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Libre purchasing
- Thread starter therower
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That's really good to know as I get these on prescription already , makes libre even more attractive.
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The Freestyle Optium strips, having them already on prescription makes a difference and doesn't cause confusion in the gp surgery
donnellysdogs
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People that can't listen to other people's opinions.
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the libre doesn't have strips, that the point of it.....it measures glucose levels in the interstitial fluid via a sensor inserted into the body.......
the libre is a BG meter too, just without strips....
The reader to the libre DOES act as a blood test machine too.
You do need strips for the blood testing if you want to save carrying around another meter if driving for example.. The strips are prescribed by my GP.
Don't know why Abbott don't make more of fact it's a full blown BM meter too. Especially useful for drivers
donnellysdogs
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Don't know why Abbott don't make more of fact it's a full blown BM meter too. Especially useful for drivers
Agree. If the nurses set it up right too (mine didn't even know), you can wnter 1/2 unit injection, time slots for 4 meals to give bolus details too. Altjough I have read somewhere that the bolus eatimations weren't too good for some reason. I know it only allows 4 time slots, not 6.
Davyb
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Abbott seem to be playing it down as a BG Meter..
If you are offered it for a so called trial - bite their hands off - take it. All blood glucose meters are supposed to be Single User Only testing equipment. so they are only allowed to dispose of it after any "trial" ends. They should not ever give you a used meter. I'm on my third InsuLinx after the first failed and the hospital clinic replaced it a with used meter, from which I scavenged the 3 batteries and asked them for a new meter.
As with all meters you cannot delete any stored data the oldest eventually gets overwritten and as it can hold ~1000 entries, that is many months. many meters if you buy them see the shop here or the Diabetes UK shop, you can also buy test strips in either if you need to. My satellite clinic doctor+GP won't prescribe ketone test strips but that is because I'm type 2 (17 years on oral meds, 3 years on Basal+Bolus insulins, Levimir and NovoRapid)
It is excellent as a meter, it can do both Blood Glucose and Blood Ketone measurements only one other non-Abbott meter can do Ketone testing.
You will never have to replace batteries - only charge it about once a week or so.
It uses the same strips as the discontinued Optium and the current Optium Neo, i.e. Freestyle Optium. However it does not come with any strips in the box, you have to source them from a prescription change or buy them, fortunately they are individual foil wrapped strips so no disposing of them a month after opening a box of them.
It has the same rapid action insulin calculation engine as the InsuLinx,
The password for the Healthcare worker part of the setup is the same as for the InsuLinx which is based on the "HBA1C", so that all Diabetes clinic DSNs, Dietitians, etc can easily remember it. I was told it by Both my Hospital DSN and Dietician when I first went onto insulin. I was very clued up with a computers background and 12 years previous experience, as my disabled mother was diagnosed as Type 2, 12 years before I was.
The only thing against it apart from price is that mealtime insulin dosage can only be calculated based on a test strip test rather than a CGM reading value. I'm quite happy to use it to get a feel for what is happening over a few fortnights, but unlikely to use it permanently as a CGM, I'm also a vocational driver so need the 3 months of test strip records every year for driving license renewal.
Lets hope the NHS and Abbott do come to a sensible decision about having the sensors available on prescription.
If you are offered it for a so called trial - bite their hands off - take it. All blood glucose meters are supposed to be Single User Only testing equipment. so they are only allowed to dispose of it after any "trial" ends. They should not ever give you a used meter. I'm on my third InsuLinx after the first failed and the hospital clinic replaced it a with used meter, from which I scavenged the 3 batteries and asked them for a new meter.
As with all meters you cannot delete any stored data the oldest eventually gets overwritten and as it can hold ~1000 entries, that is many months. many meters if you buy them see the shop here or the Diabetes UK shop, you can also buy test strips in either if you need to. My satellite clinic doctor+GP won't prescribe ketone test strips but that is because I'm type 2 (17 years on oral meds, 3 years on Basal+Bolus insulins, Levimir and NovoRapid)
It is excellent as a meter, it can do both Blood Glucose and Blood Ketone measurements only one other non-Abbott meter can do Ketone testing.
You will never have to replace batteries - only charge it about once a week or so.
It uses the same strips as the discontinued Optium and the current Optium Neo, i.e. Freestyle Optium. However it does not come with any strips in the box, you have to source them from a prescription change or buy them, fortunately they are individual foil wrapped strips so no disposing of them a month after opening a box of them.
It has the same rapid action insulin calculation engine as the InsuLinx,
The password for the Healthcare worker part of the setup is the same as for the InsuLinx which is based on the "HBA1C", so that all Diabetes clinic DSNs, Dietitians, etc can easily remember it. I was told it by Both my Hospital DSN and Dietician when I first went onto insulin. I was very clued up with a computers background and 12 years previous experience, as my disabled mother was diagnosed as Type 2, 12 years before I was.
The only thing against it apart from price is that mealtime insulin dosage can only be calculated based on a test strip test rather than a CGM reading value. I'm quite happy to use it to get a feel for what is happening over a few fortnights, but unlikely to use it permanently as a CGM, I'm also a vocational driver so need the 3 months of test strip records every year for driving license renewal.
Lets hope the NHS and Abbott do come to a sensible decision about having the sensors available on prescription.
bondj700
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I imagine the reason why is they make more money selling sensors than stripsDon't know why Abbott don't make more of fact it's a full blown BM meter too. Especially useful for drivers
bondj700
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Hiya, I'm self funding a libre meter cgms it's pretty expensive, from the abbot site, b careful, my sensors have failed twice, one crashing every other test, the other giving wrong readings up to +5 mmols , moaned to the conclusion act at hospital she told me to contact Abbot, did and they replaced them no question asked! So pretty.good service, has driven down my blood sugar levels and can check subtly and regularly. Use standard Abbot electrodes for a bg test when I get up to check the accuracy, like a normal meter, rest of the day is swipe, check and adjust if required!!! Guess to say what cost for 100% better control, should be on the NHS , but if you can afford it go for it, changed the way I look at life,! They are putting me on a pump soon too, as the continual graphing has shown data that cannot be controlled by background insulin.
This system is great but expensive, would be excellent if it could give hypo alarm through the night maybe by Bluetooth. I just use it for holidays when my routine gets thrown, I work on a building site so no need to go and wash hands to test is good, but I have to be careful where I position sensor on my arm putting it on the inside as much as possible so it doesn't get caught walking through doorframes or reaching into ceilings. Have seen this meter being sold on Amazon at ridiculous price go direct if you have to pay yourself .
First of all,I among others were given a Free Libre meter and 1 sensor and the readings are no way near the reading you get from a test strip even when using the same meter ,such as a scan and then a blood test and they can vary upto 20%
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If they are varying by 20% consistently then there is an issue with the sensor and you should call Abbott about it.
The reason they do vary some times by 20% is that the sensors do not measure the actual blood glucose level ,they measure the fluid that has a delay of giving a more sound result.If you ask the rep as I did this variation is normal as it takes up-to 20 minutes to get to a closer reading
Snapsy
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@therower I bought a Libre starter pack in February and have used the system continuously since.
I could not do without it now.
It's addictive.
It's amazing.
I use it to monitor my general pattern (I'm always looking on that line on the reader to see if there are any spikes I can work on ironing out), and of course I still test as well. But I've gone from 12-14 blood tests a day to 4-6, as I now do all my 'reassurance testing' on the Libre.
And amazingly, although the readings do vary in their accuracy, it had predicted my latest HbA1c absolutely SPOT ON when I downloaded the info for my annual review.
So far I have had no problems with it at all. I will say though that I have never applied a sensor myself as I am not confident that I could reliably get it in the right spot (centre of midddle of back of arm), but that is probably just me!
I start my new sensor every two weeks on a Sunday morning, having had it applied on the Friday evening. There are some who say that applying it 24-48 hours in advance of activation gives better accuracy because the resulting owwwwwy bit of the arm has a chance to calm down. So that's what I've always done, although I haven't made a comparison myself with different timings of application - I've done it 36 hours ahead of activation right from the start.
The downside of having one one each arm for that period does lead to the odd question from people, but pfffff, no matter!
I could not do without it now.
It's addictive.
It's amazing.
I use it to monitor my general pattern (I'm always looking on that line on the reader to see if there are any spikes I can work on ironing out), and of course I still test as well. But I've gone from 12-14 blood tests a day to 4-6, as I now do all my 'reassurance testing' on the Libre.
And amazingly, although the readings do vary in their accuracy, it had predicted my latest HbA1c absolutely SPOT ON when I downloaded the info for my annual review.
So far I have had no problems with it at all. I will say though that I have never applied a sensor myself as I am not confident that I could reliably get it in the right spot (centre of midddle of back of arm), but that is probably just me!
I start my new sensor every two weeks on a Sunday morning, having had it applied on the Friday evening. There are some who say that applying it 24-48 hours in advance of activation gives better accuracy because the resulting owwwwwy bit of the arm has a chance to calm down. So that's what I've always done, although I haven't made a comparison myself with different timings of application - I've done it 36 hours ahead of activation right from the start.
The downside of having one one each arm for that period does lead to the odd question from people, but pfffff, no matter!
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Hi @Snapsy. Hope you're doing well and feeling better.
Thanks for the information, I'm still 50/50 on whether or not to give the Libre a try. Biggest concern is keeping the sensor in place. I've heard reports that they become easily detached and are then rendered useless.
Work is fairly manual and involves getting in some tight and awkward positions, I just know for sure that the sensor would get knocked and trapped between me and machines I work on.
At current cost I'm not sure having maybe 2 / 3 days worth of results is justifiable.
Thanks for the information, I'm still 50/50 on whether or not to give the Libre a try. Biggest concern is keeping the sensor in place. I've heard reports that they become easily detached and are then rendered useless.
Work is fairly manual and involves getting in some tight and awkward positions, I just know for sure that the sensor would get knocked and trapped between me and machines I work on.
At current cost I'm not sure having maybe 2 / 3 days worth of results is justifiable.
Snapsy
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Some people use various items of sticky stuff or film. I've only done that once - the sensor looked as if it was desticking (actually it turned out it wasn't too bad, when I actually did take it off) so because of that worry I asked my husband to put some gaffer tape round my arm.
I looked a right sight that Saturday morning at parkrun! New sensor on the other arm (it was changeover week for my sensors) and shiny silver tapefest on the other. A right idiot I looked! And it was my first run at that venue so I didn't know anyone yet, which under the circumstances I was pleased about!
To be fair, gaffer tape was the only thing accessible at the time. And as I say, the sensor was okay throughout.
I've read mixed reports of how Libre sensors behave - so far I've been 100% unaffected by issues - oh, apart from that they're very difficult to remove!
I looked a right sight that Saturday morning at parkrun! New sensor on the other arm (it was changeover week for my sensors) and shiny silver tapefest on the other. A right idiot I looked! And it was my first run at that venue so I didn't know anyone yet, which under the circumstances I was pleased about!
To be fair, gaffer tape was the only thing accessible at the time. And as I say, the sensor was okay throughout.
I've read mixed reports of how Libre sensors behave - so far I've been 100% unaffected by issues - oh, apart from that they're very difficult to remove!
I have tried to get it on the NHS but have been refused so am going to make a complaint to my local clinical commissioning group and my local hospital .When this is refused I will take it to the parliamentary ombudsmen with the help of one of the local organisations that help in these situations
I got mine from TrustMed Pharmacy in the Leicester General Hospital. Apparently all three of the Leicester hospitals sell them. There £42 with the VAT exempt. I've looked around online and I can't see them any cheaper any where else.
