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Nasty CGM sensor

Spiker

Spiker

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,685
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Just rolling on to day 14 of wearing the same Dexcom G4 sensor and I felt a repeated sharp pain under the sensor. I more or less immediately removed it and there is a bizarre scar pattern underneath the transmitter. It looks like the spots on a 7 spot domino, except the spots are little diamonds. What the heck is going on? It looks like maybe the contacts on the transmitter have burned me, or the canula has been trying to poke its way out of my skin in different places, or I don't know what!!

I have photos but I am not going to post them here as they are too gruesome.
 
Sensitivity.. Poss some sweat as well..
I had marks from Navigator. Nothing as bad as yours sound, but I certainly knew where I had worn the old one for 2-3 days after removing it.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Yeah I was wondering if it could be some kind of allergy.
 
In case it was an allergy I am thinking of putting a Tegaderm patch on my skin before inserting the canula. Basically counting on the introducer needle to drive the canula through the Tegaderm, much as it does with the actual skin. Tegaderm I think is like Opsite and supposedly very similar to a layer of skin. The worry would be if some Tegaderm got caught in the canula and blocked it. I don't think it would, because you don't retract the introducer needle from the canula until it's safely under the skin.

The marks are still there. They look like burns or bruises or something.
 
I contacted Animas support who believe it may have been a very rare instance of the transmitter overheating. They are replacing the transmitter. Pretty freaky that it actually caused minor burns. I felt sharp pain which is why I pulled the sensor off.
 
Spiker said:
In case it was an allergy I am thinking of putting a Tegaderm patch on my skin before inserting the canula. Basically counting on the introducer needle to drive the canula through the Tegaderm, much as it does with the actual skin. Tegaderm I think is like Opsite and supposedly very similar to a layer of skin. The worry would be if some Tegaderm got caught in the canula and blocked it. I don't think it would, because you don't retract the introducer needle from the canula until it's safely under the skin.

The marks are still there. They look like burns or bruises or something.
Click to expand...
Could you cut a hole in the tegaderm to match the hole in the sensor? can we have a pic of the devil marks?
 
Spiker said:
I contacted Animas support who believe it may have been a very rare instance of the transmitter overheating. They are replacing the transmitter. Pretty freaky that it actually caused minor burns. I felt sharp pain which is why I pulled the sensor off.
Click to expand...

Lucky git!!
 
Transmitter was only a month or two old so I haven't won much on the 6 month warranty.

I told them the transmitter was supplied by ATUK but they are still going to get Animas UK to do the replacement. Which is cool of them.
 
"Mark of the Beast" photo attached! I feel like I have been branded. :-)
 

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wow thats very cool (if painful!) stange because I wouldnt have thought much was in contact with your skin at the time. Can I ask what you were doing when it happened?
 
Well the whole transmitter was in near direct contact with my skin of course, separated only by that little layer of sticky. Consider that the transmitter contains an energy source that can last well over a year, and mine was new, almost fully charged. So for example if there was a short on the internal battery it could dump a lot of heat in a short period of time. The marks have quite clearly defined edges and symmetry. I suspect they correspond to metal components at the bottom surface of the transmitter.

But yeah it is kind of cool. "Glucose sensor on overload! AWOOGA!" :-)
 
It actually makes sense that heat would transmit through the adhesive.

This is the same transmitter I went swimming with a week earlier, so maybe they are not quite as waterproof as all that. Maybe don't swim with them after the warranty expires. ;-)
 
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