How many scans do you do a day?

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pawprint91

pawprint91

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Just being nosey and wondering what everyone averages out at. I am a bit obsessive and do a whopping 18 per day on average apparently, but sometimes it feels like more (I know it is!) and I almost annoy myself by doing it. I'm better since I consistently use my alarms to alert me to a problem, but I still find myself doing a lot (when I'm not at work and therefore can't!). How about everyone else?
 
pawprint91 said:
Just being nosey and wondering what everyone averages out at. I am a bit obsessive and do a whopping 18 per day on average apparently, but sometimes it feels like more (I know it is!) and I almost annoy myself by doing it. I'm better since I consistently use my alarms to alert me to a problem, but I still find myself doing a lot (when I'm not at work and therefore can't!). How about everyone else?
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Hi,

Always on waking, always before sleep, always before a meal, always on alerts. So I'd make that no less than 6 times a day. Realistically, probably more than 10 though.
 
pawprint91 said:
Just being nosey and wondering what everyone averages out at. I am a bit obsessive and do a whopping 18 per day on average apparently, but sometimes it feels like more (I know it is!) and I almost annoy myself by doing it. I'm better since I consistently use my alarms to alert me to a problem, but I still find myself doing a lot (when I'm not at work and therefore can't!). How about everyone else?
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I was scanning an average of a little over 40 times a day. (I can't tell now because I use unsupported software that shows the reading without scanning, but I presume it's increased if anything.)
 
pawprint91 said:
Just being nosey and wondering what everyone averages out at. I am a bit obsessive and do a whopping 18 per day on average apparently, but sometimes it feels like more (I know it is!) and I almost annoy myself by doing it. I'm better since I consistently use my alarms to alert me to a problem, but I still find myself doing a lot (when I'm not at work and therefore can't!). How about everyone else?
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I was very relieved to read Bruce's post, because my Libre 2 tells me that, over the past 3 months, I have scanned on average 23 times a day ... So your 18 a day is not exceptionally whopping!

Helli's post also makes me think there's yet another advantage of rtCGM-- whether achieved by adapting Libre or by getting a different CGM: If there is no record of how often you check, you're less likely to worry about how often you check. ; ) And we all have quite enough to worry about!
 
Spathiphyllum said:
I was very relieved to read Bruce's post, because my Libre 2 tells me that, over the past 3 months, I have scanned on average 23 times a day ... So your 18 a day is not exceptionally whopping!
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There was an opinion that you should only scan when you expect to act on the result, but I think it's generally accepted now that there's probably not a problem with scanning much more often than that. (There was observational evidence suggesting that more frequent scans is correlated with better control.)

(Obviously there are risks of overcorrection, worrying overmuch with short term variations, etc. I think those reduce as one realises the normal variations in BG and learn not to panic so soon.)
 
helli said:
Since adapting my Libre to send readings via Bluetooth to my phone, I lost count how many times I glance at my phone to check things are ok. I barely realise I am doing it most of the time.
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And I have mine showing on my watch now which surely encourages even more glancing. (I quite often have to look twice at my watch because I realise I actually do want to see what time it is too.)
 
Shedloads! Lots more than op. Now on dexcom G6 so no one knows. And yes, was waiting to be told off by the diabetes team for checking so often!
 
I average mid 30s and have done from getting Libre nearly 3 years ago. I think the lowest I have dropped to is high 20s per day, so 18 definitely isn't excessive in my book.
 
Basically, at least as often as necessary to keep the community diabetes team happy! They demand a minimum of 8 per day. But like @helli, my Libre is linked to a third-party app on my phone and Apple Watch, but I couldn’t even hazard a guess at how often I view the figures
 
Bruce Stephens said:
There was an opinion that you should only scan when you expect to act on the result
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That's certainly what I was advised at the Libre training at hospital, hence "Always on waking, always before sleep, always before a meal, always on alerts."
 
PS Thanks, Pawprint, for starting this thread! I had been worried that I might be scanning 'too much'-- which meant I was also worried that, if I posted here asking, I would get loads of 'horrified face' emojis. So I'm grateful you broke the ice!
 
What I would say is that I don't act on most of my 30+ scans a day but it has given me so much background info about how my body is responding to different situations and that gives me more experience and confidence to make good decisions when I do need to take action. I don't fret about the data I get and I don't seem to spend much time thinking about it and I almost never review my data once it is beyond a day old, but that regular input just seems to build some sort of picture in my "auto pilot" system.
 
I think the check eight times probably harks back to when we were on MDI without sensors, so the amount of fingerprick tests.
The sensors make life a lot easier and at the start I had picked up the idea of only check if I was going to do something with the info. I soon got used to checking when I wanted to. Since I was self funding at the start there was little discussion at appointments about whether this was ‘too often’. My diabetes My way.

I did find that once I had the sensor I got into the mind set that I could ‘get better management‘ and then set myself unrealistic targets. Always good to broach things on here as it helps to get an idea of what people do in reality.

with the rtCGM now available the amount of scans becomes irrelevant and perhaps puts the CGM data from swiping into better perspective. If we want to know what is happening, why not scan.
Because I have rtCGM which chats to my pump every 5 mins, I guess that counts as absolutely loads of checks, although I don’t look a lot of the time as the pump is automatically doing adjustments in the closed loop.
 
Looking on app over 90 days average 11 scans per day, did a lot more when first got device but that's like getting g new toy where fascination soon fades in time.
 
SB2015 said:
I think the check eight times probably harks back to when we were on MDI without sensors, so the amount of fingerprick tests.
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Yes. It was quite clear to me this was a money thing - “if you don’t scan at least 8 times a day, we aren’t saving any money on test strips” was the overall tone!
 
Can you set the Libre 2 to get readings automatically to Android Phone via Bluetooth?
 
DaPa said:
I assume they are additional apps independent of the Libre App?
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Yes. I used xDrip+ in preference to LibreLink
I preferred the alarm settings, using Bluetooth and being able to calibrate the sensor to me rather than "factory man".
You can set it up to allow scanning via LibreLink if your DSN demands it.
 
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