CGM machines .

Technically, the Libre isn't a CGM as it only gives an 'on demand' glucose reading.

Something like a Dexcom G4 Platinum or G5 gives true continuous monitoring with measurements taken every 5 minutes. They ain't cheap, though.

Hi Susie, appreciate you have found info on the libre, but I can speak better from the point of view of the Dexcom, as this is what I have. The Dexcom G4 integrates with the Animas Vibe, but is standalone, and can be purchased as 3 separate components, the sensor, transmitter and receiver. It is also possible to use it without the receiver as the display, by purchasing or building an xDrip, and using a mobile phone and/or smart watch as the display. @CapnGrumpy is correct in that it is not cheap, but this is subjective, and for me the benefits outweigh the cost, many times over for me.
If cost is important, then by looking at different suppliers across Europe and carefully tailoring the solution, you can be up and running by purchasing (approximate prices in brackets) 1 sensor (£60), 1 transmitter (£220) and 1 xDrip(£55), and then an ongoing cost of £60 every 1 to 4 weeks for the sensors.
The ongoing cost is difficult to estimate as sensors are only guaranteed by dexcom to last 7 days, but I routinely get upto 4 weeks out of mine. Additionally, you will need to buy a new transmitter every 12 months approximately. Each person has there own views, and many seem to prefer the libre, but I have found the Dexcom accurate, customisable and most importantly calibratable. Hope this helps.

Dexcom Medtronic and Nvigator are all stand alone CGM's

http://www.inputdiabetes.org.uk/cgm/cgm-costs/

I seem to remember a device that was worn like a watch for 24 hour constant monitoring of B/G levels which was available in America several years ago under the brand name of 'Glucowatch' but unfortunately the test strips (a tiny disk) was fairly expensive at the time which restricted it's sales.
Recently one of Google's company acquisitions has pioneered a contact lens which when worn is capable of sending a radio signal to a small receiver for constant B/G monitoring. It works by measuring the glucose level within the tear fluid of the outer eye. I don't know if this product has been released yet or is still within the development stage.
Hope this info is of some help.

Susiespearish said:

Just cancelled my Libra having found that I would still have to wake up to scan to get readings in the night .Guess it's going to be me and my test strips every half hour .

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Are you seen by a hospital clinic, if so I'm wondering if they have cgm's to loan for a week?

Susiespearish said:

Just cancelled my Libra having found that I would still have to wake up to scan to get readings in the night .Guess it's going to be me and my test strips every half hour .

Click to expand...

The libre stores upto 8 hours of readings on the sensor, and so if you go to bed at 11pm, and get up at 7am and scan when you wake, you will see all readings from 11pm, till 7am. The scanning throughout the night is only required if you want to check your readings "there and then" and action immediately. However, you do have the "draw back" of having to scan at least 3 times per day, and as far as I am aware, if you go beyond the 8 hours without scanning, you lose the earliest figures ... it is an 8 hour rolling store of data I believe.

No, that's not right. If you scan at 11 before dropping off, then so long as you scan again at 7, all the data will be there. Or if you sleep late, you'll lose whatever data is older than 8 hrs. But this NEVER happens to me.

Or if you half wake at some point, just swipe without looking and go back to sleep.

It stores the data for months.

I enquired about a CGM machine a few years ago at my local clinic but was told that although then lend patients one it is a sign that your diabetes is out of controlled could end up with me losing my driving license which I was somewhat startled about. I am still fixated about getting a CGM machine but do understand that they are as reliable as finger pricking. I can only hope that they become a little more reliable as I believe this is the way to go.

I don't know why I am struggling to understand how the libre works.......

can it take a glucose reading without a physical scan.....?

saying that at scan a bed time and then when waking, provided its 8 hours between them, can give you a series of readings overnight suggest so.....

and if so, can it be used during the day like that, to say perform a basal test for any given 5 hour time period.....

Yes, both dexcom and libre (in there own ways) give you a view of your BG, but the CGM only gives you an idea, although often a very good idea, of what your blood sugar is, but it takes about 10 to 15 minutes for your blood sugar to be reflected in the interstitial fluid. The beauty and value of the CGM, is to give you an unparalleled view of where your blood sugars have been, where they are now, and where they are going. If you tally that information with other factors that will affect your BG, like exercise insulin on board and exercise etc, you get a view that you can't imagine. But once you have that view, if the figure is out a little, it doesn't matter.

So yes, it is ideal for basal tests, and retrospective analysis of the ebb and flow of your BG. I can highly recommend reading either think like a pancreas, or sugar surfing, as both of these will open your eyes to CGM.

novorapidboi26 said:

I don't know why I am struggling to understand how the libre works.......

can it take a glucose reading without a physical scan.....?

saying that at scan a bed time and then when waking, provided its 8 hours between them, can give you a series of readings overnight suggest so.....

and if so, can it be used during the day like that, to say perform a basal test for any given 5 hour time period.....

Click to expand...

It has two sorts of readings: when you scan, but also every 15 mins of its own accord. (This 'historic' reading is actually made up of the average of lots of micro measurements, which means it's more reliable than the scan measurements. I use the historic readings for my calculations, not the scans.)

So just to be clear, even if you only scan once every 8 hrs to transfer the data from the sensor to the reader, all the data will sit and stay on your reader for a matter of months. So when you plug the reader into your PC and export the data, all the historic data - all the every-15-minute numbers - will be there.

That's what I find the most useful. I don't scan that often unless something is up. I look at the numbers later, after a specific meal or un-clever mistake I made.

So yes, you can do a basal test any, any time, just by skipping a meal for the five-hour period. It's WONDERFUL !!

LucySW said:

No, that's not right. If you scan at 11 before dropping off, then so long as you scan again at 7, all the data will be there. Or if you sleep late, you'll lose whatever data is older than 8 hrs. But this NEVER happens to me.

Or if you half wake at some point, just swipe without looking and go back to sleep.

It stores the data for months.

Click to expand...

BTW Susie,

What I meant to say is that the sensor itself can only hold eight hours' worth of data. But when you scan, it all transfers up to the reader. Then the reader will hold it all for several months.

It's that data, which you access as soon as you plug it into the PC and export, which is so valuable, I find. You import it into an Excel, or similar, and then you can SEE IT ALL !!!!! Then you can store it on the PC indefinitely, of course.

And the night-time data is WONDERFUL !!!!!!!!

To help understand how the Libre works, have a look at this scan from Nightscout (If you download and use the Glimp app on an Android phone, you can link it to Nightscout, which might be very useful for kids at school and parents wanting remote monitoring).



What you can see is the individual dots plus a cluster of dots. Every minute the sensor samples your glucose level. This is stored.

Every fifteen minutes a form of average number of these 15 individual readings is taken and stored. I don't know whether this is a simple average or something more appropriate. This means that for every fifteen minutes that you wear it, you have a glucose recording.

On the image below, which is a twenty four hour view, you can see a gap. This is where I had failed to scan with my phone (as I was using the libre reader) and you can see that the data lasts for 8 hours. It is in the bar at the bottom of the image.

In short, the Libre will give you full data. Excepting only if you forget to scan at least once every eight hours.