Our Dexcom G6 experiences

I had no idea that I’m a “Sugar Surfer”. I just looked up the meaning and that would include my approach. Interesting term.

1 Like

That’s what I do - it works really well for me! … (and with emphasis on the M in MDI)

1 Like

I never use the G6 receiver. It is turned off in a drawer at home. Basically for emergency purposes only.
I use the X2 pump with Basal-IQ (Working AWESOME btw!! )
And I have xdrip running on my phone.
Btw, today was the first day I let xdrip automatically restart the sensor. It did it early this morning, and my X2 never showed a missed reading! The preemptive restart is great!
Of course I have the dexcom tape over it to hold it on long enough to go past day 7. I still don’t like the adhesive on the G6.

XDrip (aka, Spike) also lets you skip the initial warm up period with a new sensor. You just manually set the start time 2hrs early from when you actually inserted it. Though it’s probably a good idea to view the first 2 hours’ worth of results with some skepticism.

I still view the first 12 hours with skepticism.
Honestly, I kind of thing the G5 was a little better for the first day for me than the G6 has been.
But I have only been on the G6 since December 1st. So not a long enough test to be a good comparison.

Same. I would never do a nighttime bolus from the G6 cgm in the first 12 hours.

After the initial 12 hours, the G6 really works awesome for us. It does not generally make it to the full 10 days but for how long it does work (usually 8 or 9 days) it is really really good.

1 Like

I agree about your G5 vs G6 point. On the whole G6 is way more accurate, for me anyway, but more wobbly over that first day.

If I start a sensor at night, I will ALWAYS have false lows. And I mean very false!
I don’t like seeing a 40 low, or LOW, then finger stick to see 90 ish range.
My daytime results for the first 12 hours are more stable.
Go figure. I would think my night time would be a more stable time. But that isn’t how it works for me.

I have had some make it 10 days.
I had a few only last 5 days.
Most make it around 7 days, then I have to get involved with tape, etc.
My current sensor is on day 11. I have the dexcom patch, plus some tape.

Poor results in the first 24 hours pushed me to the point I was going to downgrade to G5. But thanks to a post from @Dave44 and @lumi73, I ‘presoaked’ the sensor for 24 hours before starting the session. I’ve only done this twice, but the difference is night and day. The numbers and accuracy are stable immediately and I’m not constantly second guessing G6 and using multiple finger sticks. It makes sense. Dexcom patents say the calibration curve is changing quickly in the first 48 hours and then stabilizes to a small constant change. The presoak avoids some or all of this.

I’m now reasonably happy with the G6 and probably will continue using it. I still have more problems with compression lows than with the G5 (virtualy never had them). I’m also not getting the type of accuracy others are reporting, but my G6 numbers are better than G5 and close enough for my purposes. Thanks to techniques I’ve learned at this forum, I’m now able to extend the sensor sessions and transmitter life, eliminating two things about G6 that disappointed me.

2 Likes

I presoaked my last sensor, and I didn’t see much of a difference.

Mine seem to be fairly accurate in about 4 hours, it does vary though, either with each sensor or the placement. ( I put them on my arm) I extend them as I appreciate the more accurate ones and why switch them out if they are working good?. I had one that was all over the place but it wasn’t within the 30% so they didn’t want to replace it, except that it also froze up. The next one fell off immediately even though I used Skin Tac, I think I used too much and it hadn’t dried enough yet. They did replace that one too.

My personal purpose for presoaking is to eliminate the hours of false lows, alarms, rejected calibrations, and temporary sensor errors. I don’t otherwise have issues with accuracy or performance for the remaining 9 days of the sensor.

Just want to mention that the last Dexcom tech support I spoke to regarding a weird error that I got this past time I swapped the sensor (it was replaced) said to wait at least 15 minutes between a session ending and starting a new one. Preferably with the bluetooth turned off on the phone.

I presoaked my G6 sensor yesterday. I will have to say that I had a MUCH better time of it!
I am hesitant to presoak when I already have issues with adhesion.
I did the skintac on the skin, let it get tacky, put on the new sensor, then did the dexcom tape/patch over all that. I wanted to start it off this way to see how it worked for me.
So for it looks good. But I will see what it looks like after a week or so.

Good that it worked for you. I’m lucky that I don’t have adhesion issues. Have you tried an overpatch like a Simpatch? I ordered some when I first got my Dex just in case but I’ve only had to use it once which I chalk up to being on vacation and enjoying the pool daily :slight_smile:

@Hammer
G6 vs G5 obviously not trivial to pop an old transmitter on and off the G6.
How did you handle that for the G6?

it looks quite easily actually. use a contour next strip to pop first one side, then the other of the xmitter. I watched a video of that being done and does look quite trivial, actually. Just a few seconds to pop it off.

I’m glad there are “trailblazers” who’ve posted so much useful info about the G6 that by the time I get switched over from the 5 to the 6, I’ll know all the tricks!

@Dave44 - Can you post the video link? I will give it a try.

I will search for it. back in a bit.

I didn’t use anything, I just left the sensor open with nothing in it.

5 Likes