11 years in and on libre now for some proper questions...

[rossi_mac]

Hullo,

To get on the old libre freestyle i had to go on a Cedric course at local hospital. At first i found it a bit doom and gloom but that thought soon passed and it was great speaking to others, old, young boy, girl.

So I've finally started injecting before eating, always intended to but never have, i I can see spikes are already less severe. How long before you eat do you inject?

Liver, when we get low it dumps some glycogen or something? How low do we need to be for that to happen and how much is dumped? I don't mind being a smidge below 4 but sometimes when i I have a fast acting carb snack it's as if i have eaten more so is that the trusty liver working? Also how much does it dump??

Final question do you people on the libre still carry a finger prick tester around with you? Today is only day 5 and I've decided to only carry reader insulin pen and some glucotabs...?

How all's well.

Cheers
Rossi.

 

[Ljc]

Hi. I use a Libre and for me it’s been a game changer.
Q1 . It depends on how insulin resistant a person is as to how long before meals we need to inject , yup just like everything else to do with diabetes we are all different in this. I would Try the standard advice for your insulin, then see what your Libre graph says.
Q2 I will leave that to the more experienced people on here.
Q3. Because of the time lag , around 15 minutes between blood and the interstitial fluid that the Libre tests, it’s is not recommended to use the sensorsWhen treating a hypo as it’s far to easy to overshoot, also if your sensor should fail or part company with your arm as they do sometimes , you could be up the river without a paddle,
If they haven’t already been prescribed for you you could see if they will prescribe the Optium strips that the Libre uses ,that way you don’t have to carry so much kit around with you .

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hullo,

To get on the old libre freestyle i had to go on a Cedric course at local hospital. At first i found it a bit doom and gloom but that thought soon passed and it was great speaking to others, old, young boy, girl.

Hello again Rossi Mac. Lovely to see you posting!

Those courses are usually really good, and meeting and chatting to others is often the best part!

So I've finally started injecting before eating, always intended to but never have, i I can see spikes are already less severe. How long before you eat do you inject?

That’s great - and it will definitely help your insulin and food act together. ‘Rapid’ Insulin doesn’t start acting for about 15 minutes so some people use that as a guide, but I’ve never found that it works that logically and (for me) depends more on the time of day and food being eaten. You’ll have to experiment I think. Start with 10 minutes maybe and see how you get on, then adjust by meal. For me breakfast and lunch need longer and Eve meal often needs no waiting at all. I also find it helps to wait longer if I’m above range to start with.

Liver, when we get low it dumps some glycogen or something? How low do we need to be for that to happen and how much is dumped? I don't mind being a smidge below 4 but sometimes when i I have a fast acting carb snack it's as if i have eaten more so is that the trusty liver working? Also how much does it dump??

I can never tell, and mine is completely unreliable. Sometimes it’s none at all, sometimes it’s loads. But my liver is often twitchier the day after a nasty hypo.

Final question do you people on the libre still carry a finger prick tester around with you? Today is only day 5 and I've decided to only carry reader insulin pen and some glucotabs...?

How all's well.

Cheers
Rossi.

You should carry an actual BG meter if you are driving. Other than that it’s up to you 🙂

I find it helpful to do a BG check before food, and partly it depends on how well the sensor I’m currently wearing is performing. The are usually pretty spot on for me, so I often go out with just sensor.

 

[grovesy]

Nice to see you back posting.

 

[Kaylz]

I wondered where you had gone!

1 - completely depends what time of day it is for me and also injection site used, breakfast for me is thigh and a 25 minute wait whereas tea is stomach and instantly need to eat after injecting
2 - I think it depends and just makes up its own mind to be honest, I've had 11g carbs and shot up whereas the next hypo I've had 30g carbs over 2 hours just to get up and stay there
3 - I still finger prick when injecting (it causes friction with a few) but the rep at the education suggested we do it as well so that's what I'll stick to, although the DVLA accept a scan now if I drove I'd still be carrying a meter due to the time lag with the Libre so often takes longer for it to show a recovery from a low
xx

 

[trophywench]

Everybody - including all the diabetes consultants and specialist nurses, we know not to mention the people with diabetes - would LOVE to know what the liver does and when it does it, with its glycogen stores! We all know what it's supposed to do and when it's supposed to do it - but that's all really!

I confidently expect they'll discover a foolproof way of predicting the action, immediately before they discover a cure.

So - within the next 10 years, obviously!

 

[leonS]

Just mention: if hypo just before meal, I eat first and inject (reduced amount of) insulin afterwards.

If Libra says that I am close to death I require second opinion from finger prick!

 

[Sally71]

We have to do finger pricks when bolusing so that the pump can work out the correct dose (on the Combo there isn't a way that you can enter a blood sugar value from any other device, you have to do a finger prick test on its own meter). But that serves as a useful check that the sensor is still behaving itself, it has also saved us more than once when blood sugar reading came out at something like 27, which would normally instantly alert me that something is wrong but I can’t have been thinking clearly that day and just whacked in food bolus plus massive correction; only then to scan the Libre and finding it sitting steadily at a nice 6.8! Umm... washed hands and pricked again and got 8-ish, that's more like it, oops didn't need that correction then, bring on the cake 😱

Also when things are moving quickly the sensor lags behind, so when coming out of a hypo it's best to finger prick, many times in that situation Libre has still been reading LO or in the 2s and finger prick reads 5.6 and you don't want to overcorrect!

 

[SB2015]

Hullo,

To get on the old libre freestyle i had to go on a Cedric course at local hospital. At first i found it a bit doom and gloom but that thought soon passed and it was great speaking to others, old, young boy, girl.

So I've finally started injecting before eating, always intended to but never have, i I can see spikes are already less severe. How long before you eat do you inject?

Liver, when we get low it dumps some glycogen or something? How low do we need to be for that to happen and how much is dumped? I don't mind being a smidge below 4 but sometimes when i I have a fast acting carb snack it's as if i have eaten more so is that the trusty liver working? Also how much does it dump??

Final question do you people on the libre still carry a finger prick tester around with you? Today is only day 5 and I've decided to only carry reader insulin pen and some glucotabs...?

How all's well.

Cheers
Rossi.

Hi Rossi, good to hear from you.

I inject different amounts of time before eating depending on
- time of day
- BG level when I test (I have to do this on BG meter to talk to my Combo pump) and also info on the Libre
So as others have said it depends, and I have worked out a vague rule by trial and improvement, but as usual with D it then doesn’t always work the same, but it is a good starting point.

No idea when the Liver would dump the glucose, but I tend to adjust my hypo treatment depending on info on the Libre, varying the treatment according to when I pick it up and how quickly it is dropping.

I still carry my test kit, and use that before meals as I need it to talk to the pump, and don’t want to get caught out being offered a yummy biscuit/cake/... and want to miss out. I use the Libre most of the time between meals, and especially during exercise.

Hope that helps.