Freestyle Libre - Sensor failure rate of 40%

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Derrick Baughan said:
Has anyone else kept a track of the failure rate of the sensor?

I have just started with the system. A 'trial' where I was issued a reader and one sensor, at the hospital but by a company rep. Clearly not a trial in the true sense of the word. More a marketing ploy to create demand. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with that. I am now self-funding the sensors until my CCG (Cambridgeshire) approve the use.

The system is a step change in how I manage my diabetes and I find it extremely useful. However, I now have my 5th sensor on and, after 4 days, it looks like it is failing. I keep getting the error message that glucose readings are not available, try again in a few minutes.

This will be the 2nd of 5 sensors to fail, a rate of 40%. Tomorrow I ring Abbot up to see what they have to say. Anyone else had a similar experience or am I just the unlucky one to get the Friday afternoon sensors?
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My daughter has had 3 out of her last 4 libre freestyle 2 CGMs fail. Abbott have been helpful in reiki I get them, but doesn’t deal with the stress of the issue. I think as many people as possible need to complain or speak to the NHS to hopefully get this resolved.
 
helli said:
The “wait 10 minutes” message is not a sensor failure.
It is, usually, an indication your levels are changing too quickly for Libre to calculate.
There are some errors which start with this message when it is not resolved. But not all wait “10 minute“ messages are precursors to failure. They are correct, designed behaviour.
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How kind of you to help with this. Solved and issue for me. First time I’ve put a chat. Thank you.
 
I have been using my libre pads for about 3 months now & have experienced that at least 7 sensors have failed, I call the helpline & they are replaced but I find this very disappointing on the product. All sensors have been returned for tests as it is a very regular ocurance. When they work, absolutely Brilliant but reliability is poor. Hopefully on all the returned ones they will get some answers.
 
I'd never had a single scan again in 10 minutes message until very recently just as I was thinking I'd tell you all I'd never had one - that served me right for getting complacent. Anyway it was simply because my BG was shooting up cos it turned out I hadn't bolused for some cake, so at least scanning made me rectify that.

Then I scanned again, and though of course it was still way high, it read it which was the main thing.
 
Carl H said:
I have been using my libre pads for about 3 months now & have experienced that at least 7 sensors have failed, I call the helpline & they are replaced but I find this very disappointing on the product. All sensors have been returned for tests as it is a very regular ocurance. When they work, absolutely Brilliant but reliability is poor. Hopefully on all the returned ones they will get some answers.
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It seems there's quite a few people with this issue when I was on them they hardly ever lasted. V
 
trophywench said:
I'd never had a single scan again in 10 minutes message until very recently just as I was thinking I'd tell you all I'd never had one - that served me right for getting complacent. Anyway it was simply because my BG was shooting up cos it turned out I hadn't bolused for some cake, so at least scanning made me rectify that.

Then I scanned again, and though of course it was still way high, it read it which was the main thing.
Click to expand...

I haven‘t used them regularly for a while, but was lucky to have very very few errors in all the years I used L1 and L2
 
I haven’t had to send back a single Libre 2 sensor since I've been using them, and I only ever sent back 2 original Libres in the couple of years I used them. I’m probably tempting fate here, but they seem to suit some peoples arms better than others, and I'm one of the lucky ones.
 
Robin said:
I haven’t had to send back a single Libre 2 sensor since I've been using them, and I only ever sent back 2 original Libres in the couple of years I used them. I’m probably tempting fate here, but they seem to suit some peoples arms better than others, and I'm one of the lucky ones.
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I agree. I've reluctantly accepted that my (still) 50% failure rate is me! My body and Libre 2 don't seem to like each other. My current Libre started almost 3 points above actual, dropped a bit then yesterday was 2 points low and now seems close. All comparisons in steady state, ie horizontal arrows. I use and broadly trust the trend arrows but finger prick before main meals and any corrections.
I work with unreliable Libres and 'work' is an appropriate bit of vocabulary, constantly having to mentally adjust and check what is going on in relation to what I was anticipating. But I work with them because the faff of constantly replacing and waiting for replacements makes it necessary that I do tolerate and work with them.
 
Mine was more
Proud to be erratic said:
I agree. I've reluctantly accepted that my (still) 50% failure rate is me! My body and Libre 2 don't seem to like each other. My current Libre started almost 3 points above actual, dropped a bit then yesterday was 2 points low and now seems close. All comparisons in steady state, ie horizontal arrows. I use and broadly trust the trend arrows but finger prick before main meals and any corrections.
I work with unreliable Libres and 'work' is an appropriate bit of vocabulary, constantly having to mentally adjust and check what is going on in relation to what I was anticipating. But I work with them because the faff of constantly replacing and waiting for replacements makes it necessary that I do tolerate and work with them.
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Mine was more like 90% failure and it was inaccuracies that was the problem it was roping then just at toping working quite often after 2 or 3 days.
 
Honestly they are so accurate for me, within 0.03mmol/l. I have had maybe 2 failures since I have had them prescribed - what maybe 3 years? Before that when I was paying I also had maybe 2 failures and I have been using them on and off since they were first launched.

I now rely on them for dosing. Only finger prick once or twice when I put a new one on just to check accuracy. They are always spot on. I do wear mine on my thigh which does rule out night time compression lows as I tend to sleep on my arms.
 
helli said:
How do you calculate such accuracy when they (and all finger prick meters I have used) only report one decimal place?
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I guessed it was a typo and it was supposed to say 0.3?
 
Last edited:
Derrick Baughan said:
Has anyone else kept a track of the failure rate of the sensor?

I have just started with the system. A 'trial' where I was issued a reader and one sensor, at the hospital but by a company rep. Clearly not a trial in the true sense of the word. More a marketing ploy to create demand. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with that. I am now self-funding the sensors until my CCG (Cambridgeshire) approve the use.

The system is a step change in how I manage my diabetes and I find it extremely useful. However, I now have my 5th sensor on and, after 4 days, it looks like it is failing. I keep getting the error message that glucose readings are not available, try again in a few minutes.

This will be the 2nd of 5 sensors to fail, a rate of 40%. Tomorrow I ring Abbot up to see what they have to say. Anyone else had a similar experience or am I just the unlucky one to get the Friday afternoon sensors?
Click to expand...
I have been using Libre since about March. Didn't have a very good first impression as my first one fell off roughly 2 hours after having it put on - could have been an incorrect application (my DSN did it for me as she was demonstrating how it should be applied, and perhaps my arm wasn't cleaned well enough). Abbott did replace this one with no fuss though. My second failure was that it was constantly reading between 3 or 4 mmol/L above my finger prick readings. It started off reading perfectly good but after a few days it started to go further and further out. Abbott also replaced that one too. If I remember right this was in June, I think.

Since then they have mostly been reliable. I've not needed to contact Abbott again so far. I've had a couple of sensors that were reading a couple of mmol/L above my finger prick readings, once I got used to this discrepancy I compensated for it.

Generally I have been pleased, although I do still think Abbott need to look at the reliability of the sensors themselves and the data they provide. I understand that they have launched a Libre 3 which may hopefully address some of these issues. No idea when or if it will b available in the UK though.
 
Derrick Baughan said:
Has anyone else kept a track of the failure rate of the sensor?

I have just started with the system. A 'trial' where I was issued a reader and one sensor, at the hospital but by a company rep. Clearly not a trial in the true sense of the word. More a marketing ploy to create demand. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with that. I am now self-funding the sensors until my CCG (Cambridgeshire) approve the use.

The system is a step change in how I manage my diabetes and I find it extremely useful. However, I now have my 5th sensor on and, after 4 days, it looks like it is failing. I keep getting the error message that glucose readings are not available, try again in a few minutes.

This will be the 2nd of 5 sensors to fail, a rate of 40%. Tomorrow I ring Abbot up to see what they have to say. Anyone else had a similar experience or am I just the unlucky one to get the Friday afternoon sensors?
Click to expand...
I've had the last 5 in a row fail well before the 14 days!!
 
Griff said:
I've had the last 5 in a row fail well before the 14 days!!
Click to expand...
Similar here .. 3 out of 4 failed.
I am a Type 2 but got them from GP on script...

Started on 1st October .. 1st failed on day 6, 2nd lasted 14 days .. Yahoo.. 3rd failed on day 8 and 4th has failed on day 9. So on my 5th sensor in 6 weeks ...

Abbot have replaced the 1st two failed ones and i am awaiting the reason / investigation why the 2nd one failed ( you have to ask for the investigation results) . I have just reported the 3rd failure but investigation can take 90 days .. not much help in trying to ascertain reasons for the failures..

I basically have a desk job and so not very energetic so that should not be the reason.

I have also tried a Love my libre on sensor 2 and 3 but sensor 3 still failed. I have not had one on sensor 4 and that has failed so am at a bit of a loss as to why they keep failing.
 
Where do you live in the UK? We still can't get sensors for type 2 in the Solihull area!
 
Bristol area - South Glos.
There was a web site i read somewhere (didn't bookmark it) which explained how to inform your GP that the Fresstyle Libre should be available with NO COST TO GP it seems for type 2 but certain criteria .. some that i remember....
  • On Insulin
  • Injecing more than 3 times a day (I was injecting up to 6 times with various Bolus of Rapid insulin)
  • Excessive Finger Prick Testing (I was up to 7-10 times a day)
Following a DKA and my Sugars/HBA1C going all over the place it seemed sensible to move to the CGM from finger prick tests

See https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/news/nice-guidelines-recommend-wider-use-for-flash-and-cgm

Hope that helps
 
I would comment on this thread if someone would explain what they mean by "failure". Is this meaning that the sensor no longer supplies information, or it just falls off? Until we define what we mean by failure we may be commenting on different things.
 
In my case I have had 2 types of "failure"
  1. 1st and 3rd Failed with the readings dropping to hypo / red (3.9 or less) for a number of readings then the App (on an Android - Samsung S10 plus) stating to replace sensor.
  2. 2nd Failure, the sensor kept giving low / Red Hypo readings for over 6 hours yet blood tests were showing 6 - 8 - 10 readings. At that point I just replaced the sensor.
So, IMHO, a failure would be that the sensor is no longer showing readings above 3.9 which seems to indicate that the sensor cannot detect an accurate Blood Sugar level. The fact that the App itself in 2 out of 3 cases actually told me to replace the sensor is helpful.

The fact that Abbott are taking up to 90 days to investigate failed Sensors is not good.

Hope that Helps
Regards
Stef
 
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