Same with me William, I too have the inseter resting lightly on the site and keep it 4-5" from my infusion site.
So I’m not alone with the sensor being off the first 12 and sometimes 24 hours. Thank goodness for sticks and meters though!
Are you presoaking? I insert the sensor 12-24 hours before end of the current session then move the transmitter to the new sensor. That all be eliminates the ridiculous performance I get on day 1 and 2 without it.
I calibrate at startup and 1-2 hours later as the initial readings are always higher than a finger stick. But after that it’s smooth sailing.
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My short answer is YES! Sometimes Day-1 is totally erratic and can drive me crazy at night. Second day is usually fine. The last day or two, it shuts down erratically for between a few minutes to a few hours. It does that almost every time. Cant figure that out.
Very recently I moved the sensor to the other side of my body and began to be out of range to my pump! It’s only about 10" away but contact seems to be lost. It needs to be on the same side of the body (so far) from the transmitter. Then I lose contact. If I move the pump to the other side it is fine! Perhaps my transmitter needs to be replaced.
I am not totally thrilled with the X2. Oh well, I am old and they probably want to kill me! (Kidding … sort of.)
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Yes, Paytone I have tried presoaking once for 3 hours and once for 10. It doesn’t seem to matter. One of my diabetes consultants seemed to feel I had a very overactive immune system and recommended putting flonase on the skin for 15 minutes let it soak in, wash the area and then insert the sensor. We’ll see. Haven’t tried that yet.
LOL….I like your sense of humor Jeff. I too am old well let’s say older and I’m not absolutely crazy about this pump either, but that could be because I have a very involved husband watching over every move the pump, CGM make. I’ve noticed the same things you have ie the pump has to be on the same side of my body as the CGM or I get a message on the pump that it’s lost it’s signal. Are you on Control IQ with the pump? I am not yet on that. Will look into it but for now the basal is enough for me.
I think that sensor accuracy on startup and “out of range” are two different issues. Your sensor/transmitter communicate to your pump or receiver using Bluetooth “radio” waves. Bluetooth (and most radio waves) do not transmit well through water at all well … and our bodies are mostly water. So, if you have your sensor on you abdomen and put your pump/receiver in your back pocket, it will fail frequently because the radio signal is almost completely blocked by your body. If, on the other hand, you have the sensor on the left-front portion of your abdomen, for example, and carry your pump in your right front pocket, they can “see” each other reasonably … particularly as you move around.
Who knew you had to be a radio engineer to be a T1D?
I have my sensor on the back inside of either my left or right arm and my pump is usually on my belt just to the right of my belly button. I rarely have signal loss … even though that probably isn’t the perfect “line of sight” unobstructed View.
Stay safe!
John
HI John, I don’t really have any trouble being out of range on the pump. I wear my
infusion set on one side of my abdomen and the CGM 4" away from the infusion set on the other side. The only time I lose contact is if my pump is facing the wrong way in my front pocket.
My problem is sensor accuracy when inserting a new sensor. I talked to my endocrinologist who told me to ‘soak’ the sensor for 12 hours. That should give me better accuracy the first 24 hours. We’ll see!
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Thanks! I wasn’t aware of the soaking thing.
So far, I am a Basal guy. If I get this right, I may switch to IQ at some point. The X2 is new for me and I haven’t been thrilled with the overall quality of the device. When I was using the G6 alone, I didn’t have this range problem. It was good at 10 ft. I think they put too much in the packager and had to make compromises.
By the way, I am not 99% water. I am 98% sand!
Jeff
Actually I’ve found that after calibrating after sensor start that only need one father Cal. to stay inrange .
But other hand calibrate more frequently so the G6 stays close to my glucometer
Yea I get it Jeff. The learning curve. I think I’m over the top of the curve but coming down slowly, haha. I understand Control IQ is NOT hands off though in any way so I’m debating, do I want to go through another curve. May be too soon for me to decide yet. I’m doing so well on Basal I hate to jeopardize it and switch to Control and find out I don’t like it. Once you switch that’s it, no going back to just the Basal.
I also understand Medtronic is coming out next year with a much easier Loop pump.
I read a blog from a person in Australia. It is National Diabetic Week in Australia and he posted this video. Here’s what goes through the mind of a diabetic! So true don’t you agree?
Can you explain what you mean ?
I just started X2 with C-IQ, and don’t notice any extra work. But i never started with just B-IQ.
With the T:connect app on phone, its easy to see where basal was changed by IQ.
Wow, an endo that knows about soaking!!
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I am prompted to calibrate twice upon the completion of the 2 hour warm up period, and roughly once every day-day and a half. I keep seeing posts about people saying zero fingersticks and no calibrations?!? My app and pump MAKE me and there’s no clearing the alert. I’ve been on the G6 and using the Dexcom app both for almost a year now and have always had to do the calibrations. Not sure how others don’t have any or close to none? I also have a wonky first couple of days, but still haven’t figured why. I’ve used the back of both upper arms and my stomach and they all do the same.
When you start the sensor, do you enter the 4 digit code ? It is on the paper you peel off the sensor, and should be prompted for it during startup, unless you reply no code.
,
Yep, code every time and can never use the same code twice in a row. When I get my shipments I order the codes and label them 1-9 so I know which order to use them in.
Are you using Tandem X2 and dexcom app ?
Tandem documentation on start G6 with code.
https://support.tandemdiabetes.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038798334-How-do-I-start-and-stop-a-Dexcom-G6-CGM-sensor-session-
I changed my sensor last night. After warmup, it was pretty close to the finer stick so no calibration. An hour later Dexcom issued alarm for urgent low, BG of 41. Finger stick showed 80. I decided NOT to calibrate hoping that it would resolve on its own. Nope. It continued all night. Morning finger stick (approx 8 hours later) was 80, Dex showed sub 39, LOW. I finally calibrated for the first time. Dex accepted it and now seems to be issuing readings closer to the finger sticks. Of course, 1/3 of my day is now out of range with fake LOWs! 
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Sami, I don’t know if I found the answer to my original post on the CGM but it was time to put in a new sensor so I soaked the new one in my abdomen for 13 hours before I took the old sensor off and switched the transmitter to the new sensor. It appeared to work. Instead of 24 hours getting readings that were way off it was only a couple hours, did a couple calculations and it’s working great now!
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Sami,
Ahhh, not calculations CALIBRATIONS!