Fears and Findings from Freestyle Libre2

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harbottle said:
What else did you have alongside the cream slices?

I had a scone once when I wore a sensor and didn't see much of a rise at all, which quite surprised me.
I haven't eaten once since, but I suddenly have a craving for a scone and piles of Rodders clotted cream.
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Omg… clotted cream… with good quality jam on freshly made scones… one of life’s simple pleasures!

I think partly the issue was that it was a grazing type of event. So there was no period where levels could recover without getting more carbs to boost them higher.

It’s rare that mum does anything like this these days with the whole family and enough food to feed an army. She is aware of the sorts of things I would prefer but she defaulted to a tried and tested menu where almost everything was fried or wrapped in pastry. Even the salads she made were pasta salad, rice salad, potato salad.

There’s another couple of do’s over the summer and I’ve made a request for a massive green salad and maybe a roasted broccoli salad or a fake potato salad (it uses radishes which are roasted instead of spuds and although it’s not potato salad it’s a very good alternative).
 
harbottle said:
Sort of.

There's only two distinct phases when glucose is fed directly into the bloodstream - the sudden rise causes a release of what is thought to be 'stored' insulin from beta cells. This does cause a rapid rise of insulin and then a fall, followed by a slower rise of insulin (Second phase). In T2 diabetes it's been observed that this first release doesn't happen or is very small.

Under normal circumstances, the digestion of food means there's a slower release of glucose so the 'first phase' is not really distinguishable from the second phase (i.e. you don't get a massive rise on insulin that you get from the direct glucose) and it's actually a series of pulses at regular intervals. However, the lack of first phase does mean that the beta cells can't deal with rising levels effectively and this leads to the second phase (Which is slower anyway) having to deal with the whole lot... leading to high levels.

This is a great thread! I had some interesting observations when I used a Libre, mainly a sudden rise and fall when I had some oats. For some reason I stopped eating oats, even though the readings came back down to normal levels very quickly.
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That’s exactly howI have always understood the mechanics of T2 work. A broken initial insulin response, followed by the 2nd phase doing the mopping up.
 
Pattidevans said:
That’s exactly howI have always understood the mechanics of T2 work. A broken initial insulin response, followed by the 2nd phase doing the mopping up.
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Both phases are broken/blunted, as are the regular pulses that take place to control the basal glucose.. everything is broken! Add in insulin resistance and… It’s a bit of a mess. :-(
 
harbottle said:
Both phases are broken/blunted, as are the regular pulses that take place to control the basal glucose.. everything is broken! Add in insulin resistance and… It’s a bit of a mess. :-(
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So what would it look like for someone without diabetes?
 
ColinUK said:
So what would it look like for someone without diabetes?
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There’s plenty graphs online from non diabetics wearing the libre. Their patterns tend to be wobbly lines in the green during the day, with peaks after meals to 10 or so that come down quickly, and occasional dips under 4 before meals or overnight.
 
The sensor needed replacing today so that’s been done. It’s in the other arm and I’m waiting for it to ‘wake up’ and start reporting.
One thing I’m impressed by is that the Shuggah app automatically detected and connected to the new sensor.
 
New sensor today and suspected it wasn’t accurate.

Finger prick x 2 averages at 6.6 whereas sensor shows this:

IMG_0611.png

Hopefully it’ll settle down over the next 24 hours or I’ll contact Abbott and see what they suggest.
 
ColinUK said:
Omg… clotted cream… with good quality jam on freshly made scones… one of life’s simple pleasures!

I think partly the issue was that it was a grazing type of event. So there was no period where levels could recover without getting more carbs to boost them higher.

It’s rare that mum does anything like this these days with the whole family and enough food to feed an army. She is aware of the sorts of things I would prefer but she defaulted to a tried and tested menu where almost everything was fried or wrapped in pastry. Even the salads she made were pasta salad, rice salad, potato salad.

There’s another couple of do’s over the summer and I’ve made a request for a massive green salad and maybe a roasted broccoli salad or a fake potato salad (it uses radishes which are roasted instead of spuds and although it’s not potato salad it’s a very good alternative).
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I had roasted butternut squash, kale, pomegranate and feta salad which surprisingly was very nice, I was a bit dubious when I ordered it.
 
Sensor is still way out from averaged finger pricks.

Finger prick 6.9

IMG_0613.png

Presumably if I speak with Abbott tomorrow they’ll advise whether that’s within tolerances or if there’s potentially a fault with the sensor.

Either way I’ll likely attach the one I’m expecting to use in 14 days to my other arm and see what that says.

Open to thoughts and advice from others as well.
 
ColinUK said:
Sensor is still way out from averaged finger pricks.

Finger prick 6.9

View attachment 25851

Presumably if I speak with Abbott tomorrow they’ll advise whether that’s within tolerances or if there’s potentially a fault with the sensor.

Either way I’ll likely attach the one I’m expecting to use in 14 days to my other arm and see what that says.

Open to thoughts and advice from others as well.
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Don’t remove the sensor until you’ve spoken to Abbott, and make sure you have 3 pairs of readings from when the arrow was horizontal ready for them.
 
Spoke with Abbott first thing this morning.
All they asked was what the last set of comparisons were and that they would send a replacement and the return pack for the problematic one.
 
Even after a day of bedding in, some of mine can still then take another 12 hours to become near accurate. I’ve just started a new one after putting it on yesterday and it’s told me I’m hypo - I’m actually 8.4! Most annoying thing here is it ruins the TIR :rofl: - well, that and the inconvenience of finger pricking again!
 
@helli @pawprint91 I didn’t know it was an issue.
It was only the second sensor I’ve ever used so I’m learning.
Next time I’ll put it in/on a day early and not activate it.
 
As readings go, this lot is pretty uneventful. I’d even go so far as to describe this line as dull.

It’s a little higher than I’d ideally like but given I spent most of the day letting a wave of melancholia wash over me I’m not complaining at all.

IMG_0633.png

I’m going to keep using the sensors for at least three months. I want to get the predicted HbA1c down below 40 and to compare what is estimated against what’s tested.
 
ColinUK said:
As readings go, this lot is pretty uneventful. I’d even go so far as to describe this line as dull.

It’s a little higher than I’d ideally like but given I spent most of the day letting a wave of melancholia wash over me I’m not complaining at all.

View attachment 25932

I’m going to keep using the sensors for at least three months. I want to get the predicted HbA1c down below 40 and to compare what is estimated against what’s tested.
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@ColinUK , I've moved from Libre 2 to Dexcom One, after over 2 years of unreliability with Libre 2. BUT, I'm finding this thread deceptively interesting for at least 2 distinct reasons.

You are providing a perspective on the use of CGM that sits outside my daily hassle of trying to predict what my irregular readings are telling me! Dex One is a bit more stable for me than L2 was, but still mainly reading +2 higher than actual and I still need to finger prick at least 5x daily to confirm what insulin dosing I need to do. You don't have that pressure and I appreciate your narrative - so do please complete the 3 month trial (if you can).

But also other little differences pop up. For instance your picture above is not a snapshot from LibreLink, but some other app which might be more useful to myself or anyone else. What is that app and does it allow you to see your graph foe more or less than 24 hrs, or allow you to see the graph in Landscape mode, as well as portrait? Are the various extra details below customisable - ie can you have more or less than the 8 details your snapshot shows? I-phone or android?

No rush - just curious. Thanks Roland
 
@Proud to be erratic
I run two apps. I have LibreLink installed as a back up but it’s not my primary one.
Because I really wanted a CGM rather than a flash monitor I installed Shuggah and that is the screenshot above.
If you turn it into landscape you can scroll back day by day but I can’t see a method of displaying a graph for any extended period.
I’ve not really fiddled with the settings though as I’m not using it to gauge insulin doses.

I know others on the forum use it as it was someone on here who suggested it to me!
 
ColinUK said:
I’m going to keep using the sensors for at least three months. I want to get the predicted HbA1c down below 40 and to compare what is estimated against what’s tested.
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My experience of Libre's estimated HBA1C is that it is another useful metric to track but definitely not the same as a blood test HBA1C.
Libre consistently estimates about 10 lower than my blood does for HBA1C. Considering I now find Libre 2 reasonably accurate, it highlights to me that it is measuring something different so I just consider it something else to use to track stability.
With Type 1, I feel I the cost of reducing my HBA1C further would come at a significant cost to the rest of my life. I am happy to stay at about 45 (or 35 as LibreLink estimates). Hence I say I track stability not progress.
 
Proud to be erratic said:
For instance your picture above is not a snapshot from LibreLink, but some other app which might be more useful to myself or anyone else.
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Looks like Shuggah which I’m using with dexcom one (as well as using the official app) to get bg readings on my Fitbit so that I can check BG more discreetly when performing etc.
 
This is what stress did to my levels yesterday and overnight.

Carb consumption was fine and even on the low side for me but stress was off the charts.

Today will be better as I get a handle on things I need to respond to rather than react to.

IMG_0652.png
 
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