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Libre 2
- Thread starter Madhatter
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Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Yes @Madhatter Each sensor lasts 14 days and then you need a new sensor. Are you on any medication for the diabetes?
Welcome to the forum 🙂
Welcome to the forum 🙂
Some people use their Libre to learn how their body reacts to different foods over the 14 days. Then uses this information to manage their diabetes going forward. For example, if you found porridge caused a spike in your BG, try yoghurt for breakfast.
You can then get another sensor a month or two later to review where you are and whether you need to make any tweaks.
As you are unlike to experience hypos, you do not need a sensor all the time.
You can then get another sensor a month or two later to review where you are and whether you need to make any tweaks.
As you are unlike to experience hypos, you do not need a sensor all the time.
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Inka
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- Type 1
I agree with @helli Just use a sensor judiciously to build up a picture of what your blood sugar is doing, then change to fingerpricks. You can then get another sensor in a few months to see how you’ve progressed. As you’re ‘only’ on Metformin, you don’t really need a sensor. They’re not as accurate as fingerpricks.
Proud to be erratic
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Hello @Madhatter,
There are 2 fairly widely found sensors in the lower cost bracket and Libre 2 lends itself to "interrupted usage". The other, Dexcom One, is a 2 part system with a sensor that last only 10 days but needs a transmitter that lasts 90 days once it has been activated; so is not cost effective unless used continuously.
There are many different things that affect our blood glucose. The most obvious one is what we eat but a close second factor is activity /exercise. Beyond those 2 factors there are many other things, such as the weather, stress, other ailments and medications, weekdays vs weekends and indeed many other less apparent things that alter our metabolism. So, by using CGM to help you identify what does (or doesn’t) suit your metabolism you would help yourself by keeping to a minimum how many things you alter at any one time to assess what happened.
Libre, used sparingly, can be extremely helpful in this sort of experimentation. For example you might find that porridge is something that sends your BG skywards or is something your metabolism manages readily and any short term spike is dissipated. Similarly you should be able to identify activity that brings about a reduction in your natural insulin resistance and thus allows your natural insulin to work much more efficiently in lowering your BG. Such activity could be as simple as a 10 min walk after each main meal or an hour just onyour feet doing something quite mundane but necessary.
As @helli has said a 14 day sensor can tell you quite a lot, then a period without Libre but monitoring by finger prick testing can allow you to confirm what you've discovered before exploring a different set of changes. I think the important things are:
There are 2 fairly widely found sensors in the lower cost bracket and Libre 2 lends itself to "interrupted usage". The other, Dexcom One, is a 2 part system with a sensor that last only 10 days but needs a transmitter that lasts 90 days once it has been activated; so is not cost effective unless used continuously.
There are many different things that affect our blood glucose. The most obvious one is what we eat but a close second factor is activity /exercise. Beyond those 2 factors there are many other things, such as the weather, stress, other ailments and medications, weekdays vs weekends and indeed many other less apparent things that alter our metabolism. So, by using CGM to help you identify what does (or doesn’t) suit your metabolism you would help yourself by keeping to a minimum how many things you alter at any one time to assess what happened.
Libre, used sparingly, can be extremely helpful in this sort of experimentation. For example you might find that porridge is something that sends your BG skywards or is something your metabolism manages readily and any short term spike is dissipated. Similarly you should be able to identify activity that brings about a reduction in your natural insulin resistance and thus allows your natural insulin to work much more efficiently in lowering your BG. Such activity could be as simple as a 10 min walk after each main meal or an hour just onyour feet doing something quite mundane but necessary.
As @helli has said a 14 day sensor can tell you quite a lot, then a period without Libre but monitoring by finger prick testing can allow you to confirm what you've discovered before exploring a different set of changes. I think the important things are:
To be consistent in any fp testing, eg test just before eating or exercising then test 2 hrs later and note the outcome. With CGM the results, as you have already seen, are emerging on the graph.
To monitor the trends rather than any single number. Yes, there are spikes, but how has your metabolism managed those? If the sipkes las for several hours then that is something to address. Of course very high numbers should be heeded, but not over-reacted to.
CGM also shows you what has been going on during fasting periods, such as night-time. It is nigh on impossible to see much overnight from fps without an alarm clock and intrusion into your sleep - which is not beneficial.
As you have already remarked having "side to side" sensors is expensive and it really is not a justifiable expense; I need my CGM to be continuous because I'm insulin dependent and benefit from the alarms as well as the constant BG information.
Good luck. Do let us know how you get on and let others know things they might get a benefit from reading about.
Leadinglights
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- Type 2
You mention you are on metformin and although that will give your body a helping hand in reducing your blood glucose it will be the dietary changes which will have most impact. You can be guided in that by testing the effect of meals with either something like the Libre but that can sometimes give too much information and people can over react but many find finger pricking satisfactory to give information about the effect of meals by testing before eating and after 2 hours when they would be looking for no more than a 2-3mmol/l increase or as levels come down no more than 8-8.5mmol/l that allows better meal choices. It not only tells you what it is best to avoid or have only in reduced portions but what you can eat safely.
For a low carb approach which many find successful have a look at this link https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
It is suggested that a good starting point is no more than 130g carbs per day, it is not NO carbs.
You say your HbA1C was high, do you know what that is as it will determine how much work you need to do.
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That’s almost exactly what I did when I first started self funding Libre sensors (to keep the costs down). I’d wait until things had drifted a bit, then use a sensor for a fortnight as a bit of a reset. Then once I’d tweaked a few things, and results were improved I could wait a few weeks again.
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