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Freestyle Libre Failed Before First Reading

G

Gork

Well-Known Member
Messages
71
Location
USA
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Did I do something wrong?
I set up the meter to charge and read the rest of the directions. I applied the sensor at 11pm and checked it with the monitor. The screen said that I had to wait 12 hours, just as the directions said it would. At 11:30 am, the meter is telling me"Sensor Ended. Start a new sensor to check glucose."

The meter came with three sensors, one each for ten days covering a month.
I sent a note to FreeStyle but I doubt I will hear from today.

I removed the old sensor and there was a very small amount of blood under it.
Any thoughts from anyone?
 
Call them
Irecently had 2 sensors fail - the first one never worked and the second was wildly inaccurate. Abbot will usually replace faulty sensore if you call them and go through a whole load of questions. They will require the failed sensor back for testing
 
You need to phone abbot and they will send you areplacement also the sensor should start working an hour after first scan hope this helps
 
karen8967 said:
the sensor should start working an hour after first scan
Click to expand...
That would be the sensors in most of the world. The American ones have a 12 hour start up and only a 10 day life, instead of our 2 weeks.
And agree, give them a call tomorrow and don't throw away the faulty sensor.
 
Antje77 said:
That would be the sensors in most of the world. The American ones have a 12 hour start up and only a 10 day life, instead of our 2 weeks.
And agree, give them a call tomorrow and don't throw away the faulty sensor.
Click to expand...
I thought they would all be the same thats awful 4 days less thanks for informing me of thiss
 
karen8967 said:
You need to phone abbot and they will send you are placement also the sensor should start working an hour after first scan hope this helps
Click to expand...

I am not sure what you mean by that it should start working an hour after the first scan. The meter reported how many hours until I could see a reading right down to 12 hours later.

I called and yes, 5 business days and a replacement will be here. They are sending a kit to send it back "if you still have it." Maybe it is optional. They did verify the error code in the log.

The second is working like a charm. Take readings as often as I want is nice since I tend to analyze everything. The meter showed a reading of 53 but I did not feel and thing like having low sugar. I would at that point. I checked it with my original meter and it read 78. High readings are only off by 5 points, probably within any test spec but the libre meter is usually lower than my other one.

I guess I am now Borg. Third of Five.

It is interesting that the sensor retains only 8 hours of history. If I sleep late then I guess the data is lost for the over night shift. Too bad they did not include a sample of test strips so that I could verify the accuracy of the sensor.

Logging in to the web site was a hassle but I think I finally activated it.
 
Im in the uk and once activated sensors can be used in an hour although sonebody told me in other countries activation can take up to 12 hours
 
!2 hours before you can use it, that's a long time. With my third one, I put it on my arm, waited an hour, and then I got an error message of some description, can't remember what it said now, but the sensor wasn't working, so I had to wait another hour, tried again, same thing happened.

In the end I phoned them, and the man on the phone said it wasn't working, so I took it off, and the sensor hadn't gone into my arm, for whatever reason.

12 hours is a long time to wait, to then find a sensor isn't working, though.
 
karen8967 said:
You need to phone abbot and they will send you areplacement also the sensor should start working an hour after first scan hope this helps
Click to expand...
This person may be in the USA where it takes 10 hours to activate
 
Bear in mind that there is a 15 minute delay between blood sugar results and sensor results, so to compare you should test your blood sugar with a traditional meter, wait 15 minutes and then scan the sensor.
You can get blood testing strips which work with the libre sensor - freestyle optium. This can be handy if you want to get Abbott a free sensor because your current one deviates from blood sugar readings by too great an amount.
I do cynically wonder whether Abbott deliberately calibrate so that the meter under reads at low levels, they are possibly worried that someone will sue them because they don't pick up a hypo....
 
EllieM said:
I do cynically wonder whether Abbott deliberately calibrate so that the meter under reads at low levels, they are possibly worried that someone will sue them because they don't pick up a hypo....
Click to expand...
Not unlike the fuel meter in your car. It keeps showing full when the tank is full making you think you are getting great fuel efficiency than it seems to drop lower/faster as the tank empties.
--------------------------
Back to Business.

I would love to know what is happening. In the first month of using this system.
1) out of box failure (replaced) "Replace sensor" after 12 hour delay. Return requested.
2) Abnormally low readings (replaced) but worked the full 10 days.
3) Worked well until I accidentally pulled out when taking my Tee shirt off on day 4.
4) Out of box failure. After the 12 hours, it kept telling me to wait more 10 minutes more until it stopped.
5) Out of box failure. "Replace Sensor" after 12 hour wait.

I will be calling them again on Monday and I wonder if they are going to replace the last three sensors. Special care is taken with each application. My insurance will not pay for sensors until July 10th.

I cannot believe the precautions needed to send a sensor back. Place it in a baggie then into a second baggie. Place the two into a bubble pack pouch which was way too small for the sensor and two baggies. At least the box and prepaid return postage was supplied.
 
One thing I have seen with the last two total failures is that the tiny point that, I figure, is supposed to pierce the skin is folded over instead. I was extremely careful in removing the last one. Maybe my skin is more tough than that of others?
 
Gork said:
Maybe my skin is more tough than that of others?
Click to expand...
That is interesting. It sounds like the needle/filament isn't entering your skin properly. Logically, I wouldn't be surprised if mutiple sensors in the same batch had the same fault, so it'll be interesting to see if you're OK with the replacement(s).

I suspect you may have issues with the one that fell off: Abbott should replace the others. (If you think tshirts are bad for snagging sensors, try being female, bras are serious sensor snaggers).

Having said all that, the libre just does not work for some people, whatever you do. The factory calibration means that if your body is an outlier in some weird and wonderful way then the sensor readings are useless. I personally had 8 months with excellent results and only 2 dud sensors, followed by several months of increasingly irritated skin and increasingly inaccurate sensors (eg readings of LO when the glucose meter reads 6). But your results so far sound like a bad batch of sensors, so hopefully it will work for you. Many many people get excellent results from the device.
 
One thing I just realized is that the location where I was placing the sensors is where I had a significant number of insulin injections and the area was hardened more than others. That would certainly be a problem for such a thin filament. Additionally, the skin on the side/back of my arm is hardened as a result of many years of gardening and natural exposure.

I was also placing the sensor on my left arm and noted that as I was getting out of the truck, would allow it for being tugged at by either the seat belt or the side post of the door frame.

Will it matter if I place the sensor under the arm where the skin is softer and more protected? I also purchased some waterproof adhesive patches to further protect the sensor from being grabbed.

There is a notice out there that says that FreeStyle is not issuing any more sensor monitors for now because they cannot seem to keep up with the demand. I will discuss my findings with them that maybe they can improve such a great product.
 
Aside from an 80% failure rate (4 of 5) I remain totally sold on this system. It remains to be seen of this continues and that I/we work out the problems. I just called Libre and they are replacing the three sensors that failed and they will be here in 5 business days. (Monday 6/10 or so) I am presently without a sensor and my insurance will re-issue them on the 9th. I will contact them to see if they will allow one replacement that I can get from the pharmacy in 24 hours.

Being able to take a reading at any time, I wonder if it would be better to go to fast acting insulin instead. It should be able to give me better control.

When the system was working for those 14 days, I was having fun showing off my Borg implant: I would show my readings using the meter at the doctor's office and standing in line at the grocery store, etc.
 
I recently obtained the freestyle libre. It is not a good system. Two sensors have failed after just a week and the readings are way out of the actual blood readings. I find that it is quite painful to insert and I react to the glue on the sensor. I am sure my insurers will be jumping up and down with the cost. Using the sensor it says I have normal sugar when it is higher than I like and the LO is meaningless. I can get a reading on my blood meter down to the ones. I refuse to put this thing where it is visible and likely to catch on the back of the arm. Abbott's advice is frankly a waste of a phone call.
 
Gork said:
It is interesting that the sensor retains only 8 hours of history. If I sleep late then I guess the data is lost for the over night shift.
Click to expand...
It retains the most recent 8 hours, so you wouldn't lose a whole night of data.
For example, scan and sleep at 12, wake and scan at 10 and it would show data from 2 to 10.
You just get a little break in the graph
 

I moved to the dexcom because I reacted badly to the libre1 glue and its results became totally inaccurate for me. The libre works better for some people than others unfortunately, though there are 3rd party apps you can use to calibrate it against your own readings. It's notorious for being not so accurate outside the normal range and you can be unlucky and get a batch of bad sensors. To be fair, though, Abbott do replace faulty sensors and when I was struggling to get usable readings out of my libre they even sent me a new reader. Eventually I had to conclude that their technology didn't agree with my body, though their then denial of any knowledge of skin allergies was really annoying.

Maybe you should see if your insurance could cover a dexcom? Dexcom customer service does admit that some people have skin issues and make helpful suggestions on how to avoid them, and they also allow you to calibrate a sensor against your glucometer.
 
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