FREESTYLE LIBRE ON SALE!!!!

[robert72]

Mine is also F69 Exp 2015/02

There is a Lot number on the bottom of the box 140908B - but not on the sensor lid

 

[smidge]

I've thrown the box away, but the box from my unused sensor is the same Lot number as Robert's, so presumably the one I'm using is the same too.

Smidge

 

[logindetails]

Yep - I've got a lot no of 140908B on all three boxes. So the only difference so far is smidge's F71

 

[LucySW]

I'm fine BTW - no harm done - and the little Mars Celebration was the perfect hypo treat(ment)!

Smidge

I like the idea of a hypo treat(ment) !

Mmmm, not so nice :-( Glad you're okay Smidge.

 

[LucySW]

I've got F71 too. I ordered a smidgeon later than you guys. Code F71/ 140908B / 0M000005QL4.

Just put it on secretly at work - excited!!

 

[tim2000s]

So what do we know?

We know that the interstitial fluid readings are 10-15 mins behind the blood readings.

We then have the arrows that show rate of change of blood sugar, but have Abbot released any details of the level of acceleration that these describe? It is feasible that at a certain level of calibration you wouldn't see a high rate of change to drop into hypo. But without knowing it is hard for us to assess...



Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

[logindetails]

My third sensor is getting a little bit more accurate.

Sensor = 3.5 (directly before BG tests)
Sensor = 3.3 (10 minutes after BG tests)
Libre BG = 4.4
Contour = 4.7
AC Mobile = 4.8

But this after 3 days which causes problems. As @smidge said earlier, several days of inaccurate readings make a mockery of the reports and averages - particularly unhelpful for showing to the DVLA or a strict DSN (mind you if I had to show meter readings to the DVLA I'd use a meter that allows me to delete readings I know are in error).
If the meters' firmware is able to be updated then this problem could be resolved with a software fix which would allow us to calibrate the scan with a BG test and enter a +/- correction factor on the meter.

 

[smidge]

So what do we know?

We know that the interstitial fluid readings are 10-15 mins behind the blood readings.

We then have the arrows that show rate of change of blood sugar, but have Abbot released any details of the level of acceleration that these describe? It is feasible that at a certain level of calibration you wouldn't see a high rate of change to drop into hypo. But without knowing it is hard for us to assess...



Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

Well, we know that the Libre fails to pick up directional change if it is happening at less than 0.1mmol per minute - the Customer Service rep told me that yesterday - that's what the horizontal arrow means. Unfortunately he was unable to tell me what rate of change the diagonal or vertical arrows represent.

Smidge

 

[tim2000s]

That's interesting, because at 0.09 mmol/min, you can drop from 4.5 to 3.6 comfortably in ten mins with no warning that there is a drop going on, as we saw earlier, and in twenty mins you are in deep hypo territory without the machine (or you) thinking you are dropping particularly fast.

The up /down calibration really needs to tell you directional trend at a lower rate of change. Its level of sensitivity is actually not that great...

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

[smidge]

@LucySW - I hope it's an accurate one!

A couple of things have struck me today about this system:

1. My BG is almost always moving too slowly for the Libre to show it as anything other than a horizontal arrow - is that because I low-carb? The only times I've seen any rapid-moving BG has been the three times I've eaten 'real' carb over the last week - bread, ryvita and today's Mars Celebration to correct the hypo. Did they test this at all on people who don't eat the big 5 carbs? I'm guessing they must have done, but I am starting to wonder. Come on Abbotts, come clean on your trial profile!

2. Some of the 'trueisms' of diabetes are being debunked by the evidence coming off the system - 1 tiny Mars Celebration (about 6g carb) raised my BG almost instantly (no more will I believe that chocolate is a bad hypo treatment as it isn't quick enough to hit the BG!!!). The amount it raised my BG was breath-taking - 2.2mmol - 7.3mmol if you believe the Mobile or 4.6mmol - 9.7mmol if you believe the Libre - and it stayed at the elevated level, falling very slowly by around 0.7mmol over the following 2 hours. Even the Libre managed to catch that rate of change and immediately displayed a vertical arrow. Notice that both systems believe my BG changed by the same amount - just a different starting point - interesting! No more can well-meaning DSNs tell me I have to use 15g of quick-acting carb followed by 15g of long-acting carb to correct my hypos - I've always known this is rubbish, but I now have the proof in cold hard data! I think this is going to be very challenging for DSNs, GPs and consultants alike - it is truly user-empowering - and I don't think they're going to like it!

3. Apidra rapid-acting should be done under the Trade Description Act - it is NOT rapid!!! My evidence from the past nearly week is showing me that to make it really work with the pattern of the food, I need to take it about 30 - 45 minutes before eating! I have changed the timing of my morning Apidra and have gone from a 'stormy Atlantic' to a 'duck pond' post breakfast profile. How are the big drug companies going to react to our more detailed knowledge of their products? Will they step up to the mark or will they try to rubbish the Libre system? Time will tell.

Whatever its foibles, this system has the potential to be truly game changing for diabetes.

Smidge

 

[LucySW]

Hmm, I'm starting my test-frenzy now, several days after you guys, and the Libre is wildly low rather than high. Says I'm practically passing out at 2.9. My BS is actually 6.3. (My XT, double-checked, pretty accurate.) Hey ho. I guess it'll settle down.

 

[LucySW]

I think this is going to be very challenging for DSNs, GPs and consultants alike - it is truly user-empowering - and I don't think they're going to like it! ... Whatever its foibles, this system has the potential to be truly game changing for diabetes.Smidge

*That* is something to think about. Thank God. First, thanks to Bernstein, we had our own meters; now - maybe after a settling-in period - in the Libre and similar we may have enough to manage our own health properly. And you're right, the medical professionals will have to reckon with the data we've recorded.

I've always, always hated being subject to the power and whims and uncritical self-affirming culture of The Doctor. This for us is a bit like the internet for everyone: radically democratising, decentralising. That's what I love about the internet.

Happy. (My Libre will settle down, she says gaily.)

 

[logindetails]

1. My BG is almost always moving too slowly for the Libre to show it as anything other than a horizontal arrow - is that because I low-carb? The only times I've seen any rapid-moving BG has been the three times I've eaten 'real' carb over the last week - bread, ryvita and today's Mars Celebration to correct the hypo. Did they test this at all on people who don't eat the big 5 carbs? I'm guessing they must have done, but I am starting to wonder. Come on Abbotts, come clean on your trial profile!

I see the slanting up arrow (and sometimes the perpendicular one) quite frequently after eating but then I don't really low carb - I try to stay under about 120g / day is all. I rarely see the down arrows.

2. Some of the 'trueisms' of diabetes are being debunked by the evidence coming off the system - 1 tiny Mars Celebration (about 6g carb) raised my BG almost instantly (no more will I believe that chocolate is a bad hypo treatment as it isn't quick enough to hit the BG!!!). The amount it raised my BG was breath-taking - 2.2mmol - 7.3mmol if you believe the Mobile or 4.6mmol - 9.7mmol if you believe the Libre - and it stayed at the elevated level, falling very slowly by around 0.7mmol over the following 2 hours.

I saw the exact same after eating a chocolate Breakaway

No more can well-meaning DSNs tell me I have to use 15g of quick-acting carb followed by 15g of long-acting carb to correct my hypos - I've always known this is rubbish, but I now have the proof in cold hard data! I think this is going to be very challenging for DSNs, GPs and consultants alike - it is truly user-empowering - and I don't think they're going to like it!

Yeh! UP THE REVOLUTION

3. Apidra rapid-acting should be done under the Trade Description Act - it is NOT rapid!!! .............

Same goes for Novorapid. I took some the other day before eating - my levels were flat - I decided not to eat until I could see the levels dropping but had to give up as I was getting hungry and my cooked dinner was drying up :***:

Whatever its foibles, this system has the potential to be truly game changing for diabetes.

100% agree.

And I have to say that Abbott's customer service have been excellent. I've just got off the phone to them with info on my third sensor and they are going to send me a new starter pack as they think the reader could be having problems.

 

[Emmotha]

After a wobbly start for some of us, seems like we are all finding the Libre useful?
I've increased the time between injecting and eating because of the spikes

 

[donnellysdogs]

So, when are you all going to eliminate blood teating? As this is the whole purpose behind paying for a sensor isn't it?
The only way that NHS will accept it as a product to fund is if it truly eliminates the costs of the blood steips. It just seems to me that at the moment people are testing a lot still?
Has anybody gone 24 hours yet without doing a blood test?

 

[smidge]

@donnellysdogs - as I said in an earlier post, I don't think this is a replacement for BG testing. As an additional tool it is very powerful, but it is currently nowhere near accurate enough to rely on. As such, the NHS will not be supplying it anytime soon in my view as they will end up funding this and the test strips - it's just not going to happen I'm afraid. I think Abbotts have been very naughty marketing it as a replacement for testing. I hope that we've all had a bad batch and things get far more accurate with the next batch, but for me, it is currently a very powerful additional tool. I won't be changing my Mobile cassette/strips prescription for the foreseeable future, but I will use the Libre for the next few months depending on how accurate the next sensor is, because it is giving me invaluable data, patterns and evidence that were previously hidden to me.

Smidge

 

[phoenix]

My code is F74 on the lid of the one I'm using
On the boxes both have 140926F
one is 0M00000KVMR and the other ...KWQM
both expiry 2015/04
As others have found it does seem to be a bit nearer the meter reading after my first day but it is still reading under.
Last night I apparently spent two hours at 40mg/dl, those are the two hours that I was sleeping with the sensor against the mattress. I'm going to try puting t the next sensor on front of the arm to try to avoid this. ( if this keeps happening it's not much use for monitoring overnight which is my main aim)

I've just come back from a walk using it. Unfortunately we had older people in the group so it wasn't as strenuous or as long as usual. I didn't use my blood tester at all (it was under 5km)
When the libre said 89 with a downward arrow my OH said that I'd be hypo on the next test and sure enough 15 min later it was at 65. As it has still been reading a bit lower than my meter I decided to ride it out in the car and see what happened. (I wasn't driving) Got home and it read 54 but it was now steady arrow ( I wasn't using energy anymore, if I'd been walking it would have been different).
I've got a good idea what normally happens with my glucose levels during exercise but I agree with Smidge that this is a good tool.
I think it would have been invaluable when I was training for the marathon.
I think it will be still be really useful when I do long distance backpacking trips It would be better to know in advance if your glucose levels are falling quickly so that you can take something before it becomes imperative. (I think my OH would feel much better also, though we've never had a serious problem on our long distance walks. I know he worries; being able to using this almost to predict when to take some glucose would help a lot)

 

[robert72]

Mine has been very accurate from day 1 - my only niggle is the weird night time 2.2 dropouts. I have been comparing it with occasional test strips in the Libre, but am checking much less than I was to start with. I hope all my other sensors are this good although I am wary of other's bad experiences here. If all sensors were like this one I would be happy to only need strips for hypos (and I've have had far fewer of those this last week).

 

[PaulinaB]

Guys... This is not "new tech"! CGMs has been around for quite some time. All that "diabetes changing" info was also known to people who were using the CGMs. And still no one cared

I'm hoping libre will be more cost-effective alternative to many people and it will make this knowledge more and more common.

I've been using my dexcom for over 3 months now and I can't live without the trend graph, I feel like without a hand. Hopefully cheaper libre will bring this goodnes to more people!

 

[PaulinaB]

Guys... This is not "new tech"! CGMs has been around for quite some time. All that "diabetes changing" info was also known to people who were using the CGMs. And still no one cared
As for "perfecting the tech"... Many people using CGMs saw libre as this next step

I'm hoping libre will be more cost-effective alternative to many people and it will make this knowledge more and more common.

I've been using my dexcom for over 3 months now and I can't live without the trend graph, I feel like without a hand. Hopefully cheaper libre will bring this goodnes to more people!