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I have hypoglycaemia v

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Fliss17

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Hi

my name is Alison, I have hypoglycaemia, and feel so ill with it.

im having a blood glucose monitor fitted.
my question is how accurate are these monitors compared to the usual ones

TIA
 
Hi @Fliss17 and welcome to the forum. I am sure many of our experienced continuous blood glucose monitoring members will be along with comments.

Just to make sure, your problem is hypoglycaemia, that is abnormally low blood glucose, and not hyperglycaemia, that is abnormally high blood glucose?
 
Hi @Fliss17 and welcome to the forum.
Sorry to hear that you are having problems with hypos.
It will help us if you can tell us how you manage your diabetes.
Injections or pump?

Is it the Libre sensor that you have been given?
I use these myself and they are great for identifying patterns in your glucose levels.
They are measuring glucose in the interstitial fluid so these are likely to be slightly different from your blood glucose readings, since they are measuring different things. I don’t look at the results on the Libre to make decisions about Bolus insulin doses but they are still very informative.

The arrows alongside your glucose levels help to show you how your levels are changing. I find this enables me to head off hypos most of the time and also see when I am going high. It is also very useful before driving. A 5 with a downward arrow, and I will eat before driving. A 5 and level I can set off without worrying.

The patterns on the graphs help me to see if there are specific areas that I need to work onto change carb ratio. The spikes that I saw after meals helped me to make changes to my diet and portion sizes to being those down.

Come back with any questions you have.
 
Docb said:
Hi @Fliss17 and welcome to the forum. I am sure many of our experienced continuous blood glucose monitoring members will be along with comments.

Just to make sure, your problem is hypoglycaemia, that is abnormally low blood glucose, and not hyperglycaemia, that is abnormally high blood glucose?
Click to expand...
Relative hypoglycaemia is been diagnosed. But having lows of less then 3.8 on a regular basis.
Even down to 2.8. When I have done absolutely nothing different with my diet, except running after my grandchildren which I help care for
 
Fliss17 said:
Relative hypoglycaemia is been diagnosed. But having lows of less then 3.8 on a regular basis.
Even down to 2.8. When I have done absolutely nothing different with my diet, except running after my grandchildren which I help care for
Click to expand...
Sorry that should reactive
 
I wonder if the OP is suffering with Reactive Hypoglycaemia rather than diabetes since they don't specify a Type of diabetes in their profile...

If you are talking about a Freestyle Libre sensor, I find them fantastic and I base almost all of my decisions on the information they give me with confidence. They can show you a little bit lower than you actually are when you are hypo or slightly higher at the top end (hyper) but most times they are really close to the actual BG reading.
 
Fliss17 said:
im having a blood glucose monitor fitted.
my question is how accurate are these monitors compared to the usual ones
Click to expand...
I'm assuming the "blood glucose monitor" is a CGM (or Flash GM). Those measure interstitial fluid rather than blood, so are 10-15 minutes later (compared to blood glucose levels).

In terms of accuracy, compared to a test strip based blood glucose monitor they're not far off (just a little less accurate, on average, when comparing both to a few ml of blood tested in the lab). When we compare such a sensor to our blood test meter, we're comparing two things which have (really quite significant) errors, and it's tempting to regard the test strip machine as accurate (and so the CGM/Flash GM as not), when that's not fair.

(Though the sensors vary, and sometimes they really are way off.)

CGM/Flash GM results are delayed by about 15 minutes (relative to blood glucose) which is important to remember. There's every chance you'll find that (and the accuracy) OK to work with with some practice.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Do your levels also go quite high after meals? The Libre or whatever other system you have, should show you if this is happening and then your pancreas kicks in and unfortunately in your case, over reacts and produces too much insulin which is why your levels then drop. If that is the situation then eating lower carbohydrate foods and eating little and often is usually the best way to manage it.... but perhaps you know that... and keeping topped up during and several hours after you have been active, to help prevent your levels dropping.
 
Fliss17 said:
Relative hypoglycaemia is been diagnosed. But having lows of less then 3.8 on a regular basis.
Even down to 2.8. When I have done absolutely nothing different with my diet, except running after my grandchildren which I help care for
Click to expand...
Fliss17 said:
Sorry that should reactive
Click to expand...

Thank you for confirming that @Fliss17. I thought it important to get confirmation so that the thread stays on track and is relevant to you.
 
Fliss17 said:
Relative hypoglycaemia is been diagnosed. But having lows of less then 3.8 on a regular basis.
Even down to 2.8. When I have done absolutely nothing different with my diet, except running after my grandchildren which I help care for
Click to expand...
Sorry that should reactive
rebrascora said:
Do your levels also go quite high after meals? The Libre or whatever other system you have, should show you if this is happening and then your pancreas kicks in and unfortunately in your case, over reacts and produces too much insulin which is why your levels then drop. If that is the situation then eating lower carbohydrate foods and eating little and often is usually the best way to manage it.... but perhaps you know that... and keeping topped up during and several hours after you have been active, to help prevent your levels dropping.
Click to expand...
tha ms barbara, that is how I have been working things, unfortunately it’s getting to the stage where any type of food sets it off. It’s down right disheartening
 
Fliss - do you know yet anything about what 'they' are going to fit you up to - eg a name?
 
You obviously haven't got it yet then? Is this something your GP or consultant suggested might be helpful?
How long have you been having problems with this and how did you come to be diagnosed? It is quite rare I believe so it is good that you have a diagnosis and they are looking at technology to help you manage it.
 
rebrascora said:
You obviously haven't got it yet then? Is this something your GP or consultant suggested might be helpful?
How long have you been having problems with this and how did you come to be diagnosed? It is quite rare I believe so it is good that you have a diagnosis and they are looking at technology to help you manage it.
Click to expand...
I was diagnosed about 8 years ago by having a 5 hour glucose intolerance test, at one point I was as low as 1.8 I have recently been getting worse so my consultant is recommending a monitor. What it will be I don’t know. Do you have them in permanently?
 
I would imagine it will be a Freestyle Libre and the new model Libre 2 which is just becoming available in the UK this month will be really helpful for you as it has alarms to tell you that you are going low (or high).
It is a sensor about the size of a 50pence piece (but round) which is applied to the back of your arm and there is a little filament which inserts into the skin when it is applied. Adhesive keeps it in place and it lasts 2 weeks and then you replace it. You can scan it 100+ times a day if you like (the novelty soon swears off) and it also produces a graph so that you can see what is happening with your levels when you are not scanning.... through the night for instance.... as the sensor is regularly sampling and recording your levels every few minutes and it then plots a graph when you scan it with the reader in the morning.... or half way through the night if you wake up and want to check? It really is an amazing piece of kit. If you Google "Freestyle Libre" you should find the Abbott Laboratories website and there are videos explaining it all.
If you don't understand anything about it, just ask.
 
rebrascora said:
I would imagine it will be a Freestyle Libre and the new model Libre 2 which is just becoming available in the UK this month will be really helpful for you as it has alarms to tell you that you are going low (or high).
It is a sensor about the size of a 50pence piece (but round) which is applied to the back of your arm and there is a little filament which inserts into the skin when it is applied. Adhesive keeps it in place and it lasts 2 weeks and then you replace it. You can scan it 100+ times a day if you like (the novelty soon swears off) and it also produces a graph so that you can see what is happening with your levels when you are not scanning.... through the night for instance.... as the sensor is regularly sampling and recording your levels every few minutes and it then plots a graph when you scan it with the reader in the morning.... or half way through the night if you wake up and want to check? It really is an amazing piece of kit. If you Google "Freestyle Libre" you should find the Abbott Laboratories website and there are videos explaining it all.
If you don't understand anything about it, just ask.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for the info. That all
Makes sense, he did say the one I would be having would give alarms
 
It may well not be a Libre, which is called a 'Flash' glucose monitor because although it transmits its readings from the sensor if you wish to see what it's reading, you can flash the reader across the sensor and then see it on the screen of the reader, and subsequently download the reader to a computer program to access other info, the hospital may loan you a more complicated Continuous Blood Glucose monitor - which may or may not be attached to the sensor (the older ones did not have screens so the user didn't have a clue what results it was reporting until it was downloaded a week or fortnight later at the hospital and discussed with you. They didn't have alarms though.

The modern continuous ones don't have to be attached and do have alarms. Certainly the Libre one is considerably cheaper. The user can install the prog on their home computer and the diabetes clinics normally send us their link, so each time we download the results to it, they can easily access those results whenever we give them permission to do so. Whether they'll do that for you or not remains to be seen - a voyage of discovery both for you and them!
 
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