I’ve been presoaking my sensor. I worry that I damage it during the process. I have a transmitter that has expired. Can I use it to cover the sensor that is in soaking so that when I shower water doesn’t get to the sensor probes? While the sensor has expired, it’s probably still got some juice in it, will that impact the new sensor?
You can do that, if you wish but really not necessary. I take very hot showers for 20 minutes each morning including a soaking sensor with nothing protecting it. After my shower, I use the hairdryer to mostly dry the patch that holds the sensor. I have been doing this for years now including both G5 and G6 sensors. Juice in the old sensor does not matter as the transmitter SN numbers/letters are different. When converting from the G5 to the G6 I used both for a while and got the reading from the G6 transmitter on the G6 Receiver and the reading of the G5 transmitter on the G5 receiver. When I uploaded to Dexcom Clarity, it was really cool because it graphed both on the same graph and it was interesting to see when both readings were the same and when both readings were apart, how far apart and how each compared to a finger stick.
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Thanks that’s good to know it doesn’t need to be protected. I remember reading somewhere saying not to get the sensor prongs wet.
Can you quantify how much difference you saw between G5 and G6?
… and which one was closer to the BG readings?
I presoak my new sensor 20 to 24 hours before I use it. I always cover it with the old transmitter, which I marked with “OLD” so I don’t confuse it with the active transmitter.
I insert the new sensor on Friday mornings after shower and I start 2 hour warm up on Saturday mornings between 6 and 9 am. A routine that helps me stay connected with CGM 99% of the time. To avoid the transmitter latch on the new sensor from breaking off during 24 hour soak, I use a small Band-Aid. The sensor soaking process is very helpful to get smooth BG trace line and avoid unreliable readings on the 1st day.
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Unfortunately, Clarity reports do not go back that far so I am working from memory. The first G6 sensor, I did not presoak and was close, or sometimes higher for less than 1 hour by about 20 points. The second sensor I also did not presoak and it was off by up to 70+ points on the high side but within 24 hours they came together again within 20 points or so. Multiple tests were showing that presoak really did not make any difference except in the first 12-24 hours so I stopped presoak. I, do however, presoak now again but not for the sake of accuracy. My new transmitter time is now in the middle of the day and not convenient to apply while at the office, so I apply the night before, shower in the morning and then just remove the sensor and transmitter when it expires and apply the transmitter to the new sensor in the middle of the day.
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I like to presoak for about 18 hours and use an old transmitter to shield the sensor pads. The sensor pads are connected directly to the sensor wire and some people have reported this wire breaking off below the skin surface.
The two pads hinge near the center of the holder and I worry if it’s unprotected by a transmitter, then it exposes the two pads to getting snagged on an errant piece of clothing while getting dressed and possibly snapping them off while also separating them from the sensor wire that’s below your skin surface.
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