Hypos

[Imstillme]

how many times a day do you check yourselves if you hypo a lot.

 

[nonethewiser]

As many as needed until all settles down, libre is useful in spotting trends that signal lows coming on.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

I just posted this on Joe's thread:

I test as soon as I wake up, before meals, before bed, any time I feel hypo, and any time my Libre says I'm hypo (not always the same). Before I got the Libre I was testing about 8-10 times per day most days, but I have a lot of hypos so I suspect that's more than most people test. Now I'm testing 6-8 times per day most days.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I find 8-10 checks a day easy to get to on BG strips. And I’m likely to glance at sensor trace more like 15-25 times a day.

4 is my absolute minimum, and 6-7 not unusual even if wearing a sensor.

 

[KARNAK]

I go low very often so I test at least eight times a day on a finger prick. I see the consultant on Wednesday hoping too get a Libre.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

From only testing approximately 8 times a day to both testing approximately 8 times a day and wearing a libre. A certain amount of overkill.

Unfortunately I haven't found the Libre very reliable for me, the sensors are often 2-3 mmol/L out and sometimes they go completely mad and read hypo all the time. But I do find the arrows and graphs extremely useful, and they have helped me to head off a lot of hypos.

I also said I'd gone from 8-10 tests per day to 6-8 tests per day - I was often using 70 strips in a week and now on a good week I could use just over 40 strips - so "approximately 8 times a day to ... approximately 8 times a day" is not what I said.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

@everydayupsanddowns You use a 640g pump so I assume you are talking about sensor/pump integration, and using finger tests to check your integrated sensors. That is a seperate issue.
Libre sensors are as accurate as finger tests the majority of the time. When using Libre I run the data through my phone (blucon or miaomiao will work) then calibrate twice a week with finger sticks while glucose level is at 5mmol.
If your libre sensors are constantly giving bad data I would suggest going back to finger sticks full time.

My sensors rarely give bad data tbh. But you had said that you checked 8x a day with Libre so now I’m confused that it’s only 2x per week? I guess I misunderstood your post. I generally check 4x a day for calibration, but may also check another once or twice if sensors don’t match how I’m feeling etc. Moreso when DVLA required fingerstick for driving.

Sometimes I do find it useful to check post hypo if sensor lag is making me wonder if I should double-treat, but that’s not very often.

Interestingly I’ve just looked up 39 day stats which say 5.1 BG checks per day, so my thought of 6-7 with sensors is a bit out of date and probably dates to fingersticks for driving 🙂

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

But the Libre graphs are useful, they are showing me things I wouldn't have known about with just testing, like the fact that if I eat all my lunch at once I'm likely to spike afterwards, but if I stop and do something halfway through it I'm much less likely to. And the arrows are useful, they are helping me have fewer hypos. I had four hypos last week - sometimes pre-Libre I've had 17 hypos in a week.

If I had to choose between them I'd keep the test strips and ditch the Libre because the test strips are more reliable, but no-one has said to me that it's a choice - so far as my diabetes team and I are concerned, I use everything I can get to help me have fewer hypos.