about not eating. It makes sense though.
Usually when I see things are off, my knee jerk reaction is to fix it right away and I don’t normally stop & think about whether I have iob or have eaten recently. I’ll try to keep it in mind though, if i ever do calibrate again.
Thanks!
I’m definitely like you. I have found it really difficult to wait that four hours for all correction insulin to die out before checking BG and making another adjustment. That led to me having WAY too much insulin on board and severe lows when I first started on a pump. When I first started on a Dex, my calibration technique was poor until people on Tu helped me straighten it out. Since then, I developed a solid procedure for calibrations, and my tech has been working MUCH better.
Technically, you want to have very stable BG when calibrating. Like, you want to see the ‘–>’ arrow.
Right, but coming from a G4 where I didn’t know if i was --> or ^^ or down while it was calibrating…this technique is news to me.