You are sooo very helpful. Thank you! I think I will do that then and call them. I hate to have to take this out again! I had to take my first sensor ever out just hours into putting it on because my receiver was messed up they had to send a replacement. I actually have been using the back on my arm! This ones off to the side a little more than the back. I’m not sure where else to try it. I’m a side sleeper. I used to wear my pump on back of my arms before I switched back to injections.
I think xDrip may be Android-specific, or at least was originally. I’m not sure of its current status. There should be information in the Nightscout link in my previous post as to the hardware requirements.
I tried my pump there but with guy clothes and a tubed pump it was just too problematic in too many ways. Great spot for a sensor though–no tubes! And a favorite spot for injecting when I was on MDI: no ouch!
Yes, xdrip is only for iPhone. Some great engineers developed it as a way for Android phone users to benefit from Dexcom G5 mobile version since Dexcom has yet to release an Android version! Yes, Nightscout has info on xdrip as it is integrated with it.
Well, it could just be me and I’m having a bad week. I also changed my omnipod pump at around the same time and that could be related to the erratic behavior of my BGs, and not the sensor!
One other thing to consider, too, is … it may not be your Dex.
Have you checked your glucose meter with control solution lately? Have you recently opened a new set of test strips? When you’ve gotten numbers that are way, way off have you done a second finger stick?
I just got a number that was way off from what has been normal for this sensor, which has been dead-on lately. My Dexcom was reading 108, finger stick came out at 128. I realized I had struggled to get blood from my fingertip. Not the very best blood sample. I took a second finger stick and it came out at 110, only 2 off from my Dexcom, much more in line with what I’ve been experiencing.
I always make sure to use my absolute best finger stick protocol when doing calibrations. I actually got a new meter at the same time as I got my Dexcom, and used the control solution to make sure that IT was working properly before using it to calibrate my Dexcom. I’ll probably use control solution either whenever I open a new vial of test strips, or at least when the vial comes from a new batch number.
In the past, I haven’t always been 100% about making sure to wash my hands before taking blood glucose measurements, and now if I’m going to do a calibration, I am. I don’t go the alcohol swab route, but I do want to make sure I don’t have any traces of food particles or lotions there to mess up something that’s already got a +/-20% variable. I try to make sure I don’t squeeze my finger as that can mean getting interstitial fluid as much as blood. I try to make sure I get a good sized blood drop instead of “just enough,” etc…
Obviously, if you’re getting a lot of bad readings, this probably wouldn’t explain all of them, but if you calibrated to one or two bad readings in the beginning of a sensor session, I don’t know how long it would take for it to correct.
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I was just talking about this with a Dexcom representative Wednesday evening. I had called about a different issue but since I am new to Dexcom they wanted to review a few things with me. One was that if my receiver shows a value of 80 or under that it will be within 20 points of BG value. If over 80 it should be within 20% of a BG value. If outside of this range then it could be a sensor or calibration issue.
That’s a new one on me but it makes sense. I squeeze like the dickens sometimes because I resent having to jab myself again when the first (or second or third!) time didn’t get any blood out. Guess I’ll have to reexamine the practice. I use a different finger every day, but some of 'em are more, er, forthcoming than others, particularly since a) I’m a guitarist and have a lot of callouses and b) after 32+ years of jabbing my fingers the non-guitar places start to have callouses of their own. Forefingers are the worst. And I’ve tried other spots–outside palm of my hand, inner arm–having read at some point that you can use those, but nothing really works like fingers.