How do you like the new G5?

Hmm, weird. I guess I'll see what happens when I order through insurance. I just got my two free transmitters from my free upgrade today. So excited. Finally up and running!

 

This is why we're leaning toward sticking with G4 for now, as well as the fast rate at which our phones die. We've maxed out our OOP, so with a G4 transmitter, we'll have backup coverage for a year. We upgraded our original receiver to the adult version, and when I tested them side by side for days, the pediatric version was more accurate and came out of lows at the same time as the newer algorithm, so that upgrade isn't a sales point for us yet.

 

I haven't read thru all the responses here yet, but I came here to see if there was any feedback on the new G5. Hana has been using the G5 for about a week now. I'm not impressed. We are having a lot of issues with not getting any readings in my phone even though she is getting them on hers. If she goes from say network to wifi, it takes atleast 30 minutes for it to reconnect. Also, I hate how it doesn't fill in for time where her phone was off. Like on the G4, when shes at school, she has her phone off and relied on the Dex receiver. As soon as school ended, she'd turn her phone on and the data for the last 6 hours filled itself in on the graph. That doesn't happen with the G5. She still uses the Dex reciever at school with the phone off. But now when she turns the phone on, it no longer fills in those 6 hours on my phone. Just have a huge gap. I have to look at the Dex receiver to see the graph.
She is going away this weekend to a retreat. I'm not so confident that I will be able to see what's going on. We've had way too many incidents of there being no readings on my phone for no apparent reason. I already miss tbe G4 Share.

 

We put one kid on and I'm hesitating on starting the other one. I will wait until the other dies completely.

We are seeing more "out of range" than we did on the G4. Also, the new screen display on the receiver is horrible! I still rely on the receiver at night. I have a gem sticker on one so that I can differentiate who is who if the alarm goes off at the middle of the night. The display is so old school in color it's very hard to read.

My daughter said she preferred the receiver because it draws less attention to her. If she thinks she's low, she will just pop open her kit. With the phone, kids in class will look and see what she's doing, because she has her phone out when others don't. I foresee her continuing on with the receiver and only using the phone when she's with friends. Also, ringers must be off at school, so that blows the whole G5 operating process out of the water. Ringer off, no alerts.

But, it's new, I assume that with feedback Dexcom will strive to improve this even more...

 

I have had the G5 up and running for maybe a week on one kid and a few days on the other.

We did have some problems with not having data on my phone at first. There were some glitches to work out regarding the settings on the phone. Now for my daughter it works better than the G4 system worked in terms of consistency of data being shared. She has been super responsible about keeping her phone charged though I will be getting her a battery pack (and lightning cord).

My son's is about as consistent as always though before the share always worked well for him. I got him a really large battery pack so he could use it for his computer too.

I like the graphics better on the phone though I do wish they had made it so that events would be shared with me too. I was really expecting that and am disappointed that it does not share events. I like that I can turn the phone sideways and the graph turns too. The yellow lettering for highs is a little faint and hard to see I wish the numbers were outlined in black.

At first we only set up the phones and not the receiver. When my daughter dropped her phone and cracked the screen we realized right away that we would have poor data until the phone was fixed or we set up the receiver. It kept sending data through share but we could not calibrate on a broken phone. I tried to upgrade the receiver but when I asked my daughter to get me her receiver she accidentally brought me her older one before they came out with share and it inexplicably would not upgrade. Duh.

My son wanted his receiver upgraded right away so he would not have to worry about keeping his phone charged as much. It upgraded right away easily.

I have not yet analyzed the graph through the Dexcom Portrait on my computer so I have yet to see how that works. I guess we will be using Clarity?

The move from a meter to a cgm was life changing. The move to share was a huge leap. The move to G5, well, we will see how great it might be as more time goes on.

 

I ADORE the G5. I've had very few issues with lost signals. The only times I've gotten them is if my phone is in my back pocket and I'm sitting on it, or if I truly am far from my phone. Easily remedied. Clarity is fantastic. I love being able to scroll back on the iPhone app and see what the previous readings were- exact number and time. It's so easy to calibrate and add events. And it's so descrete to check.

My wish list is for being able to see averages right in the Dexcom app, and for Apple to allow white listed apps when the phone is in do not disturb mode. I work nights, so needing to have the sound on my phone for alerts during the day means more interruptions while I sleep.

 

If she still runs her receiver to her share phone does HER phone fill in the gaps (if she goes away from her phone and comes back) and then fill in the gaps on your phone like before? Can you just use the receiver linked to a share phone like before? If not, then there is no way I would switch right now. Also does the phone used in place of a receiver give HER an alert for no data? (right now the wearer and sharer has no alert for ??? no data to tell them that they won't get low alerts during the down data period).

Also, about losing the gaps on the follow phone, doesn't the G5 using the phone as a receiver send the data points to the cloud to the new data analysis software? In theory can't you access this data file from your phone and see the missing data (so long as its getting to her phone?)

As for the new screen, I was thinking that at least the old screen was dark enough that it doesn't completely destroy your sleep to check your receiver in the middle of the night.

 

Also can somebody explain this to me. With the G4, if someone wants to use it to alarm themselves of lows at night, didn't it create a big problem that there was no alarm on the receiver to tell you if there was no data for a given amount of time? I was thinking of like a kid at college using the receiver, or even with a share phone on them. The receiver and share phone don't give a no-data alarm so what if you stop getting data in the middle of the night?

 

I get alarms for "no data"...

 

but that's only on the follow phone right? My son, with his receiver and share phone at school would have no idea that he has no data and that he would not receive a low alert during that time period.

The receiver and the share phone don't alarm you to tell you you have no data and that they will not be receiving low alerts. What if a kid at college uses just a receiver and the data goes down in the middle of the night? They should have an option for a no data alert for people who rely on the receiver to alert lows so they know that lows won't be alerted during the down time.

 

The share phone can be configured to alarm when no signal from the transmitter. In the G5 mobile app (which is what is on the share phone) go to the menu and click Alerts. There you can configure the signal loss alert (which would cause no data). You can specify how long in it should wait before alerting to signal loss and what alert sound it should play.

 

I talked to tech support for a while yesterday and while it will tell you that it is not receiving a signal, they tell me that it will not warn you during a ??? period. My son does not usually get compression lows that just trend lower at night, his blood sugar will go from a flat 105 (for example) to an 80 to a ??? in 3 readings and then stay ??? for an hour. I used to set my no data alarm for 30 minutes so I could roll him over and then I would re set it for an hour and it would usually not re-alarm.

Now I just set it for an hour and even if it goes to ??? it comes back within an hour. The tech support person said that they NOW think that scar tissue forms around the transmitter wire and that lying on it causes the scar tissue to sometimes fracture a little and let the wire move to a different spot before it gets re-fixed in place which is why ??? cycles and compression issues may happen more in the first couple of days and also why the second week tends to give more accuracy (the scar tissue locks it into a consistent spot) even though the algorithm is starting with a blank slate on the second week. (Of course they told me not to use it for more than a week).

They told me that the G4 with share will not be discontinued at any time in the near future because clinics use it and G5 to phone doesn't work in many countries for some reason (may be important if people travel).

They also put in a request to add a no data or ??? alarm to the receiver though I don't know if anything will come of it.

I will stay with G4 with share. My son is too small to have a phone on him all the time. Currently his phone is in a lunch box in the hall and it picks up his receiver during almost all of his specials, and I get data filled in when he returns in range even for just 5 minutes. If I go to the new system, his phone will not fill in data from when he is out of range even if his receiver does, and I currently use his breakfast and lunch patterns to decide if he may go low, especially after he has been sick. Also I have been told that the phone takes longer to pick up data when you return to range since it is no longer linked to the receiver (that did not lose data) so if he goes out of range for recess for 15 minutes I may not get data for quite a while even if he comes back into range.

They also told me that the G5 sends the data to the cloud for the clarity but that for some reason the FDA insisted that the web data be 30 minutes delayed. The support guy did not know why, but the FDA did not want real time data on the cloud. Seems strange.

 

Probably the same reason that Follow is limited to 5 people - they don't want a URL with real-time data available to just anyone, especially since it can't be "turned off". Nightscout FTW!

 

I have no idea why they are saying the G5 to phone doesn't work in many countries. In the month I have had the G5 I have used it (both as a receiver and with sharing) in the US, Germany, Turkey, Israel, Azerbaijian, Jordan, and Greece. Jordan was the only problem because I had no cell data there but my phone still worked as a receiver and shared when I had wifi access which is everywhere there. Obviously a very tiny percentage of the countries in the world but enough variety that I would assume that as long as you are not going to North Korea you will not have a problem. If you have an unlocked iphone there is no reason you should have any issues using the G5 with a SIM card that works internationally. When I leave the US I just remove my normal SIM card and pop in my international one and the Share feature simply switches over to that. It may be different if you live in a different country and can't use the US app store (though there are easy ways around that) but for anyone traveling from the US it is simply not true that you can't use the G5 with share.

ETA:

Sorry, I'm sure no one cares about this but I thought it was pretty cool. "Sharing" with my dad who was in Hong Kong, my boyfriend in the US, and my mom in South Africa while I was in Turkey. I thought it was a pretty cool example of how far technology has come from the medtronic sensors I started with 7ish years ago that my parents had to use a baby monitor to hear and now we are on different continents and they can see my blood sugars in full color.

 

Maybe they meant that it wouldn't upload to the clarity online in some countries, so the data would get lost.

Meg, do you worry about getting a ??? cycle when you are asleep? Is it just not common?

 

Maybe I'm very creative. Or maybe my mind just goes to dark places easily, but I have no problem thinking of scenarios that explain why the FDA is against real time data on a website. It's not just Dexcom either. I believe Medtronic is facing this same roadblock with it's Minimed Connect, and Accu-Chek with it's Aviva Connect.

First of, insulin pump hacking has been demonstrated. Insulin pumps could be programmed to give insulin, remotely, unbeknownst to the user. Now, where would CGMS readings come into this? It would conceivably be easier to program an insulin dose without having to override pump safeties like max bolus amount. So if you wanted to cause serious harm to someone, hack their pump while they're already low! It's a dark place to think, but some people have enemies.

On a less sinister note, they could be concerned with someone, particularly someone that works an office job, just loading the website and working off of that and never looking at the device. That's problematic because it's hard to standardize websites across all browsers, operating systems, and computers. The FDA wants to know how any medical device anyone might conceivably use for treatment decisions will behave all of the time. So limit the utility of anything that can't be perfectly controlled. It's also why diabetes devices are iPhone first, then Android- and when they are Android, they're usually only some specific phone model.

 

Very cool! I can't believe you've been to all of those places in one month.

 

Haha. It was a crazy adventure involving canceled flights and oversold flights that resulted in Germany, Turkey, and Greece being added to the itinerary. Though I never did leave the airport in Germany so not sure if it counts. That said, it really reinforced the importance of bringing extra diabetes supplies because what was supposed to be a 6 day trip ended up being extended with our 4 day adventure getting home. I went through more than double the supplies I was planning on using (and I somehow lost 2 glucose meters between Amman and Atlanta) and I was so happy to not have to worry about running out of diabetes supplies. I have gotten very relaxed about travel and diabetes so I did need the reminder to make sure to be prepared for delays and other travel issues.

 

Not especially. I don't typically get ??? for more than 30 minutes to an hour so I assume the dexcom will come back and alarm before I am in any sort of danger. Honestly, I worry more about sleeping through an alarm for a low than not getting an alarm for a low due to ???. I would feel differently though if I was responsible for a child and I personally would be setting an alarm for every few hours unless I had a mechanism in place for getting reliable alarms for ???.

 

So, Meg, here's the $64,000 question. Do you do confirmatory fingersticks? Assuming you were on the 505 before, so the algorithm hasn't changed for you... but I read that it's approved for dosing w/o fingersticks in Europe as long as you calibrate twice a day. MARD is MARD and I'm eager to see how accurate it is (we have the peds algorithm still, G5 should arrive any day now).

I suppose with all your traveling you could skip the fingersticks when in Europe?