I’m going on day 7 with my very first sensor and have had excellent results. Except when BG is rising or falling quickly, the #s are withing 10 points of each other. I did make the mistake of treating a high from Dex without confirming it with my Ping and overdosed. I had to eat my way out of that one. But, Dex alerted me to the impending low before i felt the symptoms and allowed me take action.
David,
I’m just a few days behind you. I’m now on day four of my first sensor for the 7+. It seems to be working very well. The numbers correlate well and I’ve only had a few ??? errors.
I too have had the temptation to eat or dose based on the 7+ reading only. Your description, “I had to eat my way out of that one,” made me laugh in recognition of the many times I’ve had to do that myself. What T1 diabetic hasn’t? It’s the lows you don’t know about that are the problem!
Did you restart your first sensor to push past 7 days or did you just insert a fresh one and begin again? I’m planning to try to extend past 7 days and see what happens.
For the first time I restarted a sensor last Thursday. I am still getting very accurate readings.
I let it count down all the way to the end then tried to restart it. I got the ??? message that lasted overnight. I just pulled it and started a new one the next morning. This second sensor hasn’t been as accurate as the first yet, but i understand it takes a day or two to really dial in. It’s still showing the trend information which is what i wanted it for anyway. Based on 10-days data, i lowered my afternoon basal as i was going low around 3-4pm, and upped my over night as i was going high around 3-4am. I also learned that Dex is abou 1/2 hour behind my meter. I love the software and the graphs and charts they give. Very cool!
same problem for the last weeks.call dexcom they sent me a new sensor for everyone that failure. call dexcom tonight the sensor failure after doing a blood calibrate.call technical support they said they had some bad sensor.
We have had the same problem. So far, Dexcom has sent us a new Receiver. Then tech support now just sent us a new transmitter. Dex tech support could tell the transmitter was flukey due to yellow vertical lines showing up on the screen. Aside from all this, however, Dexcom is experiencing technical problems with their sensors (according to Moms/Dads on CWD website). Instructions have been to try each sensor and Dexcom will replace any sensor that fails. And, I gather a lot of them are failing… Don’t think it’s right kids have to be guineau pigs for each and every sensor. So far, we have had lots of question marks, readings can be sporadically WAY off the 20 percent margin of error. I have restarted, after six hours of ??? and each sensor that I restarted did work. Stick with each sensor, restart it a couple of times before you pull it. That’s the only “fix” I know of so far. I know this system works from reading all the reports on line (lots of long time users). But they are experiencing problems with sensors dated 10/09 and now the new batches they sent out are failing a lot of people. I would restart each sensor at least twice before pulling. And I might ask Dexcom to replace boxes of sensors with new working ones (once they figure out what the problem is). We will wait out Dexcom in this house, because it is comfortable for my niece to wear (she has not complained about insertion or pain on wearing ONCE). I know they will get things up and running again. However, if I could not get most of the sensors to work after a couple of restarts, I might put Dexcom temporarily on hold until they fix the problem. Nobody likes inserting these devices over and over to no avail.
In almost 3 months, I have had two sensors that gave me ???.
The first one I was able to get to work after 2-3 hours. The second one, I called it in to Dexcom and they sent a replacement sensor.
Hi. My niece, who has a high pain tolerance and is a very good sport, tried the Minimed cgms a while ago (maybe then she did NOT have high pain tolerance) but… she hated it. She did not usually complain at insertion (we used EMLA) but after EMLA wore off she was sore. Now the first two or three times, no problem, but after that it was hit and miss. The last time she wore it Sis must have hit a nerve because she told her she had to pull it immediately and it hurt for quite some time after. Sis was waiting for Minimet to reduce the size of the introducer needle, but she may as well have been waiting for Godot. DN is a new Dexcom 7 Plus user and she does not even use EMLA for insertion. Says it does not hurt at all, before, during or after. The other great thing is you leave Dexcom on for seven whole days. Then you can leave it on, restart from the Receiver. We have always gotten 10 days out of her Dex sensors. Minimed’s procedure (where you have to restart some time in the middle of the third day of use) certainly does not fit into her lifestyle. She may be at school; after school activities; it is annoying. If you want to get more than six days out of a sensor, you have to go through this whole rig-a-ma-role; don’t have time for that. The only plus to the Minimed is that the sensors are only $35 vs. $75. In addition, the calibration procedure with the Minimed and all the rules as to when it is optimal to calibrate are ridiculous. Dexcom, you calibrate anywhere from 70 to 400 (you can calibrate lower than that but we don’t, and I would not calibrate as high as 400 unless she is frequently in that range).
Yes, I have read online that they are having problems with the 10/2009 sensors and even the new replacement sensors dated 1/10 have been conking out. Hang in there, we are. Because we think this is the best system so far.