'Freestyle Libre + water' experiment

Status
Not open for further replies.
missclb

missclb

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I recently went on a scuba diving trip with two days left on my sensor. Instead of removing it (which was my plan) at the last minute I thought I'd see if it could survive an hour underwater. I had nothing to lose. Low and behold – it survived! I cross-referenced the result with a finger prick test, and the result was very close. So I decided to keep the experiment going. Over its last two days of life, it survived six hour-long dives at depths varying between 12-28 metres. All the way through, I double checked the results with my old-school meter – I had one reading that was 5.1 versus 7.6 on my Libre which was the biggest difference, but the rest were all close enough to be acceptable.

It finally died of natural causes at the end of its 14-day lifespan. What a little trooper!

I was wearing a 3mm wetsuit, which may have given it some added protection, and I rinsed it pretty well after each dive with clean water, but nonetheless, I was pretty amazed given that the manufacturer only guarantees 30 mins of surface swimming. Obviously, they’ll always err on the cautious side with their recommendations, but for me, it’s a total result and I just wanted to share in case anyone else has wondered where its limits are.

Disclaimer: sensors may not be created equal – dunk yours at your own discretion.
 
missclb said:
I recently went on a scuba diving trip with two days left on my sensor. Instead of removing it (which was my plan) at the last minute I thought I'd see if it could survive an hour underwater. I had nothing to lose. Low and behold – it survived! I cross-referenced the result with a finger prick test, and the result was very close. So I decided to keep the experiment going. Over its last two days of life, it survived six hour-long dives at depths varying between 12-28 metres. All the way through, I double checked the results with my old-school meter – I had one reading that was 5.1 versus 7.6 on my Libre which was the biggest difference, but the rest were all close enough to be acceptable.

It finally died of natural causes at the end of its 14-day lifespan. What a little trooper!

I was wearing a 3mm wetsuit, which may have given it some added protection, and I rinsed it pretty well after each dive with clean water, but nonetheless, I was pretty amazed given that the manufacturer only guarantees 30 mins of surface swimming. Obviously, they’ll always err on the cautious side with their recommendations, but for me, it’s a total result and I just wanted to share in case anyone else has wondered where its limits are.

Disclaimer: sensors may not be created equal – dunk yours at your own discretion.
Click to expand...
Wow, that's brilliant you scuba dive and great news about your sensor.
 
I wonder if it's the tape and not the sensor the manufactures are worried about?

Very pleased it survived and hope you continue to enjoy your scuba diving 🙂
 
That is excellent news. I think it is the tape that has the problem with extended submersion, and is more prone to fall off just after, but fine once dry again. I shall still give mine some extra help because of the invisible magnet in it and all the door jams around our house.
 
When I go swimming I go for hours. And is always survived.
 
I've got other news for fellow Libristas. I've been using a sensor that is 2 weeks past it's sell by date, and checking it with the occasional fingerprick. Works just fine. The reader doesn't know. I know I'm the only one daft enough to try this, but I've used Lea & Perrins that was 18 months past it's sell by date, and it was fine, so I thought a piece of solid state electronics would work surely....
 
mikeyB said:
I've got other news for fellow Libristas. I've been using a sensor that is 2 weeks past it's sell by date, and checking it with the occasional fingerprick. Works just fine. The reader doesn't know. I know I'm the only one daft enough to try this, but I've used Lea & Perrins that was 18 months past it's sell by date, and it was fine, so I thought a piece of solid state electronics would work surely....
Click to expand...
Oh, that's useful to know, thank you, I've got a sensor I might or might not get round to before its use by date. I was wondering if you'd have to trick it by setting the date of the reader back in time a bit, but the sensors are obv not date sensitive at all.
You and I were brought up in the days before use by dates. I'm sure our mothers used their eyes and their noses to judge if food was still fit for consumption, and I'm quite sure I'll have eaten larder-aged Lea and Perrins in my youth.
 
Caroline
That's great news, thanks for reporting the results of yor experment. In a couple of weeks I plan to go diving whilst on holiday and was thinking about timing my dives to be near my sensor's predicted end of life. Now I think I'll be less wary, and will aim to replicate your test to some extent (depths & times may vary). I will report the results (Btw I note your discliamer! )
Andrew
missclb said:
I recently went on a scuba diving trip with two days left on my sensor. Instead of removing it (which was my plan) at the last minute I thought I'd see if it could survive an hour underwater. I had nothing to lose. Low and behold – it survived! I cross-referenced the result with a finger prick test, and the result was very close. So I decided to keep the experiment going. Over its last two days of life, it survived six hour-long dives at depths varying between 12-28 metres. All the way through, I double checked the results with my old-school meter – I had one reading that was 5.1 versus 7.6 on my Libre which was the biggest difference, but the rest were all close enough to be acceptable.

It finally died of natural causes at the end of its 14-day lifespan. What a little trooper!

I was wearing a 3mm wetsuit, which may have given it some added protection, and I rinsed it pretty well after each dive with clean water, but nonetheless, I was pretty amazed given that the manufacturer only guarantees 30 mins of surface swimming. Obviously, they’ll always err on the cautious side with their recommendations, but for me, it’s a total result and I just wanted to share in case anyone else has wondered where its limits are.

Disclaimer: sensors may not be created equal – dunk yours at your own discretion.
Click to expand...
 
mikeyB said:
I've got other news for fellow Libristas. I've been using a sensor that is 2 weeks past it's sell by date, and checking it with the occasional fingerprick. Works just fine. The reader doesn't know. I know I'm the only one daft enough to try this, but I've used Lea & Perrins that was 18 months past it's sell by date, and it was fine, so I thought a piece of solid state electronics would work surely....
Click to expand...
It depends whether the reader is programmed to still read it after the use by date, just as it won't read the sensor after it's been active for two weeks (but the sensor itself is still reading your blood sugar!). Maybe then the use by date just means that they can't guarantee battery freshness after that.
 
andrew_x said:
Caroline
That's great news, thanks for reporting the results of yor experment. In a couple of weeks I plan to go diving whilst on holiday and was thinking about timing my dives to be near my sensor's predicted end of life. Now I think I'll be less wary, and will aim to replicate your test to some extent (depths & times may vary). I will report the results (Btw I note your discliamer! )
Andrew
Click to expand...
Hi Caroline, all
I did get the chance to try one FreestyleLibre sensor whilst scuba diving this summer, and my snesor survived too. I was lucky enough to be on holiday in Thailand, and did 3 dives in one day. First dive was to 12m, second to 15m and the third to 13m. Water temp was 27 degrees, and the times I was under were 39 minutes, 33 minutes and 22 minutes respectively. In short the sensor suvived and provided readings to the end of its expected life a week later. What's more, the readings were as close to blood strip readings as they usually are for me e.g my bg (by test srip) was 5.8mmol/l before my third dive, vs a 6.6 mmol/l reading on the Freestyle libre, and this performance was maintained 'til the natural death of the sensor. I was wearing a wetsuit (3mm I think, though I didn't note that in my dive log).
 
I recently acquired the «Freestyle libre» reader, right before going on holiday in Bahamas with a newly placed sensor. I went on scuba diving twice in the morning every two days during a week.
The first day (2 dives) I tried to protect the sensor with a thin semi waterproof plaster, but because of the plaster being super sticky on both the sensor and hair, I decided to not protect it anymore (the plaster did not prevent the sensor to get wet anyway). So I spent remaining 6 dives unprotected (except with the neoprene Shorty covering half the sensor, and no shorty at all for the last dive). Sensor has worked pretty fine for 2 weeks and had to be changed according to the scanner message. My blood sugar profile during this "scuba diving week" did match the ones I had the 4 years before under strictly the same conditions. Although I had my AccuCheck mobile device as a backup, I did not even felt like I should have used it to compare results. As a summary, my sensor resisted 8 dives, going between 25m and 42m deep with an average of 50min per dive, temperature was between 26°C & 28°C both on the beach and under water (even at 40m depth).
 
I used to do a lot of swimming and I was alway surprised by how long it lasted
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top