Free Style Libre - your advice please

Chill1774 said:

Hi, I am new here so apologies if this topic has been covered previously.
I have just had a freestyle Libre. I put it on for the first time yesterday morning. So far so good. I have been checking the results with my finger pick to get an idea of accuracy etc... this morning however, my Libre sensor tells me my glucose is LOW and out of range and has been for hours. I feel great. So did a finger prick test and I’m 5.3, a tad peckish but fine. Just now after being up for 20 mins (it is the weekend) it has popped up a bit to 2.1. I have attached a screenshot.
Has anyone else experienced this or is my sensor rubbish?View attachment 42046

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Hi there, well you've tested with a finger prick so I would go with what that is saying (which is around 10/15 minutes 'later' than a libre reading). The libre is notorious for not being accurate during the first 24 hours and this is true for me because every time I attach a new one it virtually shows a straight line for 24 hours and much lower readings than blood tests are showing me. You may find today, that the numbers start to rise so wait and see before writing it off. Some people attach their new libre 24 hours before they activate it to prevent this issue. My Consultant was looking at my libre results the other day and he said 'Why do you not eat carbs on a Wednesday', I had no idea what he was on about and it wasn't until after the call that I realised my libres run out after 14 days ALWAYS on a Tuesday night and it takes until Wednesday night to kick in properly. Also I note there is a gap between 3am and 4am?, it may be that you were sleeping on the libre which also affects it and gives false (normally very low) readings. x

I used to overlap my Libres by about 8-12 hours, I was fortunate that I had 2 readers to do that with. Other people soak them which is applying them without activating as @KK123 mentioned to help it be more accurate sooner. Mine had a tendency to be lower by about 1 to 1.5 points a lot anyways. That is pretty common.

Lest you think they aren't any good. They are wonderful. It shows you trends, 24/7. So you know at least what your bloods did all night. During the day you can tell your blood sugars have been climbing for an hour and maybe delay eating or take an adjustment. But if they are headed down, maybe no adjustment needed type thing. You really end up learning and knowing a lot more. Exercise? Maybe I need to eat a hypo treatment while I'm still biking, etc. Whenever suspicious always do a meter test though.

I only wore one sensor, it seemed the higher the reading, the more accurate. 5 on a finger stick was 4 on the reader, but the highs matched. As noted, they’re wonderful for getting an overall picture. I also noticed readings would get lower being a couch potato, and became more accurate when I was up and about. Kinda like the location of the sensor might not have been perfect

Chill1774 said:

I’m finding that the reading are really different. My graph shot up to 12 but lest than 1 hour later after eating lunch it says I’m low, but actual reading on the finger test is 7. I might have to ring the diabetic team for advice I think.

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It could just be a dodgy sensor of course - as with anything electronic they can fail, note down the values that the libre shows and what your test meter shows and then phone up Abbott, they will need at least 3 sets of values but should replace it for you if it's faulty (don't throw it out though, they'll want the other one back presuming they replace it)

It could be faulty. I had a few that were off by a little more than I liked and had them replaced. But some people have had some way off. Also for some reason some people get more variance than others and don't do well with them. When you call them they will say you should wait until day three, just get insistent if they do, that you need it replaced. They also want the numbers you give them in the readings to either be 20% or 30% off depending who you talk too to replace it.

Chill1774 said:

Has anyone else experienced this or is my sensor rubbish?

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Luckily I've only experienced once and it was near the end of it's recommended life as well. Your other device is the one to trust. As you are early in the use of that sensor, see if Abbott will replace it. Faulty items are not unheard of.