Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by lisa c on February 9, 2012 at 12:53pm

No experience, but would like to know how they can expire so soon.

Hope it works for you to use them.

Permalink Reply by Rebecca on February 9, 2012 at 1:52pm

I've used expired sensors before with no problem... I'm not sure I've ever been more than 3 months over expiration but every expired one I've used so far has been fine.

Permalink Reply by Isaac on February 9, 2012 at 1:57pm

The expiration dates range from 3 to 6 months.

My recent order, I insisted that I will only accept six months expiration.

I have been told by Dex rep, that the only issue is with the glue on the sensor. She told me the expiration date is there because they can not guarantee that it will stick after a long time.

I have used expired sensors with no problem at all.

The other issue is, if anything else goes wrong, and you call Dexcom, they will ask you for the sensor's number. As soon as they see it was expired, they will not replace it for any other issue.

Permalink Reply by Courtney on February 9, 2012 at 2:43pm

I called about the one that just failed and that is how I realized I had so many expired sensors! The woman on the phone said there's a live enzyme on the wire and that after time it diminishes and that's why they have an expiration.

I just inserted an Oct 2011 sensor so I'll see how it goes and report back! It is on my stomach though which never lasts much mre than 10 days for me. Figure I should use them up anyway so it doesn't matter. Thanks Isaac!

Permalink Reply by jla on February 9, 2012 at 4:29pm

I have had a similar experience. I started with DexCom in Nov of 2009 and found that on my stomach they last about 3 weeks. I didn't notice the expiration date either because like you, I was trying to make them last as long as possible. I now change out every two weeks and that works pretty well with the expiration dates. I've used expired ones successfully but not that long past the date. With every two weeks I still save 1/2 of the cost. The 90 day supply that my insurance covers (after the deductible) lasts me about 6 months. I wear them in 4 clockwise rotating spots centering on my belly button (2:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30) so I only hit the same spot every 8 weeks and it seems to work fine.

Permalink Reply by Michael McClure on February 9, 2012 at 4:49pm

Wow. Had no idea of the expiration of the sensors (I'm too new to this I guess -- just started with my Dex in Oct '11). I was dutifully ripping them off every Thursday night until I started reading in this forum here that folks have made them last up to 30 days (!!).

I placed a sensor on my stomach a few weeks ago when I first came in here asking about sensitivity issues, and after doing the above reading it has now been on me for about two and a half weeks. However, having read now that there are expiration dates I am now thinking I shouldn't attempt to stretch out things too too long as the ones I save won't be usable down the line. Hm.

I gotta go in search of the expiration notice on my box -- I don't recall seeing anything about that at all. Bummer.

In any case, thanks for the notification!

Permalink Reply by Courtney on February 9, 2012 at 11:59pm

Hey Michael- You'll see the expiration on the package of each sensor and on the outside of the box. I'm still going to stretch mine out as long as they can go because I don't really like searching for new locations, inserting them or messing with them in general until I get bad readings. I can definitely get 14-30 days out of most of them. I'm just not going to be such a hoarder and request 6 months expirations like Isaac!

Permalink Reply by Lorraine on February 10, 2012 at 7:51am

I've used them on Caleb without realizing they were expired and they have always been a problem. Just this week we had one. It consistently showed his blood sugar going in the opposite direction and after three days was all ???

Permalink Reply by Jigga on February 10, 2012 at 9:10am

Wait...so you're saying just because I get the "Change sensor soon" notice, I don't have to change it? How do I get around that?

Permalink Reply by jla on February 10, 2012 at 9:40am

You get that message regularly in 7 days from the time you started the sensor. To restart the sensor and give you another week (or 2 depending on how long the readings are reliable), go to "stop sensor" at the bottom of the options and then move back to the top of the options list where, voila, there is a "start sensor" option. Go through the set up process just as if it were a new sensor which takes 2-3 hours.

Permalink Reply by Jigga on February 10, 2012 at 9:43am

Wow! where were you back in December when I started this? lol. Thanks! After posting it, I figured it was that, or I had to pull the sensor out and put it back in. Crazy! I'm angry to think that I've been changing it regularly when I could have given myself a few extra days lol. Thanks again and I think I'm going to turn into a hoarder!

Permalink Reply by Michael McClure on February 10, 2012 at 10:25am

Hey Jigga - I cam onto the board on 1/26 and posted up into Cara's thread (Uncomfortable) because I was concerned about site selection and pain. I myself am not all that concerned with the hoarding of these expensive little devices, but was concerned that if I hit a nerve (as I have a few times already) and it was unbearable to wear, then how were folks here handling that? There was discussion over in that thread about the length you can wear the sensors that I was pretty surprised by, but it's all good to know (you should ge read it, too). As mentioned above, I'm now on my third week on my current sensor. I'll put my next one on this coming Sunday at the end of the third week regardless if it is feeding bad numbers or not -- it's just time. But, at least with wearing this one for a longer period of time I now have a few extras just in case I hit another nerve (wow, is that ever painful to me!).

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