Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rebecca on December 9, 2012 at 7:05pm

Officially they, of course, expire. I've found that there's still fairly accurate up to about 3 months after expiration. After that sometimes they'll work, sometimes they won't. This may very much be a YMMV thing but if you've got them I'd give them a try. They're to expensive not to try!

Permalink Reply by Mark Oldham on December 9, 2012 at 7:29pm

There are no brains in the sensor that tells it when to expire. It may not be as accurate depending on the conditions it has been stored in. But, if it has mostly been stored in a dark place (like the box it is shipped in) and been kept at 70ish degrees and hasn't been subject to wide variations in temp, you should be fine using them past the date. There are chemicals on the wire that probably degrade with time even if they are kept in perfect temp, humidity, darkness, and you are sticking that wire in your body, and making treatment decisions based on the results, so I am not sure I would use one that is a year or two past date. Of course, I am not a doctor, scientist, FDA or Dexcom official, so YMMV.

Permalink Reply by Carolyn A. on December 9, 2012 at 7:33pm

I'm using up mine that expired last april... with no change in accuracy what so ever.

Permalink Reply by Natalie ._c- on December 9, 2012 at 8:58pm

Well, it's not like they're fine one day and dead the next. Manufacturers of food AND medical supplies tend to put the earliest possible risk date on their products, because of CYA. So I have no doubt that January, February, or even March would be just as good as December. The only risk you take with a sensor is that if it fails, they will not replace it. But that doesn't really matter, since I would hope you're checking with your meter before making treatment decisions anyway, right?

Permalink Reply by Jay on December 10, 2012 at 9:15pm

Only thing to be careful of is your insurance may not pay if you do not use items according to manufacturer instructions. There was a parent on here about three years ago with a very sad story about a misadventure and insurance would not cover the costs because the parent failed to follow manufacturer and prescriber guidelines.

Permalink Reply by Natalie ._c- on December 11, 2012 at 12:57am

Well, that sounds like an actual pump or CGM malfunction caused by some error on the part of the parent. Like dropping it in the toilet or something. I have, in the past, used a sensor that was expired and malfunctioned, and called about it, and all that happened was that they wouldn't replace it. Which I wasn't upset about -- I'm far more upset about the fact that their free upgrade period from the 7+ to the G4 was so short -- I received mine in Sept. but it was shipped in Aug. so no free upgrade. I'd only been using the 7+ for 2 months!

Permalink Reply by DiabeticRadio.com on December 12, 2012 at 9:17am

I understand people try to extend their usage per sensor, but in all honestly, we really shouldn't try to do that (and that includes myself). I wouldn't use a sensor longer than two weeks. Sometimes we really can run the risk of infection if we wear them too long. It's almost like injecting insulin in the same place for long periods of time.

-Yogi

Permalink Reply by Theo on February 11, 2013 at 6:54am

FYI, I'm using now sensors which expired in Nov 2011 (1 year and 3 months ago) and I get 14 days of use out of each without any special issues. I kept them in the refrigerator during all this time though to try to slow down any degradation of their chemical reagent.

Disclaimer : Just because they work fine for me, it doesn't mean that I recommend it for anyone else :)