I have been having some issue with my sensor while I am asleep. Most of the time it goes out of range, or I get the 3 sets of ??? . the dexcom is usually right next to the sensor. Anyone have this issue ever?
??? wait up to 3 hours for it to recalibrate itself, this works most the time for me
Black=no communication: this always happens when I connect to my computer to load the readings.
both of these happen sometimes during the night on my Dexcom 7 Plus, I think it happens when I toss and turn and lay on my sensor while sleeping.
I have experienced out-of-range issues at night, yet I keep the receiver on my nightstand. I also find that the ??? seems to happen more frequently at night as well.
I would chalk these up to technological limitations rather than user error.
Get out of here!!! We’ve only been using it for a few weeks. We have had this problem since the very beginning. Our first sensor was bad (combination of ??? or out of range all night) for three nights and we took it off. The second one was bad for two nights and then the receiver went bust. Then the next sensor was bad for 4 nights and then ok (not perfect but at least we had some readings) for the next 7. We just started our fourth and the first night was nothing but ???. Last night was the second night and it came to life about 2am although didn’t have complete accuracy. That is a vast improvement from 4 nights of nothing but ???.
It works perfectly during the day though. It’s like Caleb goes to sleep and so does DexCom. Anyone I asked seemed to think I was absolutely crazy. Although I’m sorry to hear you are having this problem, I’m glad to know we aren’t the only one. Tech support has not been able to provide any guidance.
Hoping someone here can.
this annoys me because the big reason I have this is to catch an overnight low!!! And then I woke up this morning at 250 (felt kind of crappy also) I went to bed at 98,wonder how long I was over 200, because my dex had no readings for at least 6 hours!!!
Concur 100%
I just toss the received into bed with me. When i roll over it just floats around and magically ends up in the right place. The body is full of water and if you place it between the transmitter and your receiver, a lot of the signal is absorbed. That’s what my Dexcom trainer recommended. I’ve not had aa ??? or out of range reading since i started sleeping with it. I keep an old cell phone case on the night stand and slip dex into it when i get up, pinned to my sleeping shorts.
I notice 2 distinct issues:
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The 7+ definitely has the best range when there is line-of-sight between transmitter and receiver. Currently I wear my sensor on my LEFT love handle straight down from under the arm pit. I noticed some missing data points during the day when I had the receiver in my RIGHT pocket. I solved the problem by moving the receiver to my LEFT pocket. At night I keep the receiver on my night stand. When I turn so that my body is between the transmitter and receiver I lose connection. I toss and turn enough so that I am not out-of-range for hours. If I wake up during the night and the receiver has no readout I turn towards the receiver and within 5 minutes I get a reading. I don’t wait out the 5 minutes because the 7+ will alarm me if I am outside my defined bg range. The data points that I see make sense. For example, if the trend is downwards and a few data points are missing the next data point will be lower.
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Readouts change when physical pressure is applied to the sensor. I read about this on CWD and my observations seem to validate the theory. When this happens the readout looks very erratic. Steady for a while and then a drastic change followed by no data points. With my sensor attached to my side I know that I exert pressure. The line looks like pieces from different graphs that don’t belong together. Going forward I will chose spots that I don’t lie on.
I’ve been getting those missing points too during the night. I’ve been trying to figure out the “spots that I don’t lie on,” both for comfort and to keep the sensor unsquished. Can’t quite figure out where those are! I’m thinking about trying the bottom of the thoracic level, below my back ribs, at the point where my side turns into my back (if that makes any sense). Seems like the lumbar curve might keep the sensor out of trouble.
it happened again last night! This is really getting me mad, because I have been having some issues with my morning BG’s. Last night I went to bed 102 and woke up 237 with large ketones!!! It has been a crappy day today because of it. I am now thankfully 94 with no ketones (they went away pretty quickly, kind of suprised they were large). I called tech support and of course they had no solution for me!!!
We’ve actually had a couple of good nights since I have been tucking the receiver under Caleb’s pillow or on the bed somewhere. It’s probably unrelated, but I’m not about to change it.
It’s been working great with it in the bed!!
Oh my gosh! Are you serious? Could it just be THAT easy??? Perhaps it being on the hard surface of the nightstand like we had it interferes somehow??? How does DexCom NOT KNOW THIS??? I need to create a pillow or something for Caleb because I keep having to swim around for it in the middle of the night. I tucked in into a teddy bear’s collar last night - that worked well! 
Guess it’s not thattttt easy… Missed about 4 hours last night… Seems like the nights where I am stable I don’t miss and the nights I shoot up to 190-200 I miss… Wonder if the sparatic bg changes are affecting it??
Aw…bummer. I’m sure that has something to do with it, but golly, this is the reason why we’re using it, right? Fingers crossed for more good nights :).
Oh, yes, very frustrating. Almost always because she is lying on the sensor. I roll her over and will then be able to get readings in about five minutes. But she can and does roll back… I think changing the location of the sensor will probably work. For instance if you lie on your back, you could put Dex on abdomen. I am thinking the back of the arms would also be a good spot.
I put mine on my night stand or on the window sill (I have blinds that are metal, thought it might get a better signal). Every once in a while get a few missing readings in a row but nothing major and never get the ??? Haven’t noticed which nights (window or stand) that I get a few missed readings. I always wear the sensor on my stomach to.