That is a good idea, I’ll try leaving the receiver by his bed. Thanks, @Firenza
Just curious (we have the G5) but can you use both the phone AND the receiver? We have never even opened the box on the receiver and just use the iPhone. We keep the receiver as a backup in case something goes wrong. Might be cool to be able to use both.
I use both at night.
the receiver being smaller then my phone and holds a charge for a longer period, I put the receiver on the bedside table, 2-3 feet, and my phone is on a charger 10 feet away.
I haven’t gone to the G6 yet and from what I’m seeing here I’m not very eager to–after my 670G experience my enthusiasm for bleeding-edge tech has taken a hiatus. But as to Bt dropouts, that has been a bugaboo for me since forever, and I have found at least one useful tip. This may differ for other OS’s, but as far as IOS goes I’ve found that once the connection is dropped it is maddeningly stubborn about not wanting to connect again. I’ve found that it saves a lot of time and aggravation to go into my Bt preferences, select the Dexcom connection, and choose the option to forget this device. I then close and relaunch the app to make sure it reissues the pairing request, then accept the request when it pops up, usually in less than a minute. Took a little nerve to do it the first time (I don’t want to forget this device!) but in fact it seems quite robust about re-pairing, whereas re-connecting, not so much.
[Much longer explanation of Bt connectivity and frustrated rant about the increasing need for medical devices to have their own ultra-high-priority status written into the protocol redacted.]
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I use both routinely. I find my iPhone is much more prone to dropping the Bt connection, and I don’t think I’ve ever had dropouts on both devices simultaneously, so having both is good insurance. I don’t mind carrying the extra piece of hardware around, though I gather that’s an issue for some people.
I am glad to find this forum and that I am not the only user that cannot get the G6 sensor to last reliably for 10 days. While only on my third sensor, it seems that as they enter the last few days of the 10-day lifetime, they return “sensor errors” with increasing frequency. In my experience, day 8 seems to be a bright line. At first I thought that it was a night compression problem, but I am now experiencing errors during the day. I never had night compression problems with the G5. While the ease of G6 insertion is more that welcome, I am beginning to think that there is something that makes the new sensors “not ready for prime time”.
I also had an almost serious problem asking for hand inspection of my spare sensors while traveling through Heathrow Airport. The security matron demanded a letter from my doctor stating that the sensors couldn’t be x-rayed. Finally, after consulting the Dexcom website and going through 2 higher levels of supervisory inspectors, they relented and swabbed my spares. I had no problem with the TSA, but in London they were greatly concerned that they couldn’t see inside the insertion device.
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I’m so happy to have found this thread. I’m a Dex G6 user and a CDE, and I’m having zero problems with the G6 but I’m pulling my hair out over one of my patients’ experience. He is a 17 year old athlete, very lean, who had no problems with data gaps and sensor errors with the G5 but has not made it to ten days with any of his first 5 G6 sensors. False dropout low readings preceded and followed by numbers without arrows and then 30 minutes to 3 hours of data gap with sensor error and eventual sensor failure. I’m surprised he hasn’t set the whole thing of fire yet. He is very lean and so far has only found a few areas in the abdomen around the belly button that he can use. Abandoning CGM is not an option for him, he has fast, aggressive lows and also prolonged lows that last for hours, he needs CGM and it has to work. Does anyone have any ideas to maximize his options here? Dex has replaced each failed sensor and recently replaced the transmitter too. Open to any and all suggestions!
Been there… Our only solution because my son is also very lean, was to use G6 on the upper buttock. It is the only place we found a bit of fat, but we were very disappointed. His belly would work fine for 5-6 days; arms were not good at all.
We only used 2 sensors for 10 days, the rest of them either fell or gave us a sensor error.
My son is 15 and was very tired of the entire ordeal, we still have some G5 supplies and changed back about a week ago. Yes, we do miss the noncalibration feature, but we are back to our usual usage.
Dexcom replaced every sensor, but we ended up with G6 sensors we could not use because the transmitter died and we decided not to make the switch yet.
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I have used Dexcom CGMs for the last nine years, but not the G6. From actively reading user comments online, I think that the G6 does have some radio connection and sensor longevity issues that I’m sure Dexcom is working on behind the scenes.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that every medical device will work with every last person due to a myriad of factors difficult to analyze.
Since your patient is lean, I would try tilting the applicator up slightly so that the sensor needle will penetrate the tissue at a slightly shallower angle. I do this with my older G4 with good results. I looked in the G6 User Guide and it doesn’t mention what I suggest but these guides are often limited to one general description that will cover most people.
Perhaps your patient should fall back to the G5 since it performs well for him. While many claim that the G6 is superior to the G4/G5 system, I don’t think the difficulties your patient is facing is worth the trouble.
I use my G4 sensor data to inform an every-five-minutes automated insulin dosing decisions in my Loop system. It definitely is good enough. And the G4/G5 wearer is not required to enter calibration numbers every 12 hours. These notifications can be ignored and the accuracy is often reasonable.
Good luck with helping your patient. Please report back if you discover a good solution for him. You are smart to look to patient community for our experience. We live with diabetes all day, every day. Sometimes I think medical professionals do not appreciate the depth of what we know.
Thank you so much for your input, I’m looking into what it would take for him to go back to the G5. I’m also wondering if the algorithm for G6 is more sensitive due to the no calibration thing–I have a theory that if I have him go with the “no code” option if it will revert to the G5 algorithm instead. One of the Dex tech support people mentioned something along these lines. That would give him the lower profile that he likes and the easier insertion but with a more forgiving algorithm, even if he has to fingerstick once or twice a day.
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Thank you for your input, Terry! I had thought about rocking the inserter back a bit as well, I’ll check in with the Dex rep today when I see her about whether that’s an issue with this new inserter.
Patient community is my go-to for advice, I’m a patient first (T1D x 40 years) and I feel much more comfortable gleaning insights from fellow T1Ds than asking colleagues who don’t live this life every day. I agree with your assessment of medical professionals in general. A minimum starting point as far as I’m concerned for medical professionals to understand T1 is to spend a week at diabetes summer camp, full immersion. It doesn’t give them the full experience of living with this thing, but the shell-shocked look on their faces around day 2-3 tells me that it’s a good start! 
Thanks again for you input, I will post updates as we go along.
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This is happening to us too! Our son is 4-years-old. We’re on – I can’t even count at this point – sensor 7 or 8? We’re not even 2 months into our G6 usage at this point. They too claim it’s not a transmitter issue but same experiences at Mila.
None of the sensors have made it past 5 days except the very first one. Then they start dropping data within the first day or two, for periods of 1 to 3 hours. Finally, around day 5 or 6, they kick the bucket and Dexcom needs to send us a new one. And we’ve had two “replace sensor” errors that happened within the warmup period. What the heck is going on?
We’re running really low on sensors and there’s a backlog in orders so I am worried we’ll be completely out.
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Sorry to hear that!
I should have my G6 upgrade next week. I’m a very satisfied G5 user, but I’m concerned about the G6 based on these posts. Is anyone satisfied with the G6? I still have time to opt out.
I can’t believe how accurate it is. Whenever the alarms go off, I test. This I learned from the G4 when it could be 30 pts. off. But the G6 is usually only 2 or 3 pts. off. And it doesn’t need to be calibrated. I’ve only had mine a week and it’s great. The only problem I’ve found is the plastic case cover that comes with it was a little tight.
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Same for us, a lot of the time we will check the Verio One Touch and compare to the G6. Sometimes it is exactly the same number but most of the time it is no more than 10 points off. We are on our second sensor, first one lasted 10 days and I think today is day 9 or 10 of the current sensor. No issues at all. I don’t think we’ve done a finger prick all week. My daughter likes the applicator better as well because she can push the button herself.
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@Bridgesbunch and Steve46
Thanks for the input. I guess there is some hope I’ll have a good experience. The warranty on my G5 system ends tomorrow and Dexcom will ship me the G6 system next week. Wish me luck!
Jim
Thanks for posting. I just switched from the G5 to the G6 and am having the same issues where the sensor just stops working after six or seven days. I haven’t had a single sensor survive to 10 days.
One sensor died within the first few hours but typically, the sensors work great at first and then around day six I’ll see sensor errors which will last for one or more hours and then those sensor errors will become more frequent and then the sensor dies completely. The issue is unrelated to adhesion. The sensors are not falling off; they just stop working.
In contrast, I had zero issues with the G5. I am excited about what the G6 has to offer but in its present form it’s really disruptive to good control. I don’t see how I can keep using it unless the issues are resolved or I get enough sensors to use them as six-day sensors.
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Has anyone tried using a 670g pump and a Dexcom G5 or G6? Do you have to use the G6 now, or can you choose between the G5 and G6?
I have a Minimed 670g, and I am tired of feeling like a beta-tester with the sensors. I get 1 bad day warming up, 3-4 good days, and then 2-3 bad days until it fails or hits the 7th day (rare). I don’t use auto mode because I don’t have a “normal” for it to adjust to. Last week, I felt funny when my CGM said that my BG was about 150, so I checked and my meter said 304. That was on day 5 of the sensor. It had been calibrated only about 3 hours earlier, so I said the heck with that, and changed it. Medtronic will replace it, as it had been getting worse over the previous day. But I’m sick of it, and I’m sick of having to talk every few weeks to Tech Support (very nice people, but it’s gotten really old).
My CDE says that I can change CGM systems if I want after the transmitter warranty has expired (soon). Any feedback on using a G6 (or G5) with a 670g?
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We’ve been on the G6 for 30 days and have had no problems until Saturday. Our first 3 sensors lasted 10 days each. It was time for a new one Saturday and after putting it on our daughter the warm-up failed 30 minutes into warm up. We tried it again and it failed again within 30 minutes. So I called Dexcom and of course was on hold for a while. In the meantime we tried it again and this time it said “Transmitter battery critical low!”. When the tech got to my call they informed me this is why it failed. Luckily we still have a good G5 transmitter and 2 sensors left (well ONE now since we used one Saturday). So they are sending us a new G6 Transmitter but they are on back order (surprise!). I told them to send a new sensor as well since we were having to remove this new one and replace with a G5 sensor.
So hopefully sometime in the next 10 days or so our G6 transmitter will be here. Will have to send them the one that failed so they can study it and see what happened. But I’m surprised they only sent one with our initial order, when we got the G5 they sent us 3 transmitters, luckily we have spares but only one sensor left (G5).
Now that we are back to the G5 we already miss the G6 because of the inaccuracy of the G5 compared to G6 but it’s better than nothing.