Yet another nuisance with my Dexcom… wondering what did I do wrong! 
New sensor goes in the same way I’ve done things for the last 18 months, I start the sensor and the 2 hour period fro the initial calibration starts counting… and then, about 45 minutes into the calibration, I get a weird set of beeps, and the screen displays “Sensor failure”.
This has never happened before to me, and I am quite sure I followed the same exact steps I’ve always done.
The one doubt I have is related to the transmitter. Could it be that a transmitter whose battery is about to die behave in such a way that would trigger a sensor failure?
Meanwhile I’ve shut down the receiver, turned it on again, and restarted the same sensor. And sure enough I’ve got the same error once again.
Could it be that the transmitter’s battery is about to die? I’ve been using the same transmitter for almost 18 months now, and I wonder if this could be related or not. What kind of behaviour would we see if the transmitter batteries die?
Any hint for me? Did anyone experience the same?
Ciao, Luca
I’ve had this happen before. The first few times the sensor was bad or out of date and more recently, the probe didn’t insert into my body correctly. I’ve had my Dexcom for 2+ years and haven’t had any issues with the transmitter so I’d say try another sensor and see what happens.
From what I’ve seen the sensor failures are due to three main points:
(1) probe wasn’t inserted correctly… sometimes the probe doesn’t pierce the skin like it should and just wads up underneath the sensor
(2) sensor was out of date
(3) sensor was bad
Thanks Lane, I am about to insert a new sensor just now, hoping that all will be good this time.
Did Dexcom send a replacement sensor without problems? This was a new sensor, so I hope it won’t be a problem.
Ciao, Luca
Luca,
I’ve never had any problems getting new sensors from Dexcom.
How many months worth of sensors do you order at once? I used to order 4 months worth of sensors at once and have since changed it to two months of sensors in an order. I don’t seem to get as many bad sensors this way. Or they might have fixed some process in the assembly line from when I started on the Dexcom.
I’ve since started to examine the sensor all the way around before I even pull of the backing from the tape to see if for any reason the probe as already started coming out and also seeing if anything looks wrong on the sensor itself. I’ve had a few where the probe was already coming out… Also, as much as I hate it, I push the plunger for the sensor wire really fast because going slow seems to cause issues with the probe not puncturing the skin correctly.
Had the exact same thing happen to me a few days ago. Restarted the same sensor and got the error message again. When I inserted a new sensor, everything worked fine. Could have been a faulty sensor or bad insertion. Either way, you should contact Dexcom to see if you can get a replacement.