Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by lisa c on July 8, 2012 at 3:07am

First day is off. Do not calibrate more than 2x/ day as sensore gets confused. . site is fine.

Permalink Reply by Parrformance on July 8, 2012 at 3:35am

It will get better, definately a little off for the first day or so, then it settles out and becomes invaluable:-)

Permalink Reply by jrtpup on July 8, 2012 at 4:18am

The longer it's in, the better it is. It seems to need to 'marinate'. Bet you'll love it in a day or so ;)

Permalink Reply by Bobbie1000 on July 8, 2012 at 5:44am

Take a look at calibration advice in Beyond Fingersticks from Will DuBois. Calibrate when BG is stable, not changing rapidly, 2-3x/day. Don't correct your Dexie when it's behind - the sensor will lag when your BG is changing. Use the trends: if you're 100 with two down arrows, fingerstick and intervene!

The better I do my job, the better Dex does its. If I calibrate at a bad time and throw it off the first day, I stop the sensor and restart it for fresh calibration. Good luck! It can be frustrating but is also a great help.

Permalink Reply by Steve D on July 8, 2012 at 7:26am

I like Jrtpup's advice...Let it "marinate". I had to call Dexcom at least 3 times my first few days, give them a buzz and explain (in detail) what had been happening. Their advice will be similar to everything said here...and will probably do great things for your confidence!

Permalink Reply by HPNpilot on July 8, 2012 at 8:31am

Look at chapter 10 of the manual - it gives you a good idea of what kind of accuracy to expect. It is eye opening.

Especially see Table 2 - the hypoglycemic Alert Evaluation.
You will see that with the alarm set 80 mg/dl, the true alert rate is 64%, the false alert rate is 29% and the Missed Alert rate is 36%.

I'll say with most sensors , I get decent results... within 20 mg/dl or so. I've had one sensor so far that was kind of flaky and it died early. Dexcom replaced it. The first day is flakier and tends to jump around.

Be sure you do not take Tylenol or other acetaminophen containing products as these screw up the sensor.

Permalink Reply by meee on July 8, 2012 at 1:30pm

I'm on day 2 1/2- had another false low reading, which didn't wake me because I sleep with earplugs, but I'm only calibrating now when it asks. I will see how it goes, but I'm not sure this is for me. I'm also having pain from the sensor and although I haven't taken any yet, I do need to take pain killers with tylenol at times. I'm on warfarin now and I wonder if that could affect the cgm at all? I guess that would be in the literature also. I will read chapter 10. So far all the low readings and high readings have been totally off by a huge margin so maybe it is this sensor, I don't know.

Thanks for your help!

Permalink Reply by meee on July 8, 2012 at 3:19pm

Hello Everyone,

Just to let you know I called Dexcom- they had me calibrate it 3x 15 minutes apart... I had 3 readings of 95, 93, 92 for that, then Dex jumped back down 2 seconds later to 50 then 57 and then 40 in a very short period- so I called back and they said to stop the sensor and remove and they will send a new one. However when I removed it, the reason for my pain is obvious, I have a red, painful lump now from the sensor... I hope this isn't an infection starting.

I'm not sure what to do now- if I should just give up on the whole thing or try another one somewhere else.

This also means I probably won't tolerate a pump which I wanted to try at some point:(

Permalink Reply by meee on July 8, 2012 at 3:23pm

The rep I spoke with said I was correct to calibrate when there was huge error btw, so that is what you're supposed to do when that happens in case anyone else is wondering.

Permalink Reply by HPNpilot on July 8, 2012 at 3:35pm

I always do that. Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble. Perhaps the inflammation is part of why it isn't working well.

I wouldn't assume that you will have the same problem with a pump just yet... or with the Dexcom. Probably worth trying with a new sensor in a new site.

Permalink Reply by HPNpilot on July 8, 2012 at 3:37pm

PS. I've noticed the last few days that resting a hot laptop on the sensor makes it drop rapidly...goes away when you the laptop is removed...lol.

Permalink Reply by meee on July 8, 2012 at 3:44pm

thanks hpnpilot-

me too :(

I had high hope for this- I felt like it was going to be my new best friend and I felt safer going to sleep- but I hated that sensor as soon as it was in me- my body doesn't like foreign objects... there has to be a better way to do this... my brother said there is a cgm which is in trials now in europe which uses lasers so maybe that will be one I can use at some point hopefully if Dex doesn't work out.

I may try another one on my thigh later tonight or tomorrow and give it one more try.

That's funny about the laptop- I wonder why the heat would do that?

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