I am coming to the end of my 14 days of the first sensor. Here are some thoughts:
Insertion
Painless, did not feel it stuck on very well. Put at bottom of upper arm (when arm outstretched palm facing upwards) half way between armpit and elbow. Used physiotape over top to hold in place (with hole cut in middle so most of sensor exposed) which I replaced after about d10 as this was coming off in shower. Suspect the sensor would have come off had I not used this tape. No pain at all after first few hours of insertion.
Reading (NFC)
Bit disappointed here. First time trying nothing happened so was worried. Now I know that very often it will not transmit the first time (when you press the home button and it says scan). Most of time have to press the button again, then select scan glucose and then it works. Sometimes it does not work 3 times in a row and it times out. Bit tempermental and no obvious reason why (so sometimes I look like a lemon trying to scan it). Not sure if this is the sensor or the unit.
Settling period
Inserted it around 12pm one day, did not settle for a good 12-18h and read low. From <2.2mmol/l up to around 3.8 when bloods were saying 4.6-7mmol/l. However the following morning it was very accurate. Example readings:
18hr - Sensor = 6.3mmol/l, blood = 6.4mmol/l
24hr - S = 5.3, B = 5.5
30h S=4.4, B = 4.8
Etc.
Usual variability is 0.1-0.8mmol/l out from blood strip test, accounting for 15-20min lag. Only once or twice outside of 0.8mmol/l out, and seemed to be around hot shower/laying heavily on it, or when BG rapidly changing (apparently). On average about 0.3mmol/l out from blood.
Data generated
Biggest selling point. This is huge - and the reports are excellent, very detailed, very satisfying to a scientist! If I wasn't so busy right now I would be going mad with it all.
What it has helped me with
For this trial period I have stuck quite rigidly with my LCHF diet. This has really shown the benefits of this diet in keeping stable sugar levels. It has allowed me to observe the effect of exercise quite precisely and the timings around that (as I lift weights and then run every weekday morning) and shows that when my BS are out of range, it is due to exercise (on this diet) initially, with weights liberating the largest increase in BS. It has also helped me to answer the questions around certain foods and how I react - in particular I really wanted to know the true effect of Xylitol on my BS and this has been as I had hoped it would be, which was nice to see. It has confirmed that this diet is by far, the best for my control as I have not gone about around 9.2mmol/l in 2 weeks, and been in target (3.9-8.2mmol/l) for 91% of the time, with most of the 4% below coming from inaccurate readings early on due to settling (so probably in target 94%). I did not go above 10.0 on this diet during the period. It is pertinent to note that on a high carb diet with more insulin I regularly would find myself around 16.0 and sometimes in the 20s, at least 1-2x a week.
Here are my daily patterns:
J
