High and Low Alerts

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sharp00782

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Am I alone here or does anyone else get really frustrated when they get a high or a low alert from their Freestyle Libre. I just think when I feel ok, why can’t I have just one sodding day without a damn alert.

Honestly it’s really doing my head in.
 
I regularly want to frisbee my phone into the wall (esp at 4am and its a compression low and I had to wake up to test with fingerstab)
 
gll said:
I regularly want to frisbee my phone into the wall (esp at 4am and its a compression low and I had to wake up to test with fingerstab)
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I know right. I’m only recently diagnosed, like 3 months in but it enrages me beyond belief. I genuinely can’t be arsed with it although I know I need to be.

Fed up up of correction injections and so on and so forth. Sometimes I just want to be normal and have a snack. Honestly it’s awful.
 
No, I like the safety net that alarms give me. But I’ve been diabetic for a long time and really struggled with the lack of tech when first diagnosed. I was pricking my fingers A LOT to begin with, so my fingers like the alarms too. 😉 It’s really hard at first @sharp00782 - but it does get easier, honest! 🙂
 
Bloden said:
No, I like the safety net that alarms give me. But I’ve been diabetic for a long time and really struggled with the lack of tech when first diagnosed. I was pricking my fingers A LOT to begin with, so my fingers like the alarms too. 😉 It’s really hard at first @sharp00782 - but it does get easier, honest! 🙂
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Appreciate that. I just get stressed out sometimes when I “think” I’m doing well.
 
sharp00782 said:
I know right. I’m only recently diagnosed, like 3 months in but it enrages me beyond belief. I genuinely can’t be arsed with it although I know I need to be.

Fed up up of correction injections and so on and so forth. Sometimes I just want to be normal and have a snack. Honestly it’s awful.
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Look at your basal dose if your doing loads of corrections.

Like Bloden I'm grateful for tech like alarms on libre, it's been long time coming.
 
sharp00782 said:
Appreciate that. I just get stressed out sometimes when I “think” I’m doing well.
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Libre said 3.6, blood said 4.6 ... Where was I before I was so rudely interrupted? ... Oh yes:

Sharp, I'm only 4 months in; I would be even more unhinged than I am if I used the high alert! The low alert is more than enough. My diabetes team actually advised me not to use the high alert, for which I'm grateful!

For the highs-- Nonethewiser's right; if you're having to do a lot of corrections, especially if you're having high highs, upping your basal seems likely to be the way to go. Do you have a good diabetes team? Can you speak to them about it?

Total sympathy, though-- this T1D malarkey is awful; I just try to believe old hands like Bloden when they say it will get easier. All the best!
 
I don,'t mind correct alerts, its the fake ones that get my goat.
 
We were getting alerts every single night with the libre and it drove us crazy BUT then the alarm stopped working and that has been way way worse. After having many phone calls with librelink and them making me replace his sensor a total of 4 times in one week ! My surgery is supplying these sensers and you can imagine their reaction ! You get two per month now you are asking to have had 6 this month. So another phone call to libre, they caused the problem they can sort it out. They made me replace the sensors and so i felt they should replace them free of charge. They agreed to do so. I said whilst you are at it you can send me a reader because we are back to square one with the phone app alarm not working. Yesterday a big box arrived. Inside was one tiny box , one sensor , that box would have held 12. No reader. Today another box same size arrived and one sensor. So they have replaced two. My surgery will be happy.
hoping tomorrow another box arrives containing a reader. ,they all should have been in one box. I wonder how big this reader will be ?
 
sharp00782 said:
Am I alone here or does anyone else get really frustrated when they get a high or a low alert from their Freestyle Libre. I just think when I feel ok, why can’t I have just one sodding day without a damn alert.

Honestly it’s really doing my head in.
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I understand how you feel , it really does do your head in, however when alerts stop working , believe me you wish they were going off.
 
No, I like the alarms. They’re so helpful. Yes, sometimes they’ll go off at inconvenient times but I really don’t care. It’s fabulous to have this technology. TBH, your frustration sounds like it’s more aimed at the diabetes itself. Be kind to yourself and give yourself time. The emotional side takes far longer than the practical side to get used to.
 
oh hands down i prefer to have alarms in place than not but they are still annoying when you are fully asleep and cosy in bed and have to fumble about for the actual meter.
 
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Inka of course we prefer the alarm Thats what panicked us when it stopped working. It's frightening without it. I naively thought insulin would stop these hypos which are always at night. We have to sleep and barely get 3 hrs its just not enough sleep.
 
I hope your reader comes today @Mafanwy - it’s smaller than a mobile. I’m so much happier now I’ve got alarms again!
 
Mafanwy said:
I naively thought insulin would stop these hypos which are always at night.
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It is insulin which causes the hypos (that is why you treat a hypo with fast acting carbs) so the way to stop them is to reduce the insulin dose after discussion with your health care professional unless you are confident to make dose adjustments yourself .....BUT ONLY IF they are genuine hypos.... which is why you need to check them by doing finger pricks when the alarm goes off.
 
I deliberately stuck with the original Libre that doesn't have alarms because I value my sleep and I know that almost all alarm systems generate a lot of false alarms, but I have also learned and got confidence in my body waking me up when my levels do get low. That said, I have been recently experiencing a lot of nocturnal lows (I woke up 3x last night to genuine low readings) so I am now at the stage that I am ready to try the Libre 2 with alarms. Once I get this problem sorted, I envisage switching off the alarms again until such times as I have another phase of nocturnal hypo propblems.... which happen from time to time, usually due to increased exercise. I can't lower my insulin any further as not taking any at night for the past week. I don't like being too reliant on the technology but there are times when it is useful.
 
I turned off the high alarms as I scan often anyway and don't want alarms going off when it's just after a meal and could probably be expected to be outside target range anyway. I have had enough problems with alarms going off when low but set that slightly higher than default in order to catch myself before going hypo.

I suppose it depends what our targets are and what we are prepared to tolerate...we need to live too.
 
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