Issue with Freestyle Libre - Help please

[GracefulAng]

Good evening all,

My husband is having issues with the Libre sensor.

His sensor fell out twice this week.

When a new one was applied on him, low BG alarm went off several times last night and just got alert now. We are feeling frustrated.

Please help...

 

[rebrascora]

Sorry to hear his sensors have fallen off twice this week. Did he catch them on something? If not it may be that you need to be extra careful with his skin prep prior to application or the suite you chose was an area where muscle movement meant that the sides of the sensor were being pulled up. With him now having a more physically active job at the garden centre, this could be the issue or perhaps easier for him to catch it when lifting and carrying things. In the early days with Libre I lost a few, but gradually I developed a good skin prep and application routine and I also bought an arm strap which I find really beneficial. It looks a bit like a plastic watch face which fits exactly around the sensor and an adjustable elastic strap holds it in place. I still occasionally catch it but the arm strap gets "pinged" but the Libre stays limpet like on my arm even after 15 days (I apply my new sensor a day before I activate it, to give it more bedding in time) which I find gives me more reliable results from day one of activating it.
Please report the sensors which came off to Abbott and they will most likely replace them, but they may want them back so hang onto them until you have spoken to them. The NHS will not fund additional sensors to replace ones that fail to work for whatever reason, nor should they, because it is the manufacturers responsibility. The number to ring is on the box.

As regards it going off during the night, did he double check the low alarm with a finger prick? If his levels were not low, then the chances are that he lay on it in his sleep and caused what we call a compression low. The tell tale signs are that when the alarm goes off and you wake up, you are lying on that side and the graph shows that your levels suddenly dipped. A genuine nocturnal hypo is usually a slow steady descent. If you can post a photo of his graph showing the low, we can usually tell if it was likely a compression low. I have gradually learned not to sleep on the sensor arm or to put my other hand under the elbow of the sensor arm which just lifts the sensor off the bed enough not to cause a compression low. Placement on the arm is again important and more towards the back of the arm makes a compression low less likely as well as less likely to get knocked off.

I hope some of that info is helpful to him but I think most of us experienced some teething problems using sensors until we got the hang of them. I don't think I have lost a single sensor early in the 3 years I have been using an arm strap and they are to prize off with my finger nails and a grimace on day 15. I got my arm strap off ebay but I am sure other shopping sites sell them. They come in a variety of colours from skin tone through pastel colours to bright neons. I think mine cost £8.95 and it lasted 2 years and to be honest I really just need to get a new elastic strap for it to be functional again, but I fancied a change of colour so bought a new one earlier this year.