Questions About Libre

[Amity Island]

Hi all, not sure whether anybody has asked this question yet but, is it better buying the freestyle libre rather than seeing if I can get it off my DN? I'm not quite sure what would make me eligible to get one if anybody could fill me in on that? my fingers are in agony, finally got on board with my health and checking my bloods, doing my needle etc. but I've finally realised why I have doing my blood sugars so much! They bleeding kill!!! Thanks in advance!

Regarding your fingers hurting, I have noticed that the old finger pricking devices I got with my accu-chek test meter really hurt and are quite aggressive, however I got a new meter recently and I've noticed they have changed the mechanism in the finger pricking device, it is more gentle and doesn't cause as much pain even when testing 8 times a day.

 

[mikeyB]

My fingers were so soft from using the Libre, that when the supply problem arose when I needed to fingerpick, I found that setting the finger pricker to 1 produced a more than adequate sample and was almost painless. I was using a new lancet, mind which was a novel experience, but it lasted the ten day gap painlessly, testing up to six times a day.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

My fingers were so soft from using the Libre, that when the supply problem arose when I needed to fingerpick, I found that setting the finger pricker to 1 produced a more than adequate sample and was almost painless. I was using a new lancet, mind which was a novel experience, but it lasted the ten day gap painlessly, testing up to six times a day.

I found the same (for just 4 days): no real problems, and I was testing more like 10 times a day. It's worth fiddling with the lancet device to make sure it's at the minimum depth that works, and (of course) wash with hot water (and dry) before trying to get a sample. (Now and again I've had to try and measure with cold hands, and that's just not fun.)

I imagine different lancing devices are a bit different, so maybe trying a different one would help. (I haven't really bothered because I find the one I'm using is fine. I remember not using a device at all (so just a sharp bit of metal, basically) and that was so horribly worse than the modern lancing devices.)

 

[evecainx]

Hope you can get a Libre on the NHS, @evecainx - in the meanwhile though, I'm wondering why your fingers are hurting so much I usually test 8-10 times a day, sometimes more, and mine don't hurt at all. Are you testing a lot more than that?

If not, maybe your lancing device is turned up too high - you might be able to turn it down (I use it on 2 most of the time - that's intended for children, but my fingers would hurt a lot too if I used it on 3 or 4).

And are you only testing on the sides of your fingers (alongside, but not too close to, the sides of your nails), not in the pads? It will hurt a lot more if you're spiking the pads, where there are nerve endings, rather than the sides. It will also hurt more if you keep re-using the same fingers - I alternate the sides of all of mine, so I've got 20 to circulate through.

Hi, thank you for the advice, my device is 3.5, any lower wouldnt penetrate my skin too tough! And theyre all on the sides of my fingers of course, although i have been testing a bit more than 8 times a day as my blood sugars have been dropping recently, hopefully my fingers will get used to it again, thank you though!