Getting frustrated with Dexcom... any insights to share?

[ecs1516]

Originally Posted by Jaedima

Hmm, just thinking about the back-of-the-arm site some more-- if we put a sensor there and we also need to put the Omnipod there, some of the time we'll have two devices on the same arm. Dexcom recommends putting the sensor >3in away from a pump site. How do you manage this with small kids?

We are on pumps and the sites go on the bum area. We only use backs of arms for CGMs

[BaltoMom]

We just got the Dex this week and so are still in our first placement (on the bum). Our rep didn't have good recommendations for alternate sites and I'm not sure I want to go with abdomen just yet on his skinny self. When you do an arm site for Dex, does it go in horizontally like they recommend for abdomen or does it go vertically?
And though it wasn't my question, thanks for the instructions on how to get more life out of a sensor. That was my other question that I knew I wouldn't get an answer out of with the rep.
To the OP, we put EMLA on before we did the sensor insertion and found that our son didn't even notice - even though he'd been a bit drama llama before that because it was new. The ipod distraction helped, too.

[LantusFiend]

Originally Posted by BaltoMom

When you do an arm site for Dex, does it go in horizontally like they recommend for abdomen or does it go vertically?

Vertically.
Or sometimes I've done 'em at a bit of an angle.

[jims]

I have found gut useless and inaccurate.

Try thight/ arms etc.

[jims]

I always use arms with best results.
other issue is to always clean back of transmitter when new sensor to ensure no grease/contaniments on the sensor contacts ob back of sensor . use isopropyl alcohol and pad.

[jims]

one of the more frustrating issues i have tangled with is interference from other rf sources, baby alarms etc causing rf link to disconnect/misbehave.

The easiest way to check this is get out of ones environment - 100 feet and see if unit goes back to working.

my condo at home which is a 6 unit townhouse is the worst. In my car, driving around and being all over la and up highway 395 behind sierra mountains I have had the best, stable operation without incident regularly.

[Jaredsmom]

Jared's pods have always gone on his belly any he's a pretty skinny kid. His Dexcom sensors go on his arms and we restart them until they no longer give good numbers.

[jims]

while loading this post; I was signed off on behind my back.\

This story gets more curious, the more I delve into.

I was finding in last months, that the appearance that my sensors were dropping out due to failing exactly 7 days - mostly ??? !

the more I checked , I found that no, sensors were still functioning correctly as long as I got out of my condo a 100 feet and found receiver would recover after about 30 minutes and then accurate readings would come back on . As long as I stayed out of my condo, receiver and old sensor started working fine again.

I also found that while in my condo when the fun errupted - readings dropped to 100 at speeds that body cannot do, if I walked out of condo, and got away from my condo, I would see the following:

a) receiver would go to ???. Antenna status would disconnect and then reconnect.

b) While out of condo, I would cause a disconnect of receiver and then let it recover and stayed away till back up.

c) amazingly now 3 weeks later and multi-times , I have repeated this nonsense and recovered the sensor/receiver pair and got accurate readings.

d) after recovery, during this interval of interference in my condo, as long as I kept my receiver in my car trunk/ refrigerator and took out when I left my condo, there was no problems with it on old timed out sensor(restarted)

I find this all very unacceptable, intolerable.

My sense is that:

Some interfering RF signal close by in my unit was emitting sufficient power to override my sensor/transmitter pair.

Some how my receiver was loading incorrect erroneous data causing drop to 100. I would see the antenna staus on receiver suddenly disconnect for no known reason and if I walked outside away from unit, it would re-connect properly and run.

When I walked out of my condo and got far enough away from interferor, my receiver would see valid restored reading of my transmitter that was way different from previous garbage loaded in my condo and declared the sensor bad ???.

Staying out of range of interferor, allowed the receiver to recover and then go back and display correct data. ( About 1/2 hour.)

Is this acceptable - no!

One thing driving me nuts is why this crap goes on in my 6 unit condo site while in fact out of here, performance is actually fine for a rf linked device, outside up by condo lot swimming pool, in car, driving around, in the mountains around here near the beach.

I have even walked around my 6 set townhouse-condo building with an excellent rf field meter set and find that looking out from our building set, I see little and mostly quiet, but looking into our building set I see high energy leakage that shouldn't be there.

The other curiosity was that if I caughht a fast drop just as it started by walking out, receiver sensor pair would immediatly recover back to path it had been on and continue fine with no ??? . I would also see an antenna status change although receiver had been within 2 feet.

I do not know how the rest of you good folks cope with this kind of grief?

[Jaedima]

Thanks again to everyone for your helpful input. Here's a brief update on what we ended up doing:

We managed to meet with a Dexcom rep who watched our technique and confirmed that we were doing everything correctly. After having that sensor fail also and not having any confirmation that the receiver was really working, we decided to run a test of all the equipment by inserting a new sensor on me (plenty of subcutaneous fat on me, ha!). That sensor lasted a little over a week, so that gave us the info we needed (and gave me a lot more info on how my own eating habits affect my BG-- really helped me become very attentive to dietary changes). Now that we knew that the equipment was working fine, and that the problems were very likely due to DS's skinniness, we decided to take a break from the CGM for a while.

We've just now (a few days ago) resumed using a CGM on DS, this time inserting it in the back of his arm. So far, it seems to be working, although we did have one mysterious spontaneous restart of the receiver the morning after insertion. Just last night, we put the new Omnipod on his belly (while he was sleeping, since otherwise he would not have tolerated it at all). We'll see how that goes in the next couple of days. We were a little nervous about making sure the insulin absorption rate was OK since he doesn't have much (any) fat on his belly, but so far things seem fine.

Here's hoping this arrangement works!

[jims]

This is very curious and interesting post.

Is this still going on?
Are you having a tough time with Dexcom?

Yes they replace sensors; anything else does not get answered.

I am also convinced this is not sensor problem but cannot say or share anything else at this time.

Please advise!