DexCom G4 Platinum - Giving It Another Go!

Sigums the first

I explained that our first DexCom G4 Platinum transmitter battery died a few weeks ago.  You know, that little beloved piece of technical happiness that we call 'Sigums' as in CGMs.  After a little bit of debating between the Medtronic 530g and another go at the DexCom, we opted for Sigums Jr..

The second Sigums wasn't nearly as wonderful as the first.  Our shipment included two brand-new receivers, two brand new transmitters and a box of four sensors for each of the girls.  The girls stayed loyal to pink and other than a change of serial numbers for the transmitter battery, pretty much everything was the same.

On the advice of a fellow t1d'er who knew of our history of losing a receiver, he suggested that we keep the new receivers boxed up and continue with the old.  I thought that idea through and it seemed like a terrific way to have a 'spare' new-in-the-box transmitter should anything go wrong with, ahem, skinny jeans and shallow pockets.

A few days in to wearing the new Sigums and it was evident that our great success at having numbers coordinate with the blood sugar meters was lacking.  In fact, the girls were randomly finding 100 point spreads +/- 50 at any given point during the day.  Calibrating the Sigums only made it worse and on day 3, we actually had a sensor fail.  None of it made sense, so we decided to try a restart without removing (and wasting one of our expensive $100.00 market priced sensors - out of pocket for us is $38.70 x 2 each month). 

Finally, four days in and while most households were sleeping, ours was struggling with complete DexCom meltdowns.  Final error:  "Replace Transmitter Battery Soon".  

What???  This IS a brand-new transmitter.

With DexCom's 24-hour technical support line, I placed a middle-of-the-night call to a kind CSR who asked that I direct send our data from the receivers.  She in turn forwarded it to her supervisor who declared it to be the 'the worst and weirdest' that he had ever seen.  With little discussion, she immediately decided to send us two brand new transmitter batteries, which arrived via FedEx 36 hours later. 

What I find odd (and the DexCom people did too), is that both of the transmitter batteries had a malfunction.  I decided to post this situation in case there potentially was a bad lot.  Or as another theory, perhaps the winter cold somehow depleted the battery in transit.

It could also be a problem with the old receivers.  After this happened, I decided to box up both of the old receivers and to start using the new ones.  I am not going to take my chances with our 1-year old equipment, even though it had been functioning perfectly.  If we lose one, than perhaps we will try it again, but for now, we are going with the new.

As I write this, it has been about 10 hours since we inserted, calibrated and set up the new DexCom systems.  All is well.

The girls weren't sure if they should continue to call our beloved device Sigums or something new.  One daughter suggested 'Herbert'.  The other said, 'Eddie'.   And why are these always boy names???

But I have to tell you, I can't stop with the 'Sigums'.  I think it is here to stay.

Welcome Sigums #3.  x2.