So Excited - G6 Restarted

On day 10 of my first ever G6, I anxiously did the a restart. I guess there wouldn’t really have been a problem if it didn’t work. But, it worked!

Now I’ll have less of a fight or problem with US Healthlink refusing to do 90-day supplies (claims they wouldn’t get reimbursed from Medicare if I were to be in the hospital or hospice during that time).

The question is, when/how do you decide when to stop re-starting?

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I generally find if I can get a second session out of a sensor (i.e., 20 days) I’m good. For one thing, they lose adhesion and keeping 'em stuck on gets awkward and ugly. Plus for me the accuracy starts to tail off around then. But mainly I do it for a similar reason to you, though I’m not on Medicare and I do get the 90 day supply on my insurance: it’s useful to have an extra sensor or two in reserve when it’s getting to be time to reorder because sh** happens. So I don’t really need to do it more than once, though sometimes I’ll do one if it’s an inconvenient time to do a replacement, or I don’t want to deal with the initial flaky readings you get at the start of a genuine new session.

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What are you using as a receiver? I don’t use Dexcom app nor receiver, so I can’t help with those… But on the t:slim X2, the home screen will read “- - -” where the number should be. That means the pump is receiving bad data that it can’t process. Also, I can see the raw cgm data on my phone with xdrip+. Good sensors show fairly smooth raw data points very close to the smoothed out graph lines, whereas a bad sensor will show a crazy scatter plot of raw data all over the place. Even the adjusted graph line will look jagged with rapid ups and downs, instead of the typical smooth, rounded hills and valleys.

I normally change mine at 14 days, so I can start my presoak on Saturday night, swap the transmitter on Sunday morning when I BG is nice and stable, and rinse/repeat.
If it was more stable like the G5 was for the first day, I wouldn’t mind starting new ones in the middle of the week. But even with the presoak, I like to have a non-work day for my first day on a new sensor.

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Btw, I have ran mine for 20 to 24 days so far. 14 days just works best for me.

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Makes sense. On this first one, I used a little SkinTac (with the applicator, not wipes), and tried a SimPatch. All is holding well, but that much probably won’t be needed. I just had bad experiences with the Libre - not its fault, I wore them on my triceps and often knocked them off on door frames, even with SkinTac.

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I’m on an iPhone, so I’m using Sugarmate and the Dexcom app, so I guess I’ll just be on the lookout for suspicious data.

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With just one sensor under my belt, so to speak, I haven’t yet seen any instability to need the presoak that others do, but you never know.

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I generally have mine on about 26 days, they start to go around that time the most for me. Usually the first thing that happens is I lose connection a couple of times and that’s the sign it’s going. But sometimes they just start going with irregular readings. I’ve had them last up to 36 days working well though and as little as 14 days.

I use Skin Tac when I first apply it and a Q tip with more Skin Tac under the edges to keep down the adhesive that starts to come up. That has worked well without it becoming the mess it used to.

I really love restarts, they usually are more reliable and just plain easier for me. The newer sensor is more erratic for longer and needs more calibrations. I have to test it more over the first few days to see what it’s doing etc. I also love the stockpile I have now as back ups.

For some reason it really varies person to person how long they seem to stay working well.

Oh yeah, I guess I should do a calibration test :open_mouth:

Also, forgot to mention, this is an 8G transmitter.

Thanks

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How are you all restarting a sensor? Please advise

please share how to restart the new G6 sensors, would love to know…

The easiest way and it seems to be working for most of us. And on all sorts of coded transmitters

For G6

  1. Let the sensor expire or stop sensor
  2. Take the transmitter out using contour test strips or something else thin
  3. Wait 30 minutes (longer is okay)
  4. Pop transmitter back in
  5. And start the “new” restart sensor with your sensor code.

If you are using a Dexcom reader with the phone, I’ve read where they have said restart it on the reader first. Once it’s restarted, my phone just picks up the information from the transmitter. I don’t know if you have to do this, I just always have so far.

G6 sensor restarts with 8G

Here is a video that shows removing transmitter

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I never remove the transmitter or wait 30 minutes for a restart.

I typically stop the sensor using the receiver. Then restart the sensor with NO CODE. I then wait for the receiver to have a chat with the transmitter (up to 5.1 minutes). I then stop the sensor again, and then restart it with the correct code.

One variation of this I have been trying lately is to use no code all the time. Basically, it then works more like the G5. My initial observation on this approach is that it tends to be more accurate and last longer after a restart. However, I do NOT yet have enough experience with this approach to make any confident conclusions – just an anecdotal observation that may be erroneous.

@T1D40yr What does your transmitter number start with? 80, 81, 8G, 8H or? I’m curious as that is the easy way a lot of us used on the older transmitters, but it hadn’t been working on the newer ones. That way worked on 80 and some 81’s but not on all the 8G’s or 8H’s. Dexcom has been trying to stop the loopholes of restarting.

I just finished my first 10 days with the G6. My transmitter is 8J. I found it extremely accurate and got the full 10 days out of it. I still finger stick twice a day.
At the end of the 10 days I decided to try to restart. Not sure if it was beginner’s luck, but it was very easy to pop the transmitter out. I did the restart because I have been having problems with Dexcom sending my monthly order in a timely fashion and want to build a small stock of sensors.
I am only 24hrs into the restart but the numbers so far as not as accurate, 94 sensor 64 meter. I hope to get another 9 days out of it.

You have to remove the xmitter if using newer versions. My wife just did her first restart yesterday of her 81 xmitter with code. (my first xmitter is 8H). At the end of 2 hours her sensor showed 343 but she was actually under 200. She did one calibration upon seeing the discrepancy. Within 6 hours it became accurate and this morning it continues to be within just a few points of finger sticks. We need to do a few restarts to build up a stash!

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Previously 80, and now 81. Next transmitters I’ll use/try will be 8H & 8J.

Tim

(Please excuse the brevity; sent from phone.)

I have smartphone software that will let me read the sensor without waiting for a warm up after a restart. My BG readings jump up 50% the moment after a restart, but falls exponentially back down closer to accurate for the next day. A calibration helps, but gets closer faster if I use no code.

xDrip, correct? I’ve used xDrip for over 2 years. My wife and I use the follow function so that on our phones we see both of our numbers. Two widgets on our homescreens make it super-convenient to glance at the other’s numbers.

I forgot to mention: we can do that because we have TWO copies of xDrip on our phones thanks to the awesomeness of an app called App Cloner by Apilitto (sp?).

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