DexCom G4 Platinum: Follow Up
Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 5:01PM 
It's been three months since I first gave my impressions of the new DexCom G4 Platinum CGM and two months since I published a Second Look piece. Today it's time for a follow up...
Overall I am quite pleased to say that everything that I previously reported to you about the G4 still stands as true. Signal distance is vastly improved, insertion is less of an issue from a pain standpoint and accuracy is often spot on. What then you ask prompted me to write a follow up? I wanted to share my experience with DexCom customer service and how they handled my call to tell them that the thumb pad on Arden's receiver was breaking.
Before I get to the thumb pad I want say that not long after we began to use the new G4 I noticed an odd video noise on the screen when the receiver transitioned from screen to screen. It happens mostly when entering a BG, a garbled image appears as the receiver switches from one screen to the next. I never noticed a decrease in the receiver's accuracy so I assumed that the video noise wasn't a critical issue and decided not to call CS over what I deemed a cosmetic glitch.
A few weeks later the thumb pad began acting up. The thumb pad is basically five buttons, up, down, left, right and center. The donut shaped disc handles the directional clicks and the small nub in the middle, selects. Our unit's disc began to not go back into place after selecting down. The disc would rock as it should toward the down selection but then never fully return to it's starting point. I felt like it was only a matter of time before the disc became worn further. I imagined that soon instead of just getting stuck in the down position the disc was going to pop out. I let things go for as long as I could and then I called DexCom this past Saturday morning.
I explained that the thumb pad was loose and getting worse. The kind woman on the phone asked politely if I had dropped it, we hadn't. She verified my address, apologized that it wouldn't be able to ship until Monday and explained how I should go about making the switch once the new unit arrived. The entire call took less then five minutes. It was very pleasant.
It seems that I timed my phone call almost perfectly as nine hours later, as we were preparing to eat dinner for the first time at Harold's in Edison, NJ, (you may have seen the picture on FaceBook of Arden with our "slice" of cake) the thumb pad fell out completely. I used a piece of packing tape to hold everthing in place until Tuesday. Here's what the unit looks like when the thumb pad comes off:
Initially I wanted to be annoyed that the receiver had issues after such a short time, but instead I took a more reasonable position. New technology is prone to issues like this, early adopters take a risk in my opinion. As long as the manufacturer stands behind the product and doesn't make its replacement a headache, I'm okay with stuff like this happening. I wish it wouldn't, but I understand. I hope that my issue is either isolated or promptly addressed by DexCom. Who knows, maybe it already has been in more recent runs of the product.
If you are seeing this issue with your unit, It's my opinion is that you can expect it to eventually become a problem that will need your attention.
CGM, DexCom, Follow Up, review, technology in Daddy's Blog, DexCom Blog 
Reader Comments (6)
The same exact thing happened to mine - except I had only had it for about a month. I understand too that new devices will have glitches. However due to the frequency of this issue, to me seems like one that should have been identified before mass production. Although I'm not holding it against them since the product overall is fantastic :)
My daughter's did the same thing this weekend and I just got off the phone with Dexcom and a new one will be here tomorrow. Was hoping that it was actually dropped and she didn't tell me but it sounds like this is an issue.
I've been using mine for about 3 months and haven't seen this issue. Though the cover over the USB port did fall off. I must have dropped the receiver and a small piece of plastic fell out of the slide that holds the cover on.
I agree with you completely. Any new technology is bound to have problems once it's out in the field getting put through its paces in real life. Doesn't make it any less annoying. Glad you didn't have to wait long for a replacement.
The cover on our USB port fell off as well. About 4 weeks into using it. I've been lazy and haven't called customer service. Perhaps I need to. In the meantime, I'm going to order up a cover from tallgear - the new receiver is just so fragile it needs to be in a protective case at all times!
Replacement arrived earlier today. Going to try and wait until the current sensor gives up... Tomorrow is day 13.
Interesting - my replacement just arrived today - I've had the unit for about a month, and Sat sometime during the day all of the sound just stopped working. I rely heavily on the audibles so this was pretty distressing to me. The lady on the phone was nice enough except when she basically accused me of getting it wet and wanted me to acknowlege that if they found out I did they would charge me for the unit. I definitely didn't get it wet - but the way she said it makes me wonder if they might say "You Did!" and try to charge me. It was kind of irksome - but they did send a new one and a new sensor, so can't complain too much. Aside from that - the adhesive on the new one is KILLING me compared to the 7+ - does anyone know what type of adhesive is on the 7+? I've tried the skin barrier which helps but by about day 4-5 I have terrible blisters under the sensor :-( Dexcom said "Sorry!" - they said they can't recommend anything because it isn't FDA approved and they refuse to disclose the old tape. They did replace my first 2 sensors that just fell right off. But I just want to wear it without my skin falling off.