Dexcom G7 thoughts and general Dexcom experiences?

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Inka

Inka

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Type 1
My clinic is swapping people over from Libre 2 to Dexcom G7. I’ve never had a Dexcom before (only had my Libre for a year or so) and I’m really interested in hearing about people’s experiences of it and any tips you might have (eg best time to insert, best place to insert, any quirks I need to know, etc, etc).

I noticed that a couple of people have mention Dexcom G7 here but not many. So if anyone has one or has tried one, I’d be interested in thoughts on that specific model too. I understand it’s smaller than the G6 but that’s about all I know.

Is there a list of compatible phones for the G7? I looked on the Dexcom site but was a bit doubtful about the way the list was presented. I can’t afford to buy the wrong phone! Can you use a receiver with it rather than a phone? If you have the G7, which phone do you use? How have you found the accuracy? How good are the alarms? Any problems you’ve had?
 
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I started using the G7 a month ago and my experience to date has been very positive. It is much smaller than the G6 and it is recommended that it is worn on the back of the arm, just like the Libre. This, for me works much better than the G6 which I wore on my abdomen (I stopped using the G6 after my 1yr contract expired because I became allergic to the adhesive).

On the plus side, the accuracy is very good. For my current sensor I have only had to calibrate it 3 times during the past 6 days. Each time, the sensor was under 1 mmol/mL different to a finger test. For instance, at lunch today, I chose to do a finger-prick test for comparison as my blood sugar was a little high ( I have one of my frequent winter colds ). The G7 app showed 8.7 and the finger test showed 8.6.

Another plus is that the G7 warms up in 30 minutes, as opposed to the 2hrs for the G6. It is a little jittery for the first 24hrs but still useable.

The alarms are not nearly as configurable as xDrip+. They work quite well with my Apple Watch, though, so I have not had a problem so far.

On the negative side, your concerns about mobile phone compatibility are well-founded. Luckily, my iPhone 8 is compatible so I did not have to jump through any hoops. I have two old Android phones (Samsung and Sony) that I have used for xDrip+ but neither of those is compatible with the stock Dexcom G7 app on Google Play. I think there is a build-your-own solution now for the G7 app but I have not had any experience with that.

It may be important to point out that, because the G7 has a built-in transmitter, the previous method to link the sensor with xDrip+ will no longer work, since there is no way (that I am aware of at least) to determine the transmitter ID. There is a 4-digit numeric bluetooth pairing code on the device that is used to pair each sensor with the app.

You can, though, set up xDrip+ as a Dexcom Share follower. I was able to get that working quite well, but I got tired of having to carry around two phones, so I turned it off again.

The G7 Apple Watch app is not really useable at present, as it takes too long to update. So I had no option but to install the SugarMate app on my iPhone and set the Apple Watch face to use a Sugarmate calendar. This is not ideal, but it is good enough for now. See photo below/attached.

Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. I hope this is useful.
 

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I been using the G7 for the last couple of months and find it extremely consistent with fingersticks. Even more so than the G6, which I also found very good. The advantages of the G7 are that the warm-up time is quick, it has no separate transmitter, and it is very discrete. As well as being a bit cheaper.

The disadvantage is that, being much smaller, it has a tendency to get unstuck unless you use the over-patch, and that is a bit fiddly to apply. I've now switched to applying the sensor to my tummy and that is much less liable to come unstuck.

I have a feeling though that I might have to switch back to the G6 when Omnipod finally get round to releasing the Dash 5. Although I guess they will move that over to the G7 eventually.

BTW I use my G7 with my Android Samsung A51 smartphone. Although Dexcom say that they haven't tested this phone with their app blah, blah, it seems to work fine. I turn off all alarms except low and predicted low. You can get a receiver if you don't have a compatible phone. If you speak to Customer Services they are very helpful.
 
Thank you so much @littlevoice359 and @m1dnc - I really appreciate you both taking the time to give such thorough answers 🙂

I’ve never used xDrip @littlevoice359 so that wasn’t a concern for me, knowing practically nothing about it. Does not using xDrip cause any issues or deficiencies in performance? I suppose my wants for it are pretty basic - accuracy, good Low alarms and reliability. I do have a pump but would be looking to loop now anyway so compatibility with my pump isn’t an issue.

I’m very pleased you both said you found the G7 accurate - that’s very encouraging indeed.

Thank you for mentioning your phone models too. My phone is a pretty ancient and basic Samsung and I highly doubt it’s compatible. I did try to look for the Dexcom receiver on the Dexcom website so I could check the price, but I couldn’t find it. I’m still undecided whether I’d go for a receiver or bite the bullet and buy a new phone. On a budget so I’d have to think about it and count my pennies.
 
Oh, blimey! 😱 A receiver doesn’t look like a good option then (unless the clinic will provide it)!
 
The link below will give you some info on how to build your own G7 app. I used the G6 version of this with a low-end Samsung phone and I did not have any problems. You can test this without actually having a G7 sensor. If the app builds and runs, to the extent that it allows you to go through the tutorial, that may give you enough confidence that you do not need to buy a new phone. Best of luck!

https://www.reddit.com/r/dexcom/comments/y4vixk
 
My son has been using the G7 for the past month or so. He likes that it is smaller than the G6 but we have been having constant problems with sensor failure on every one used so far. They last about 5 days before a sensor issue alert appears on his phone and then after a while it switches to a change sensor alert. We also had one that developed bizarre readings - reading a constant 'low' alert for about 6 hours even though BG meter was reading normal levels. Didn't respond to calibration and then failed.

Not sure that the software being still in development for Android may be causing the issue.

Keep sending the faulty sensors back and getting replacements without any problem but for a newish adolescent diabetic he gets very demoralised by the technology failing, especially as he had a really bad reaction to the Libre adhesive and we thought we had found a good alternative!
 
Sorry to hear that @LoobyG It’s very stressful when tech fails or messes you around. I hope it can be sorted out for your son as having a Libre or CGM is a great help and reassurance.
 
I think @mikeyB has been using G7 for a while too?
 
I think i heard someone say g7 tended to use phone battery more due to high refresh rate, so may be worth thinking about when getting new phone
 
BadaBing said:
Hello @Inka, I was wondering, why did your clinic make the decision to switch its patients from Libre 2 to the Deccom G7?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

I’m not sure. I did ask about Libre 3 and they said they couldn’t access that or something. I do have a pump and this was a pump clinic appointment. I was very surprised when it was mentioned so didn’t ask much. My first thought was if my phone would be suitable.
 
One other thing about the G7 which I forgot to mention earlier. I think because the unit is smaller and has an integrated transmitter, my experience has been that it needs to be quite close to the mobile phone or else it will lose signal. For some time now, I wear my mobile phone in a belt holder so that I always have it with me. Since moving to the G7, I find that I need to move the belt holder to the side of the body on which arm the current sensor is attached. Even having it on the other side (i.e., with much of my body between the sensor and the phone) can cause the G7 app to show a 'Signal Lost' error.

Of course my theory as to the reason for the sporadic 'Sensor Lost' errors ( only 3 in the past 5 weeks) could be something else, the above theory sounds plausible to me. Anyway, I thought I'd mention it, for sake of completeness, if nothing else.
 
Thank you @littlevoice359 That is an interesting observation. I usually keep my phone in my pocket but if the phone always had to be super-close that could potentially be a nuisance.
 
littlevoice359 said:
One other thing about the G7 which I forgot to mention earlier. I think because the unit is smaller and has an integrated transmitter, my experience has been that it needs to be quite close to the mobile phone or else it will lose signal. For some time now, I wear my mobile phone in a belt holder so that I always have it with me. Since moving to the G7, I find that I need to move the belt holder to the side of the body on which arm the current sensor is attached. Even having it on the other side (i.e., with much of my body between the sensor and the phone) can cause the G7 app to show a 'Signal Lost' error.

Of course my theory as to the reason for the sporadic 'Sensor Lost' errors ( only 3 in the past 5 weeks) could be something else, the above theory sounds plausible to me. Anyway, I thought I'd mention it, for sake of completeness, if nothing else.
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I believe @everydayupsanddowns may have mentioned a similar issue with needing his phone on the same side of the body as the sensor/transmitter
 
I have found the same as @ittlevoice369 . The internal transmitter of the G7 seems to be weaker than the G6. I mentioned this to Customer Support and they took me through a whole range of adjustments to my phone, which didn't make much of a difference.

It's not a big deal though.

BTW this seemed to me to be a bigger problem when I placed the sensor on my arms - I just switched sides for the pocket I carry my phone between sensor replacement. Since I've taken to putting the sensor on my tummy, it's not been so noticeable.
 
rebrascora said:
I believe @everydayupsanddowns may have mentioned a similar issue with needing his phone on the same side of the body as the sensor/transmitter
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Inka said:
I think he has the G6. Maybe it’s just an issue with all Dexcoms or CGMs? :confused:
Click to expand...

My iphone seems more robust in terms of its connection to the G6.

The tandem tslim seemed to benefit from being on the same side as my sensor arm though.
 
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