Where do you wear your libre sensor?

Hopeful34

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I use left arm, right arm, left side of chest, right side of chest in strict rotation which works well, so you could alternate your arm and chest. I put a new sensor on about 13 hours before the old one, and it usually reads as accurately as it's going to from activation. Some sensors are very accurate, others not quite as good, but unrelated to placement.
 
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Nicole T

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334
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I've put it on my right arm again, slightly lower and further round to the front than last time, so there's no overlap. I do have a tiny bit of blood coming out of the vent, this time round (just a smear - no actual flow.) Is that normal?
 

DCUKMod

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I reversed my Type 2
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I've put it on my right arm again, slightly lower and further round to the front than last time, so there's no overlap. I do have a tiny bit of blood coming out of the vent, this time round (just a smear - no actual flow.) Is that normal?

To be honest, Nicole, it just depends if you nick a little capillary, in my experience.

Personally, I haven't found any difference in performance from either way. I have had a mixed experience with the Libre, but I've just put that down to the fact my bloods run quite "low" in terms of what appears to be the optimum ranges for Libre performance.

To be fair, where I have had sensors that have been bonkers, in terms of performance, Abbott have always been very helpful.
 

Hopeful34

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Yes it can happen. Put on a new one on Friday and when I went to bed realised that it was covered in thin layer of blood, but working ok.
 

Nicole T

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334
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
I did my usual trick of posting the question and then Googling anyway. It seems getting a bit of blood through the vent is common. Some people seem to believe that you get better readings from a sensor that hits blood vessels, though others dispute that.

After an initial slight spike for an hour or two (after the 1 hour where you can't scan it at all) it's already settling down to very similar readings to the last one, and even with the spike I'm 100% in target (4-0 to 8.5) for the last 24 hours, albeit with a 6 hour gap between sensors.

My arm is slightly sore, but I think that's from where I removed the old one, rather than where I fitted the new one. They're close enough together (though I was careful to position the new one so it didn't overlap with any of the skin covered by the old one) that it's hard to tell where the pain is coming from.
 

TrevorFisher

Active Member
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31
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Insulin
I’m glad I’m not the only person who walks into door frames, thought there was something wrong with me.
I now stick to the back of my arm, slightly more inconvenient, but sensor doesn’t get knocked off anymore.

I do have an issue though, I’ve just had my Hba1c from doctors blood test and whereas my Libre is telling me 6.2, the doctors result was 7.2 which one is correct?
 

Nicole T

Well-Known Member
Messages
334
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I’m glad I’m not the only person who walks into door frames, thought there was something wrong with me.
I now stick to the back of my arm, slightly more inconvenient, but sensor doesn’t get knocked off anymore.

I do have an issue though, I’ve just had my Hba1c from doctors blood test and whereas my Libre is telling me 6.2, the doctors result was 7.2 which one is correct?
Chances are that neither is absolutely correct. That seems to be the nature of blood glucose testing: we have a choice of various random number generators, each roughly centred around what our blood sugar actually is.

A quick Google shows an error allowance of 0.5% on the HbA1c blood test. Presumably that's actual percentage points where the result is given as a percentage. So if I'm interpreting that correctly, that means your 7.2% could indicate anything from 6.7% to 7.7%. Meanwhile, the Libre is allowed to over or under read by as much as 20% on any individual reading. While I would expect those to average out to some degree all of the time, that would still place your Libre predicted A1c in the range 4.96% to 7.44%