Sensor Broke off under skin

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Permalink Reply by Olaf R Saugen on December 24, 2009 at 12:13pm

Which brand of CGM?

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Permalink Reply by Katie Jane Hainsworth on December 24, 2009 at 2:12pm

its a dexcom.....and i love my dex and will continue to use it

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Permalink Reply by Terry on December 24, 2009 at 12:24pm

Sorry that this happened to you. Thanks for making the report to us however. This is exactly the kind of info that I seek by visiting and participating at this site.

I have used about 10 sensors (Dexcom) so far and I've been very pleased with how little the sensor irritates the surrounding flesh.

Do you have any idea how deep under the skin the wire could be? Please update with your CGM brand and any other developments.

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Permalink Reply by nel on December 24, 2009 at 12:37pm

A regular MM CGMS user for well over 2 years ; this has never happened to me .Neither do I discomfort , when I insert the sensor ( taught skin )
Did you contact Medtronic and or your pump/cgms trainer ? ; I read on your profle , that you use MM's system , correct ?
I cannot answer your question , how long it takes to work its way out ...I hope someone knows ..

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Permalink Reply by Muragaki on December 24, 2009 at 1:25pm

Hi Katie:

I'm not a pumper so don't know about the length or girth of subject wire -- but I can tell you from experience that a sliver of respectable length did work itself out of a fingertip last summer after approximately three days. It might also comfort you to know that the lump you feel is not so much the wire as the white blood cells that rushed in to fight the invasive foreign body, and should also work to help push the object out.

-vicki

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Permalink Reply by Jim on December 24, 2009 at 2:35pm

Have you called your doctor? For something like this I might want to consult an independent source besides the OEM... And BTW, I've been using CGM continuously since June 2006 and have never experienced a sensor wire breaking off on either DexCom (3 years use) or MM (approx. 6 months use).

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Permalink Reply by Katie Jane Hainsworth on December 24, 2009 at 2:38pm

Yep I talked to my doctor...he gave me the run down on having some sterlilized-by-boiling-in-water tweezers handy, keeping an eye on possible infections etc, and wants me to call to check in on the wire's progress to the surface of my skin.

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Permalink Reply by Heidi I. on February 28, 2010 at 4:49pm

Crazy! The same thing just happened to me, except the whole wire is in there. I totally forgot to pull back the collar after I pushed the needle in. So, i'm trying to rock the insertion device back to pull it out and the needle was still showing...I totally messed up. But, I thought maybe it was in there and would work. Nope, got ??? and sensor failure within 20 minutes. So I pull it out and the sensor is GONE! UGH. I can feel it in there but it is totally under the skin. I am not quite sure what to do. What finally happened with yours?

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Permalink Reply by Katie Jane Hainsworth on March 19, 2010 at 2:34pm

3 months later, the wire is still under my skin. I called dexcom, (because I have recurring back spasms that warrant MRI's) to see if it would prevent me from getting an MRI, and they said no. Other than that, it doesn't bother me to have it under the skin, but that said, I would like for it to come out. Nobody will give me an estimate of how long this might take.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Kay on March 19, 2010 at 2:53pm

That happened to me before- not with the sensor, but with a piercing. Instead of using a CBR (or ring) they put in a post. In the healing process my skin grew over the piercing and it was caught under my skin. No infections or anything but I wanted it out. One of my doctors told me I could come into the office to get it looked at to see whats going on with it. Eventually I went to the hospital's clinic where they had a surgeon remove it (the surgeon was the doctors friend). It required local pain medicine and 10 minutes to get it removed. If its a bump like that you may want to get it checked out to make sure its not damaging the tissue around it

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Permalink Reply by FatCatAnna on March 19, 2010 at 3:30pm

Wow Katie - hard to believe that it never worked it's way out (I've had slivers of wood in my skin due to wood working - but never metal). You are one patient lady!

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Permalink Reply by C.J. Baker on March 20, 2010 at 5:43pm

Katie,

I haven't had that specific problem, but I have had catheters work themselves out and then end up laying on the top of my skin... the problem has happened twice, with two different set types (I use Minimed paradigm),...

So ultimately, I guess we should always be vigilant... ?!

CB

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