As you may know from my post on 6/4,

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=397753

I let my previous Sensor run for a bit more than 11 days. It was still good, but I replaced it. This time, I decided to run the new one until it failed to give good results. I got SEVENTEEN DAYS! :) :)

Wow. My annual costs, if all the Sensors last like this one, will be just $752 (sensors) + $550 (new receiver when the battery dies) + $500 (two new transmitters when their batteries die). About $1800, a far cry from the $4000-$5000 which Dexcom describes. But of course, they can't discuss "Off-Label" use of the Sensor for such a long period.

At the same time, I have cut my use of the "traditional" finger-stabbing bG monitor from about 12x per day to about 5x per day. Most of you enjoy strips paid by insurance, but I will soon have very limited insurance coverage... without strips. So the Dexcom costs me a bit less than $5 per day, but saves me 7 strips @ $.80 each = $5.60 just on the strips. My insurance also "allows" only one Glucagon per year, I have been using 5-7. Even at Canadian import prices, that's another $300-$400 saved.

Cheaper. Continuous monitoring, with a Result every 5 minutes. Buzzers for high and low bG at levels which I get to choose-- for the first time in years, I can go to sleep WITHOUT FEAR. I can treat trends before the problems even happen. I can drive the car for more than 1/2 hour without stopping to test (it will automatically buzz at me if anything bad develops).

Typical Severe Lows per Month: 8-11.

Severe Lows in June, 2006: ZERO.

I love this machine !!!

How does it feel? Does it seem accurate? Do you use a standard solution to calibrate? (Don't see how you can calibrate....) there must be a few draw backs..??

Calibration is against the One-Touch Ultra (NOT the UltraSmart), at least once every 12 hours. That's what those 5 remaining "traditional finger-stick tests" are for.

How does it feel? Like it isn't even there, even after 17 days. :D I truly have to LOOK sometimes in order to know "is it on my left side, or my right side?".

When I removed the previous Sensor, I had expected to see at least SOME skin reaction around the Sensor site. (I'm a Pumper, and my body reacts pretty strongly to my infusion sets, ) But there was ZERO redness, ZERO sensitivity- just the tiny hole where I had pulled the Sensor out. That was the main reason why I was willing to try the next one for even longer.

With an infusion set, there's a lot for your body to react to... if you use Stainless steel infusers, you probably won't get more than 2 days, because your immune system HATES stainless. I use a nylon "soft" infuser, the UltraFlex. But after about 3-1/2 days, I have to pull it: my body has always reacted to the nylon, and also reacts to the "carrier fluid" into which your insulin is dissolved. (Yeah, the nasty Burnt-Carbon smell of Humalog's fluid, and the only slightly less prominent smell of Novo, ARE issues.) Even after just 12 hours, the skin has already turned a bit pink, and the infuser "hole" is prominent.

The Salesman told me that the Dexcom Sensors, unlike the Minimed RT Sensors, are "fully oxygenated". I take this to mean that both the holder material (Titanium) and the Measurement Reactants are "pre-rusted", and incapable of additional redox reactions after insertion. I have no doco or experiment to verify what he says, but I did get 17 days.

Obviously some kinds of reactions ARE taking place (it has to generate a voltage diff under different sugar levels), but they might be somewhat reversible. Because there isn't any disturbance going on (nothing being infused, non-reactive Sensor material, and the flexible Sensor bends with your body), I'm pretty sure that your skin completely closes up around the Sensor during the first couple of days, preventing ANY chance of later infectious entry until you pull it out. If I'm right, and you put it in cleanly, you're totally safe from about day 3 until you pull it out.

BTW, the Sensor is about gage 32 (that's a SWAG), MUCH THINNER than the thinnest insulin syringe available. Not much of a hole there!

The FDA approval, for only 3 days, might be more related to concerns about "typical" pts. limited ability to maintain sterile conditions when they put a Sensor in. (And not at all related to the Sensor's accuracy for much longer periods.) For me and my wife (both straight-A chem students, she an MD) this is a non-issue. I leave the soap on my hands when hand washing, like a surgeon.

Obviously, if there's ever even the slightest hint of itch, I will remove the Sensor IMMEDIATELY.

See new Thread "Dexcom accuracy (my experience), LONG" for Accuracy comments... I didn't want to hide them within this topic of extending Sensor Life.

If you don't even trust a One-Touch Ultra, then this is definitely not for you... accuracy, by any measure, is AT LEAST 3 TIMES WORSE.