Alcohol prep pads and "connected pens"

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Caterham Driver

Caterham Driver

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi,

Is anyone having difficulty in obtaining the alcohol prep wipes that you use before applying your sensor to your arm (a Freestyle Libre 2 in my case)? I can’t seem to get them anywhere except online, in which case the postage is very high or I have to order 100 or 200 wipes i.e. 2 to 4 years supply.

No help from the chemists, or any other high street shops selling similar items either. Doctors will not prescribe them as I am self-funded.

On a completely different subject can the Freestyle app be used with insulin pens other than Novo?

TIA
 
I find a good shower before applying Libre sensors is fine as long as I have used no moisturiser (including no moisturiser in the shower gel) - I have no use for single use wipes.
However, if you do want to wipe your arm with alcohol, how about buying a bottle of surgical spirit and use it with a flannel?
 
I bought some at our local independent pharmacy, and I’m sure if they’d been out of stock they’d have ordered some in for me. Doctors will not prescribe them, full stop, it doesn’t matter if you’re self funded or getting the Libre on prescription, they are a cheap item like paracetamol, that we are supposed to fund ourselves.

Do you mean, are there any other smart pens that will download the dosing history onto an app? I don’t know of any apart from the Novopen EchoPlus, which you can only use if you’re on compatible insulin cartridges.
 
I'm another one who now just washes my arm with soap and water and then dries it thoroughly before applying Libre and I have no problems with adhesion since Abbott stopped including the wipes.

Do be aware that the smart pens will also record your air shots as well as genuine injected insulin, so you need to then delete those air shots from the data base if accurate tally of insulin use is important to you. It seems to me if you have to manually delete half the recorded insulin doses then it negates the benefit of the pen in the first place. I really can't see the benefit and will continue to just manually input that info.... it just takes seconds!
 
Never used an alcohol swab before applying a sensor. I just have a wash in the shower.

What insulins do you use? If it’s not one of the specified novopens then it won’t connect to the libre but you can manually add your doses.
 
I used to use them when they were supplied, but haven’t bothered since they stopped supplying them.

I was reading Pumping Insulin before I started on an insulin pump (years ago now!) and alcohol wipes were mentioned for pump sites. I asked my DSN who advised against regularly using them because of the toughening/drying effect they can have on the area. She advised just being ‘normally’ clean (so don’t whack a site, or presumably sensor, straight in if you’ve been doing heavy work in a crawlspace without having a good shower first).
 
Get my alcohol swabs from Amazon, they list fair few brands but usually just go for cheapest. Last order paid about £4 for 200, they just come in envelope as box is folded flat & easy to put together to store them in.

Use mine for to clean skin before applying libre sensor, also to clean infusion site before & after removal.
 
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