Post hyper libre2 temporary fail

[swimmingalong]

hello! I’m about 2 months into my Type 2 journey. Seeking to control with food intake changes alone. My HBA1C at diagnosis were 51 and 49 two weeks later. Having being finger pricking 7 times a day (before meal/2hrs after + bedtime) I finally got the confidence to try a freestyle libre. I’m one week in and it has given me so much more info and so much freedom.

Well. Until yesterday when everything went a bit wrong. It was a family birthday celebration and someone else was buying. The menu was a nightmare… though really the chicken salad with potato skins with hindsight would’ve been my best option… but I chose “beef chilli filled burrito with mixed salad “. I thought I could maybe leave the wrap, or some of it and just eat beef chilli, cheese and salad. Wider family don’t know about my diagnosis so I didn’t “make a fuss” asking too many questions/asking for something special. Obviously this was stupid. When my shame about my diagnosis actually did me harm. It came. I could’ve cried. Not mentioned on the menu THE CHILLI WAS FILLED WITH RICE… all mixed in. Not a hope of separation. So I ate it. It was delicious. I ate it ALL (I know I should’ve stopped and left some) then had a cup of tea while everyone else had amazing looking puddings.

My BG went up past 12. I was home alone for a short while so drank two pints of water. Unfortunately this made me vomit. Not badly. Just water. Then my Libre stopped working. Just “check back in 10 mins” again and again. I was so stressed that 7 days in it had packed up.

Anyway after an hour it was working and I was back in 4-7 range… but ARGH! So stressful.

Is that situation normal due to a hyper? Is it something to do with me vomiting? Or was it just a total fluke?

Eating out with family lesson learned. I’ll go for something with separate carbs I can leave in future.

Reassurance please that I’ve not messed myself up too badly (BG average been hovering under 7 mmol/L ever since) and any info anyone can give on whether that was a fluke or if I “broke” the sensor! Thanks in advance!

 

[harbottle]

I used to see that error message quite often, but it would recover, sometimes up to an hour later. They do seem to struggle when blood sugar is changing rapidly.

The 12 may not have been a 12, as these sensors are not very accurate at high readings and also struggle when blood sugar is changing rapidly. The fact it came back down to 4-7 is very good! I believe the effects of a high carb meal can last quite a while (Even in a non-diabetic).

These sensors have some limitations: I've found from my own use that they start inaccurate, become fairly close to finger prick readings for a while, then gradually become inaccurate again. I've read that this is due to the 'fouling' of the sensor's needle.

 

[Robin]

The sensor uses an algorithm to predict where your blood glucose is, at any given moment. This is because it is actually reading the interstitial fluid, which lags 15 minutes behind your actual blood.
This means that when you have a rapid rise followed by a rapid fall, or vice versa, the algorithm just doesn’t know what’s happening, so gives you a 'try again in ten minutes' while it collects some more readings to try and work out what going on.
It's really frustrating, because times of rapid change are when you’re most likely to want a reading, but it’s the one time you often have to do a finger prick to get an instant answer. The Libre is a great bit of kit, and a game changer for me, but it does have its limitations.

 

[42istheanswer]

Also, remember that HbA1c is a long term measure. If your post meal rise is normally lower then a one-off meal won't affect it that significantly so don't beat yourself up about it. Keeping your usual meals lower in carbs will still help your body.

 

[swimmingalong]

@Robin @harbottle thank you.

I wondered if that was the case, that the libre was struggling with the information and trying to calibrate itself or something.

I did contemplate doing finger pricks, but with a houseful of people (all came back to mine after the meal) it wasn’t easy to do that!

Helpful to know this is a normal thing.

 

[Leadinglights]

It may be that the sickness was because over the previous few weeks you had been cutting back on the quantity of food and it was just an overload on your stomach especially glugging down a large volume of water. At least you know now that rice as well as the wrap will be a bit much, but you did come back down pretty quickly and would never have known if you had only been finger pricking. Your response was pretty normal.

 

[Martin62]

Hi, glad your libre sorted itself out, I was sad to read that you are ashamed by your diagnosis. Diabetes is nothing to be ashamed of , so don't put yourself down for having it , us diabetics have enough to go through, shame shouldn't be one of them.
Kind regards
Martin