The Libre ...

[grovesy]

I'm meeting my new consultant in a couple of weeks - guess what we'll be talking about! she has apparently achieved funding for someone😱😱😱😱😱😱🙂

Hope you manage to get funding too!

 

[eggyg]

I love my Libre, I'm on sensor number 5, number 2 just refused to work, it felt different going on than the first, as if the little thingymajig hadn't gone in. I called Abbot and after answering some questions they sent a replacement, I received it within days. The first one started to pull off on day 10 but that was a t shirt incident, just stuck a big Elastaplast on it and it lasted. The others have never budged! In fact last week I walked about for two days with one on each arm! As I walk a lot, it has been invaluable for catching hypos before they happen especially in this hot weather. Yesterday I walked to the dentist, I was 12.7 when I set off ( the NovoRapid wasn't rapid enough for my Weetabix) after an hour and a half walk, got to dentist and I was 4.1 plummeting! NovoRapid was awake then! Imagine if you can, sitting in a dentist waiting room eating jelly babies! But imagine me having a hypo whilst having a root canal filling! The Libre saved the day!

 

[pottersusan]

in my opinion Novorapid is a real misnomer. In my body it is not rapid at all. 🙄

 

[Lilian]

My personal experience with the Libre is rather mixed. So far only one has fallen off, which was replaced. As mentioned before it's accuracy when high or low is questionable. Abbott will only accept comparison results if the strip is the one used in the Libre and not on another meter. Inbetween it has been fairly accurate. So I only finger test if it is showing very low or very high. It has helped me to fine tune basal dose and the best times to inject. It has helped me reduce my HbA1c from over 100 to 61 (so far). It has shown me that my quick acting insulin is not so quick acting after all. I can test as many times as I like quickly and easily (and painlessly), and the arrow helps to know how fast it is going up or down, or if it is going up or down. I have found (for me) that the pros outweigh the cons. Abbots have always proved helpful.

 

[Harveen]

I'm sorry if this has already been posted and discussed but as ive only just returned I hope you can forgive me.

I recently purchased the Libre reader and sensors and to be honest I love the concept but it hasn't matched my expectations I'm afraid. The sensors DO NOT last 14 days, out of 6 I haven't had one that went all the way, they got ripped, pulled and caught in many ways. Also did anyone else question the readings? they never matched my finger tests and were quite different that it left me wondering which one was right and I'm trying to tighten my BS as were wanting to try for another baby so on a HBA1c lowering mission.

Anyone else throw their views and experiences in as it will be interesting to see how others got on?

Back to the finger testing for now I think
Thanks

Hi I had the Libre and it was advised by my doctor in around April. I am 13 years old. I really hated finger pricking and it was so annoying so me and my mum thought it was a really good idea. We bought it and it was pretty expensive but we thought it was worth it. I wore it the first time and it said lasted 14 days that is a really low amount of days for the price. It didn't work the first time so I used it a second time and it lasted for about 10 days and then it came off while i was having a bath think it was my fault. Then the 3rd time it came off like on the 8th day while I was running. I don't really recommend it. My other doctor said that I still need to check it normally so there was no point. I don't use it anymore.

 

[Sally71]

We love ours! Daughter loves it because it saves quite a lot of finger pricks. I love it because of the extra data it gives you. Just having the arrow telling you whether the BG is moving up or down makes it worth it in my opinion. For example if you blood tested 4.5 at bedtime then technically that isn't a hypo and you shouldn't do anything. But if you got the same result on a Libre with an up arrow you would know that you didn't need to do anything, with a down arrow it's jelly babies quick!

Yes the accuracy is questionable, but my understanding is that all CGMs have this problem as they are reading interstitial fluid, not blood. So you can't really expect it to be exactly the same as a blood test anyway, and blood tests themselves are not 100% accurate either. We find the Libre reads high at the top end of the scale, low at the bottom end and about right in the middle; if you know that you can work with it. I know that if the Libre is reading in the 3s then daughter almost certainly isn't hypo (although if arrow was pointing down at that level I would treat it as one to stop the drop), if it's in the 2s then she probably is hypo. A 13 on the Libre is usually 11 on the blood test etc. I'm not bothered if the numbers don't match exactly as long as they are in the right area, which they almost always are! I don't think it will ever completely replace finger pricks, we still do them for bolusing purposes (which also serves as a useful check that the sensor hasn't completely lost its marbles), but our use of test strips has gone down by at least half which saves my daughter's poor fingers a bit!
It's also brilliant when you get one of those horrible hypos that takes ages to come back up again, you can just scan instead of having to finger prick loads of times, and as soon as the arrow starts pointing upwards you know you're ok!

I love the graph too, you can see exactly what goes on in between finger pricks, we've had quite some shocks about how high some foods spike the blood sugar! So then you can make decisions about what to do about it if you don't want to be regularly spiking that high.

Maybe we are lucky, but so far we have only had two sensor failures; one because daughter bashed her arm against a door and dislodged it, so not the sensor's fault, and one that just didn't go in right, was starting to fall off after half an hour and we could get no readings from it at all; Abbott replaced that one free of charge. We have found them starting to come unstuck after a few days sometimes, so now we solve that problem by sticking Tegaderm over them, that keeps them stuck and also gives them a bit of extra waterproofing when swimming.

I think how successful the Libre is depends how you are going to use it; if you expect to be able to just swap your blood tester for it then you might be disappointed, but as an additional tool alongside it then it can be very valuable. (I'm clearly a fan but I do however realise that no system is perfect, and there will always be some people who have had a bad experience and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole! That's life I guess 😉)

 

[mikeyB]

I think we are all different. I've been using the Libre for 5 months now, and I've never had a sensor last less than 2 weeks. I don't rely on it though, because it can be a bit slow when correcting a hypo, when I use the One Touch monitor. Other than that, the readings are very nearly the same. It's best point is the indicator of trends, particularly at night. I wouldn't go back to finger pricking regularly if you paid me.

What annoys me is that this system is limited to those who can afford it. I have worked out that if you gave every single type 1 this system, it would cost the UK £2 million per year. That is around one quarter of the cost of a single F34-B fighter; the MoD have ordered 14 initially. Such are the priorities of the government.

 

[Diabeticliberty]

Sally while fingerprick meters do not offer 100% accuracy I have never had one misread my glucose levels by 9mmols. This was not at the top end of the scale nor the bottom end. My Accuchek Mobile was reading 8mmols and while this was may not have been 100% accurate I hope it was more accurate than my Libre. I have already stated that I constantly wear a sensor and am extremely familiar with how the system works and its particular quirks. The fact that I constantly wear a sensor is somewhat telling of the fact that I am clearly a fan too. I do have some difficulty however bestowing the system with the same level of faith and trust that some other users do.

 

[HOBIE]

I love my Libre ! Suits me fine. Just had one on for a couple of weeks now back to sore pinkies ! 😱. Spoilt & used to testing every 5 mins of the day with ease of Libre 😎

 

[Diabeticliberty]

I love my Libre ! Suits me fine. Just had one on for a couple of weeks now back to sore pinkies ! 😱. Spoilt & used to testing every 5 mins of the day with ease of Libre 😎

Aaaaaaaahhhhh pinkies, bless you Hobieman 🙂 having had the luxury of greatly reduced finger pricking I had forgotten just how bad the pads on the fingers of my left hand had become before I entered Libreland. It is indeed worth a million and one wayward results for this feature alone. This has made a world of difference to me 🙂

 

[Pigeon]

Can I ask where people get tegaderm from? And what form of Tegaderm you use? Asked in a large Boots store earlier and they had never heard of it, then found a random half box of clear Tegaderm patches that they sold to me for 59p each, not sure if I have bought the right thing? I've got my first Libre starte pack but not inserted the sensor yet, want to make sure I give it the best chances of working!

 

[HOBIE]

Can I ask where people get tegaderm from? And what form of Tegaderm you use? Asked in a large Boots store earlier and they had never heard of it, then found a random half box of clear Tegaderm patches that they sold to me for 59p each, not sure if I have bought the right thing? I've got my first Libre starte pack but not inserted the sensor yet, want to make sure I give it the best chances of working!

I always use the hygienic wipe(that comes with kit) & then let it DRY properly. Takes some getting off two weeks later. Good luck Pigeon 🙂

 

[eggyg]

in my opinion Novorapid is a real misnomer. In my body it is not rapid at all. 🙄

I'm with you there Susan, bit disappointed to be honest. Only been using it a few weeks and keep trying different things, 10/20/30 mins before, just as I eat, during, just after. It definitely isn't rapid! I will keep trying though! 🙂

 

[SB2015]

I find the LIbre excellent mainly for the direction of travel for BG. This has enabled me to head off many hypos, Like others found it great in the night for fasting tests. Just swipe once in the night and then in the morning. As others have said it is the patterns that I use mainly.

Having had one fall out I now put tape over the top with a non stick dressing between Libre sensor and tape. Then if the tape peels up a bit I can replace it without worrying about tugging out the sensor. I would prefer to have tape over and have a bigger patch on my mp arm that lose a sensor at the price that they are.

Like others I have found that wearing the sensors all the time is expensive, but it has made me a lot more confident, so we are choosing to fund it full time. Well worth it, and now that I can collate all the data from handset, pump and Libre together into Diasend I am learning so much more and it is a lot easier for the DSN to help me solve some of the puzzles.

 

[HOBIE]

They tell you lots don't they SB. 😎 Worth the £130 with 2 sensors. Worth it just for that !

 

[Sally71]

Can I ask where people get tegaderm from? And what form of Tegaderm you use? Asked in a large Boots store earlier and they had never heard of it, then found a random half box of clear Tegaderm patches that they sold to me for 59p each, not sure if I have bought the right thing? I've got my first Libre starte pack but not inserted the sensor yet, want to make sure I give it the best chances of working!

We buy it at the chemist, which is also a Boots. I think they are 6x7cm which is just the right size to cover a sensor. Some people use Micropore tape to secure it, but I don't find that sticks very well!

We use the supplied alcohol wipe and dry the area too, but still find that the sensor doesn't always stick perfectly, maybe because my daughter's arms are thinner than an adult's? To be honest these days we just stick them all on with Tegaderm anyway and don't give them chance to misbehave!

Sally while fingerprick meters do not offer 100% accuracy I have never had one misread my glucose levels by 9mmols. This was not at the top end of the scale nor the bottom end. My Accuchek Mobile was reading 8mmols and while this was may not have been 100% accurate I hope it was more accurate than my Libre. I have already stated that I constantly wear a sensor and am extremely familiar with how the system works and its particular quirks. The fact that I constantly wear a sensor is somewhat telling of the fact that I am clearly a fan too. I do have some difficulty however bestowing the system with the same level of faith and trust that some other users do.

I did actually once get a 27 on the blood meter and a 8.9 on the Libre, followed by another finger prick test which read 7.9 so clearly it wasn't the Libre which was out that time! And yes, we've had a few rogue readings from the Libre but not enough to get upset about, so maybe we are lucky. Like I said, nothing is perfect and some people will like it and some won't, people have their favourite blood meters too and don't always like it if they have to change to a different one. You have clearly decided that the pros of the Libre outweigh the cons, I wasn't meaning anyone in particular when I said that some people might be disappointed with the system. I have just stated my opinions on the thing which is what the original poster asked for. I don't expect everyone else to agree with me, everyone has different experiences!

 

[Diabeticliberty]

This is my major bug bear with the system. If you are using the graphical information that the system provides as a base on which to determine your insulin intake then you had better make pretty darn sure that the data is absolutely correct. As a pure exercise get some pieces of plain paper and make your own graph plot some random blood test results and then take a look at the graph line. If you then change some of the input figures then your graph line will obviously change. You may feel that the 'minor' discrepancies you sometimes record between finger prick blood test and Libre don't matter all that much and viewed in isolation they do not. The thing is though if you are looking at graphs of blood test averages with cumulative results then it really does matter. If you are considering basing your insulin dosage on this then it matters a hell of a lot. As an example the last time I generated reports from my own meter was just before my last diabetic review. The report showed a predicted a1c of just a shade under 5 my actual was a shade under 6. I never believed that my actual a1c was under 5 but this was purely from knowing how I get along based on experience.

 

[Sally71]

Oh golly I can't be bothered to analyse the data in that much detail, maybe that's why I seem to like the Libre more than you do lol! I just like the graph because I can see how stable (or not) things have been in between finger pricks. And we do still do finger pricks in order to determine boluses, don't think I'd trust the Libre quite that much so I don't think it will ever replace finger pricks completely. It's still a useful tool in a lot of ways if you can afford it though. (In my humble opinion anyway...)

 

[HOBIE]

Never had a problem. Info is one the excellent things about the Libre.

 

[pottersusan]

Certainly the Dexcom makes it very clear that you shouldn't use it to determine the amount of insulin you take. However it has significantly reduced those finger pricks, which I had been doing up to 12 daily😱, as I eat so frequently.