Freestyle libre not working

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Hi Bruce, thanks - this is an extensive report but gives hints on skin problems. I certainly have a reddening of my skin around the free style sensor, will try the other arm. But as I have said, these are incredibly expensive trials and errors!
 
We have only ever had two failures so far, and we have been using the system continuously for about 2 1/2 years. One almost certainly didn't go in properly, daughter said it was hurting, although what we did differently I have no idea! The second seemed to insert ok, 6 hours later we got a reading from it all perfectly normal, and then another 6 hours after that we got an error message saying it had stopped working, please insert a new sensor. Maybe a dud battery or something? In both cases Abbott replaced the sensors free of charge.

Some people do seem to have a lot more problems with the system than others though, it's very odd!
 
Rick Homer said:
I certainly have a reddening of my skin around the free style sensor, will try the other arm. But as I have said, these are incredibly expensive trials and errors!
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For what little it's worth, my takeaway was always change sites (so don't overlap, as our Strong and Stable leader has been pictured as doing), make sure you clean and let dry for the new one, and make sure you clean carefully after removing the old one. (And if you get some allergic reaction, the paper gives some suggestions for things which might help. But might not. I didn't get the sense that they'd be likely to help prophylactically.)
 
I should add to my earlier comment, that I can get the ‘sensor not found’ error at will. All you do is switch the reader on, and don’t hold it close to the sensor. In about ten seconds, the error appears.

It doesn’t appear in any other circumstance that can contrive. I tried my reader on a very dusty old sensor I found under the bed. It did recognise it as a sensor and told me to use the one that was currently in use, or words to that effect.

So that is the problem at the top of the thread solved, in all likelihood, as was posited earlier. Not holding the reader close enough to the sensor.

The phone App, by the way, gives you a much longer time to bring the top closer to the sensor.
 
I am wondering if it is a faulty reader rather than a problem with the sensors.

Or as @mikeyB says, could it be you’re waiting too long between switching the reader on and swiping it close to the sensor.

Over the 18 months or so that I’ve been using them continuously I’ve not had any total failures like you have , that why I am suspecting it’s your reader. The only time I’ve had the sensor not found messages is when I have waited too long to scan or the sensor had come adrift, if it’s the former just switch the read off and back on and scan.

When you have spoken to Abbott have they taken you through the reader test and event log sections on the reader.

If it does turn out to be the reader Abbott should replace it and send you a pre paid pack to send your old reader back.
 
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The takeaway Bruce, is some thing I eat! not sure of your vocabulary here! The paper inside the box certainly didn't suggest site changes and nor did the nurses at the hospital. I use the Samsung S8 phone App not their reader, so I would be very surprised if some was wrong with this reader. I am going to get my wife to have a very good look at the site and the sensor, may send a pic?? I will try the other arm, but this is my last sensor and I have limited funds to get another as they are now £49 each. But how easy is it for Abbott to send you replacement sensors - do they needs reams of evidence etc?!
 
Rick Homer said:
The takeaway Bruce, is some thing I eat! not sure of your vocabulary here! The paper inside the box certainly didn't suggest site changes and nor did the nurses at the hospital. I use the Samsung S8 phone App not their reader, so I would be very surprised if some was wrong with this reader. I am going to get my wife to have a very good look at the site and the sensor, may send a pic?? I will try the other arm, but this is my last sensor and I have limited funds to get another as they are now £49 each. But how easy is it for Abbott to send you replacement sensors - do they needs reams of evidence etc?!
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Ah sorry I assumed you used the reader, have you tried scanning with the reader after getting the error message on your S8 if so was it successful.

To get a faulty sensor or reader replaced it’s best to phone Abbott rather than email them.
They will go through some things with you, not sure about the App as I don’t use one. they will send replacements but they will need the sensor or if it was the reader, the reader back in the pre paid envelope they provide
 
I have tried to use Abbott reader, but it says the sensor is linked to another reader i.e. the S8 App. I will remove the sensor and check for damage on it and my skin. Use my final one for my right arm, unlike the unhelpful picture with the pack, that shows only the left arm. I know it may sound obvious, but you follow new instructions so precisely that you do not vary from their pictures, even when it's obvious to do so!! Thanks for general advice, this is the first time I have ever been on a forum of any kind and I have found it very helpful, thanks to everyone.

Rick (UK)
 
I use both arms and rotate around 3 areas around both arms to give the puncture site time to heal and skin to recover , When I’ve used three areas on one arm I change to the other arm and so on.

I have a vague memory of reading somewhere on this forum,when using an App that you should start or activate the sensor not sure which with the reader, but as I am not sure at all on this I’ll tag @everydayupsanddowns and @Northerner
So I advise waiting to apply another till they reply unless of course others know the answer
Good luck
 
If you want to use a phone app as well as the official reader, then you MUST initialise the sensor with the Libre reader first, and then scan the phone app anytime within the 60 mins startup time. Then you will be allowed to use either device. But if you initialise the sensor with the phone app first then the reader will be locked out until you start a new sensor.

i guess this is because phone apps came out later and their programming was adjusted to allow them to read a sensor already in use by the Libre device (as long as you scan it during the start up time). The Libre readers can only cope with one reader to one sensor at a time and the programming has never been changed. Maybe for a reason though, you'd probably get a bit confused if you had two sensors on the go at once!
 
I was just about to post that word for word, Sally. Linking both must be done within 60 minutes, reader first.

I spark up the sensor as soon as I fit it using the reader, then the phone straight after. It’s part of the routine of fitting a new sensor. Then, it might be easy to forget your reader when you are out, but nobody forgets their phones these days.

Actually, all this info can be found in the user manual on the App, but real men don’t bother with user manuals :D
 
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Hi Rick. As you can see above we had quite a few problems to start with and finally sorted out the problem by getting them to replace the reader, which did the trick. If your sensor fails then as long as you've followed the instructions - which is clearly the case - then you should get a replacement one. I found the staff on the helpline went through the script and were unable to depart from it but that's a common problem.

On the prescription question we are in Glasgow and my understanding is that they are trying this out with a certain age range - my son is 14. I should add that we are concerned by the level of accuracy of this system.
 
I don’t have any great worries about the accuracy, my readings are always within the normal range of a fingerprick test. Don’t forget, fingerpick tests aren’t the gold standard anyway. You can get variations up to 1.5 between different machines.

There is one circumstance where it is not accurate (as stated in its user manual) is in recovering from a hypo, when you should rely on normal testing. Because it is around 10-15 minutes behind reality, you can overshoot corrections. It doesn’t do sudden changes. As I said, all this is explained in the documentation.
 
Also any CGM, including the Libre, is never going to be as accurate as a finger prick test because it is not reading blood, it is reading interstitial fluid. And as mikeyB said, finger prick tests aren't perfect either. The Libre is best used for the trends, it can be mightily useful to know if you are rising or falling, if you are then roughly at the high or low end of the range you know whether you need to do something about it or not.
 
Rick Homer said:
The paper inside the box certainly didn't suggest site changes and nor did the nurses at the hospital.
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I was referring to the paper I linked to, which was talking (mostly) about allergic reactions and other skin damage. My reading of it (just mine, so quite possibly I'm misinterpreting) is that minimising the time bits of skin are touching the glue is important (and avoiding skin damage as much as possible also matters), so rotating sites, careful cleaning after removal, removing gently and slowly, etc., are likely to be good things to do. If you already have some allergic reaction they suggest some things that might help (various barriers, etc.) but my impression is that it's possible to develop reactions to those, too, so (I suspect) there's not much advantage in trying them until you need to.

Without knowing the actual level of allergic reactions, it seems hard to know how worried it's worth being. Maybe the rate is really low (so it not being mentioned is reasonable). Still, some things are (at least for me) easy enough and seem logical (cleaning carefully before applying and after removal, removing slowly (to try and reduce skin damage from that), swapping arms.
 
Rotating sites is easy for me - except in summer, I just leave the old one attached until it’s time to put the new one in. Maybe it’s my skin, but the sensors stay on four weeks if I leave them. So they never go on to an old site.

Needless to say, I’ve got no significant skin reaction.
 
Phil Cooke said:
Hi everyone. We recently took delivery, along with a lot of other people in Glasgow, of a new freestyle libre kit. It's for our 14 year old son who, like everyone else, was rather looking forward to a major reduction in the daily blood letting process. We are now on to our third sensor and like the two predecessors it shows no sign of springing into action. We have fitted the sensor according to instructions, the reader seems to work, we've spent quite some time on the help-line, but are getting nowhere and our frustration is increasing. We hold the reader up to the sensor and after a few seconds we get three depressing beeps and an error message.

I'm aware these devices are not without problems but has anyone else experienced problems getting started? Are we missing something?

Thanks

Are you using a phone to read the sensor too. If so make sure you scan the reader first when you replace the sensor. I rang the helpline and told them my reader was not charging and they just replaced it - worth a try???

Phil
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This is so similar to me. 1st day on system and not working. Not set up phone app but reader not working. Other libre scanners recognise that the sensor is paired with another device so I think the sensor must be working. Abbot are sending a new one out in 7 days
 
Did you set the reader up with all the info it needs, time, day, date and so forth?
 
Phil Cooke said:
Hi everyone. We recently took delivery, along with a lot of other people in Glasgow, of a new freestyle libre kit. It's for our 14 year old son who, like everyone else, was rather looking forward to a major reduction in the daily blood letting process. We are now on to our third sensor and like the two predecessors it shows no sign of springing into action. We have fitted the sensor according to instructions, the reader seems to work, we've spent quite some time on the help-line, but are getting nowhere and our frustration is increasing. We hold the reader up to the sensor and after a few seconds we get three depressing beeps and an error message.

I'm aware these devices are not without problems but has anyone else experienced problems getting started? Are we missing something?

Thanks

Phil
Click to expand...
Been using Freestyle Libre 2 for 3months now. Only had 1 sensor failure which was replaced promptly. I have found it to be fairly accurate compared to finger pricks and easy to use. My main issue is with the alarms which was the main reason I began using the system. I have found that the bluetooth alarm has no signal about 90% of the time on my phone. (Honor 10). As a result I ordered a Freestyle 2 reader which I have used to start 1 sensor so far. The reader also lost bluetooth signal after 1 day so is now useless. Will try it again on next sensor but with little expectation of success. Beginning to think it was a expensive mistake switching to freestyle and may just revert to finger pricks.
 
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