Libre first Impressions

[brianmt]

I've barely had it a day and already what a difference, It's very easy to install and shows up every little variation. For instance looking at the graph I went to bed with a bg of 5.5, at 2am last night my BG was 4.5 at 5.30 it was 6 , when I did my normal fasting reading a 8.00am it was 5.5. Not earth shattering but I was not aware of the variation.
I had a bit of a coughing fit late mormning, really bad cold at the moment, and noticed my, BG went from 5.7 to 7, immediatly I did a finger prick and indeed my BG was 7.0 !!! 10 mins later it was back to 5.7. Again not a game changer but interesting to see how events can change BG.
Later in the afternoon I ate a satsuma, now I've always said oranges/satsumas don't really effect my BG well the libre showed different, I went from 5.8 to 9 and then back to 5.9 all in the space of 20 mins, so ok satsumas don't effect my bg over hours but do spike it quite badly, I'll try it again tomorrow just to see if I get the same effect.
Overall I can't stop testing , it's great.
Now the downside, the cost .
It's an ideal tool for the newly diagnosed as you can see very quickly what food effect your blood but at £50 a fortnight a bit too expensive, roughly 4 quid a day.
And one other complaint the packaging, there's a lot of plastic waste maybe Abbott will address this problem and make the items reusable .
I'm a convert, possibly I'll use it every 3 weeks or so. A fantastic product

 

[NewTD2]

I've barely had it a day and already what a difference, It's very easy to install and shows up every little variation. For instance looking at the graph I went to bed with a bg of 5.5, at 2am last night my BG was 4.5 at 5.30 it was 6 , when I did my normal fasting reading a 8.00am it was 5.5. Not earth shattering but I was not aware of the variation.
I had a bit of a coughing fit late mormning, really bad cold at the moment, and noticed my, BG went from 5.7 to 7, immediatly I did a finger prick and indeed my BG was 7.0 !!! 10 mins later it was back to 5.7. Again not a game changer but interesting to see how events can change BG.
Later in the afternoon I ate a satsuma, now I've always said oranges/satsumas don't really effect my BG well the libre showed different, I went from 5.8 to 9 and then back to 5.9 all in the space of 20 mins, so ok satsumas don't effect my bg over hours but do spike it quite badly, I'll try it again tomorrow just to see if I get the same effect.
Overall I can't stop testing , it's great.
Now the downside, the cost .
It's an ideal tool for the newly diagnosed as you can see very quickly what food effect your blood but at £50 a fortnight a bit too expensive, roughly 4 quid a day.
And one other complaint the packaging, there's a lot of plastic waste maybe Abbott will address this problem and make the items reusable .
I'm a convert, possibly I'll use it every 3 weeks or so. A fantastic product

I wish the company would be more compassionate to diabetics. The cost is a killer worse than diabetes itself!

 

[Tabzmcfc]

I've barely had it a day and already what a difference, It's very easy to install and shows up every little variation. For instance looking at the graph I went to bed with a bg of 5.5, at 2am last night my BG was 4.5 at 5.30 it was 6 , when I did my normal fasting reading a 8.00am it was 5.5. Not earth shattering but I was not aware of the variation.
I had a bit of a coughing fit late mormning, really bad cold at the moment, and noticed my, BG went from 5.7 to 7, immediatly I did a finger prick and indeed my BG was 7.0 !!! 10 mins later it was back to 5.7. Again not a game changer but interesting to see how events can change BG.
Later in the afternoon I ate a satsuma, now I've always said oranges/satsumas don't really effect my BG well the libre showed different, I went from 5.8 to 9 and then back to 5.9 all in the space of 20 mins, so ok satsumas don't effect my bg over hours but do spike it quite badly, I'll try it again tomorrow just to see if I get the same effect.
Overall I can't stop testing , it's great.
Now the downside, the cost .
It's an ideal tool for the newly diagnosed as you can see very quickly what food effect your blood but at £50 a fortnight a bit too expensive, roughly 4 quid a day.
And one other complaint the packaging, there's a lot of plastic waste maybe Abbott will address this problem and make the items reusable .
I'm a convert, possibly I'll use it every 3 weeks or so. A fantastic product

Hi
I wrote to Abbott asking them to look into the amount of plastic landfill used in just one sensor application. I said if they could design such a great gadget then surely they could design a better way of reducing the amount of raw plastic used. I had no reply. I always use a pair of scissors to remove the needle and put in my sharps box and then easily remove the spring with the scissors so at least I can recycle all the resources used in separate metal and plastic bins.

 

[himtoo]

well done on those results -- you are fortunate to be able to afford this innovation.-- I hope it serves you well in your goals.

 

[brianmt]

well done on those results -- you are fortunate to be able to afford this innovation.-- I hope it serves you well in your goals.

Yes, the cost is prohibative for most , which is a shame, as it's already flagged up some surprises. I will use one again but it won't be a regular thing.

 

[dbr10]

I've barely had it a day and already what a difference, It's very easy to install and shows up every little variation. For instance looking at the graph I went to bed with a bg of 5.5, at 2am last night my BG was 4.5 at 5.30 it was 6 , when I did my normal fasting reading a 8.00am it was 5.5. Not earth shattering but I was not aware of the variation.
I had a bit of a coughing fit late mormning, really bad cold at the moment, and noticed my, BG went from 5.7 to 7, immediatly I did a finger prick and indeed my BG was 7.0 !!! 10 mins later it was back to 5.7. Again not a game changer but interesting to see how events can change BG.
Later in the afternoon I ate a satsuma, now I've always said oranges/satsumas don't really effect my BG well the libre showed different, I went from 5.8 to 9 and then back to 5.9 all in the space of 20 mins, so ok satsumas don't effect my bg over hours but do spike it quite badly, I'll try it again tomorrow just to see if I get the same effect.
Overall I can't stop testing , it's great.
Now the downside, the cost .
It's an ideal tool for the newly diagnosed as you can see very quickly what food effect your blood but at £50 a fortnight a bit too expensive, roughly 4 quid a day.
And one other complaint the packaging, there's a lot of plastic waste maybe Abbott will address this problem and make the items reusable .
I'm a convert, possibly I'll use it every 3 weeks or so. A fantastic product

That's all positive then, apart from the cost. Do you generally find any difference in reading between the sensor and a meter?

 

[dbr10]

Yes, the cost is prohibative for most , which is a shame, as it's already flagged up some surprises. I will use one again but it won't be a regular thing.

I think that's a good idea considering the cost. You can use it to assess the impact of different foods and then fine tune your diet.

 

[Boo1979]

Ive bought a starter pack with the intention of using the 2 sensors ahead of my next diabetic review in early march.
The plan is to use them acoss Jan and Feb and to do 1 2 seek period with sensor and blood testing and another just blood testing per month.
Ive already got a very good handle on how the foods I usually eat affect my sugars so the reason for using them this way is to get richer data regarding the overall 24 hour pattern - I have some questions regarding how much insulin my body is producing and when without the kick of a morning dose of gliclizide.
If the data is useful enough to justify the cost then I’ll probably invest in a few sensors a year

 

[brianmt]

That's all positive then, apart from the cost. Do you generally find any difference in reading between the sensor and a meter?

Originally, there was a difference of about .5 . The Libre read low. Today it seems to be the same as the meter .

 

[dbr10]

Originally, there was a difference of about .5 . The Libre read low. Today it seems to be the same as the meter .

Okay. Thanks.

 

[brianmt]

Ive bought a starter pack with the intention of using the 2 sensors ahead of my next diabetic review in early march.
The plan is to use them acoss Jan and Feb and to do 1 2 seek period with sensor and blood testing and another just blood testing per month.
Ive already got a very good handle on how the foods I usually eat affect my sugars so the reason for using them this way is to get richer data regarding the overall 24 hour pattern - I have some questions regarding how much insulin my body is producing and when without the kick of a morning dose of gliclizide.
If the data is useful enough to justify the cost then I’ll probably invest in a few sensors a year

It's quite an eye opner looking at the graph, some weird things happening for instance:
I had trout and some veg last night about 1830 I watched my BG go from 5,6 to 6,7 in the space of 20 mins then it went down all the way to 4 within another 20 mins and stayed there until 2100 then rose to 5.6. about the time I would normall take my BG. last night it was steady at 5 until 4.30 when it dipped to 3 for 20 mins then went up too 5.6. Quite alarming to see all this going on in the backround !!!Also very interesting

 

[leking]

Been using it for the last year. In that time it's brought my hba1c down from 7.5% to 5.9%

 

[4ratbags]

I've finally brought one and it will be good to see exactly what my BS gets up to. I will most probably get a new sensor every 3 months.