hFreestyle Libre Review:
I got a Freestyle Libre sensor on my arm for 2,5 days now. After one hour on the first day, it immediately gave me an accurate indication of my glucose level (7,4 while I double checked with traditional meter indicatin 7,6). Then after some hours, when I got a hypo, the Libre seemed to suffer longer from it than I did: While I preserved a REAL hypo by eating something, The Libre kept on indicating low blood sugars for more then an hour.
But allright, it hadn't had it's "one day of settling" at that moment which the sensor seems to need to start indicating accurate glucose levels. Now on the end of the second day, the Freestyle Libre is indicating glucoselevels well, with a difference of about 0,2 mmol. When fast rising or falling glucose levels appear the differences can be more. But of course you still have another indicator: yourself. Would the libre indicate a false hypo, you would probably be suspicious and do an alternate checkup. You can also try to keep on scanning for some time to check your trend. But for sure the accuracy is still up for improvement.
One bigger problem is that the sensor is not very comfortable on your arm. On times you get an annoying pain, which is comparable with the pain you have when you have had a vaccin injection. I have to admit the application of the sensor was painless, even when there's a big needle in the game. But after 2,5 day the sensor is feeling kind of uncomfortable on my arm and I know it will feel like a release when I take it off.
One of the nice things is the quick scanning which works perfectly, even with a wintercoat on: the scanning device will scan right through it. For now I even like the scanning device as a 'gadget'. The touchscreen is still up for improvement, since it does sometimes not react. But with rumours about an app for Android/Iphone, we will have acces to a better touchscreen anyway.
Now Abbot, just go and find a way to improve comfortability and accuracy of the Freestyle Libre and I might order another one.
EDIT: Sometimes unaccuracy is now up to 2 mmol, which is a bit much..
In the green, a freehand artistic line representation of how my glucose levels can rise and fall from eating carbs and injecting insulin. In the red, the duplicated line simply placed 1 mmol low and lagged about 20 minutes - the reasonably consistent difference I find between finger prick and Libre scan results.
serves me for waiting till pay day!