The challenge with perceptions, is that they are not yet reality: they’re just a feeling. And we should all know: don’t ALWAYS trust your feelings.
Removed 1st sensor last night after 14days of service. That aggravating itching, stinging, irratating sensation when your infusion set has been over-extended beyond the recommended 3,4,5 days of service… ‘THAT’ feeling!
A red patch of skin, a red line, running vertical, and visible through the adhesive from the sensor site ( blood poisoning?).
I could the hear a modified version of Washington B. Hogwallop ( “Oh Brother where are thou” ) proclaim to me: “…y’all installed that sensoar 14days a’go… …I’m afraid she’s startin’ t’turn!!!..”.
( O Brother Where Art Thou- I slaughtered this horse last tuesday - YouTube )
(( No disrespect to any horse lovers; the '30s were a brutal time.)).
Frequent loss of signal hits, although BG numbers seemed to be tracking, removed the sensor, and irritation relieve: tiny little wound, no redness, no swelling, no discharge, no red blood poisoning lines: new hair growth, really all good!
Sorry that I didn’t extend it to 21 or more days of service.
Experience is a wonderful teacher.
-Peace.
Iam just wondering why do people extend or try to extend the 10 day limit on there sensors g6. I have had no issues with the 10 day use. I have been using the g6 for a little more than a year now. Please nobody take offense at this question just curious that’s all.
@Al115 Two reasons for this:
1/ Those on insurance only receive 3 sensors per month. If one or more are defective, you may run short before you receive a replaced sensor from Dexcom.
2/ Some people have no insurance and extending sensors makes financial sense (they’re $87 each in Canada).
@Al115,… it is a good question. I had a tangent question about extending the recommended 10day metric of the product. It violates my sense of design imposed right & wrong: don’t reuse a hyperdermic needle; strive not to drive in winter snow with summer tires, or winter tires with tread depth less than (7/32".)…!
If design says 10days, a 3day improvement over G4 7days… .OK!
However, if it “can” move beyond the 10day limit, then…
For me: extending sensor live is motivated purely by cost efficiencies.
It is my 1st experience with a CGM product. I can’t get over how it has afforded me tighter control, I wouldn’t want to go NONE-CGM control again. Tragically, without an insurance coverage, it is purely the co$t factor.
@VJ454, If you are going to try to wear a sensor for more than 10 days, keep the following in mind.
- if you develop a ‘serious’ infected sensor site and your insurance learns you used a medical device off label, you may find yourself with the entire bill - NO COVERAGE.
- you must perform site prep as a surgical procedure and seal the area to prevent any infectious agents (bacteria, yeast, etc) from entering your meticulously prepared area.
- Dexcom is improving the sensor coating on the G6 so the amount of reagent on the sensor wire is effectively being reduced so after 11-13 days, the amount present may start giving inaccurate readings without warning leading the “off label” user to believe the CGM data while it is in fact bogus.
Hope this helps. Please share what you pull from all of your searching.
I use antibacterial soap and a wash cloth. Then I rinse with water. I don’t use alcohol because it dries out my skin.
I never get infections but then again I only keep the. For 10 days.
I did restart one time just to se if I could and it lasted a total of 16 days. The site was a little irritated but nothing that worried me
If your sites are infected, I suggest you take it out as soon as you see it, and consider more cleaning before insertion.
Sometimes allergies look like infections but are just allergies. It’s hard to tell the difference
I just wipe the area first with alcohol.
I restart my sensors purely out of the fact I like them better as time goes on. (Until they fail.) They don’t cost me anything. A restarted sensor doesn’t take as many calibrations as a new sensor does. Calibrate a restarted sensor 2 or 3 times and I can get it within 5 points of accuracy. I can also trust it’s accuracy after that first day more.
A new sensor takes a lot more calibrations for a few days to get it to be as accurate. Generally a sensor lasts me about 26 days.
I usually go about 15-20 days on a G6, mostly because at first I wanted to build up a supply just in case. I now have a 7 month supply. I don’t find the 2nd round of 10 days to be any less accurate.