My Dexcom CGM 4,,how to ,,, guess?

I have had a Dexcom CGM 4 for the last 5 years. At first, it was great and helped me bring my A1C down from the high 8s to the high 5s. It also over all brought my sugars down as I can now feel when my glucose is going nuts. I was born insulin dependent and that is all I know. Granted, when I was 6 and using the Ames acid pills to guess at my sugars, I KNEW there was a better way, if the docs can do it at the hospital, why can't I do it at home? Then, the CGM.

At first it worked as it should. I could call and get through to ask ridiculous questions, like, it says it is out of range but it is within 6 inches of my sensor....

Then the calls started being worse than my diabetes. I would wait on hold for a few hours, then, they would forget about my issue. Eventually, they replaced my CGM and that is where the issues began. The next one would not give me alerts, neither would the next 2 replacements. I noticed that not once was my fingerstick even remotely close to what the CGM would say. It was off an average of 140, too high or too low. I figured they acted like that because I did not give them time to understand how my glucose works. They went back within a month. I have now had my new one, speakers work, alerts kind of work but the CGM is off. I mean bad off. I am back to finger sticking 6 times daily. I have not gone back to the hourly yet. I called on this and the kid on the phone told me to NOT put in 2 tests when I calibrate, only put in 1. Ok, my numbers are so far off, if I do this, within 15 minutes it wants calibrated again. At that time, it will be 140 off. I put in a new number. 15 minutes later, it wants calibrated again. I have had sleepless nights trying to guess where my sugar is without having to get up and jab my finger.

A few days ago I started trying to figure out how my calculations are so wrong and is there a pattern? It is always 140 difference? No, one day my cgm was reading 374 all day. Every time I fingerchecked, it was BELOW 100. 79 to be exact.

I keep googling this to see if I can guess at what my sugar really is at. Maybe take the number and reduce or increase it by X.

I absolutely know, fingerstick! But, I have an expensive little CGM here.

Does anyone else have this issue and how do you get passed it?

Chas C said:

I've not had this issue with mine - also have it for around 4-5 years now.

How often are you calibrating, I have noticed that calibrating too often or trying to force it to reflect a finger test by adding the reading in multiple times has caused mine to be out of synch.

Are you taking any pain killers regularly like paracetamol ?, as these can cause errors for some.

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I calibrate twice daily. I understand the too many calibrations. I actually called on that one and was told to stop it. Just an hour ago, I was feeling weird, thinking I was very tired. I looked at my CGM. It said 273. Now how did that one happen? I fingersticked because the weird was not hyper weird, it was more hypo weird. My hands were so numb I could not hold the lancet. Turned out, fingerstick said 89. I plugged that in and now it is 128. I can usually figure out how to compensate for my equipment wanting to do its own thing. This one is making me nervous. I have had this one since December when my old one totally conked out. It has plenty of time to learn me. I love my cgm, even if I am back to finger sticking.

TorqPenderloin said:

95% of the time these kinds of issues are due to (unintentional) user error.

A few thoughts:
-The cgm will request three entries 15 minutes apart when you enter in a calibration value that is significantly off from what it is currently reading.
-NEVER calibrate when the trend arrow is up, down, or at an angle. Only calibrate when the arrow is pointing directly to the right.
-Rotate your application sites. Scare tissue could very easily yield inaccurate readings. Hopefully, you're already doing this.
-Remember that your Dexcom is reading your interstitial fluid and not your blood. Consequently, there is a 10-30 minute lag in what your finger stick meter will read and what will eventually reflect on your cgm. This why you always should calibrate with a trend arrow pointing right.
-Make sure you're drinking enough water. Dehydration can cause a lot of issues with inaccurate readings and signal loss issues with your cgm.

I seem to be one of the weird ones who almost never loses signal, gets 7 days out of my sensors WITHOUT any extra adhesives or tape, and my accuracy is within 20 mg/dL probably 99% of the time.

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Thank you for the info on the trend indicator. I was unaware of this. Since I was born with this additional little bit of fun, my diabetes is very different than other T1Ds. I have heard this bit of fluff all my life. When I was young, that was cool, I am different. Now that I am old, it terrifies me, doctors have no idea how to help me. My glucose readings make them cry but my cgm shows, I am off. My glucose can be at 300 amd 30 minutes later it will drop down to 40. Andy was in talking to the head of Dexcom one day and Andy was explaining what is needed in certain aspects of the CGM and accessories. My husband watches me do this all the time, it freaked the other guy out, which proved one of the points Andy was trying to make, put in a I took care of it button. My arrow is very rarely flat. Right now it says 43 double down. I know it is not that low, I can feel my hands

tim2000s said:

@rstonepal There is the other aspect that for some people, CGM systems just don't work very well (for many reasons including the body deciding to attack the sensor). You may be one of those.

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This could very well be the case. I noticed strange scar tissue that is now being generated by my cgm. Then, when I change the site, the old site bites like nuts for 2 days solid. I won't even go into the pump insertion sites

justadad said:

Hi, sorry to intrude on your conversation with a slightly off-topic question. I see @rstonepal and @Chas C have been using the dexcom g4.
I have received an offer for a g4 (not platinum or share, plain g4) and an offer for a g5. My lovely lady and I want to know our son's BG levels in real time. Now, I know that the g5 gives you that, but how about the g4? From what I read earlier, and by now I lost track of those articles/posts/publications, I thought it was possible to link the g4 to a smartphone (iPhone if I am not wrong). And then the salesperson said that the g4 did not support real time data transfer, that the "share" options were available only for the US market and would not work in the Balkans region, or SE Europe, where we live. I am not an expert in new technologies, but this one I can't quite understand...
So the question I wanted to ask was, do you manage to get real time data on your smartphones? If so, any hints on as to how that might be done?
Cheers

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Hi JustDad. Every time I tried to respond, the server was down. I had my husband Andy read your message and this is his response. Prior to the beginning layoffs, he was a Software Engineer at Dexcom. He has warned me to stay away from the 5, it has issues. I am using a 4 and it has share. He follows me and calls me when he see either highs or lows for extended periods. We asked Dexcom if perhaps they could put in a way for us to just push a button that says I took care of it. My sister is a Nurse at Denver General and she and her fellow nurses were also following me until they just could not take the stress anymore. My sis started emailing me constantly asking if I am alright. She stopped following me after a few weeks.

Here is Andy's response:
There is G4 without share (older) and the G4 with share. The transmitter (what is worn on the body) does not determine which one it is. It is determined by the receiver (the handheld display). The G4 with share says "Dexcom with Share" below the buttons.

The G4 with share can be connected to an iPhone to share data, and will work in Europe -or- the USA. If there is no version of Share for your country, you can just install the app for a country that has a version.