A follow up to my post (no 2448) from yesterday.
I contacted Abbott this morning via the 0500 467 466 number and spoke to a nice chap who went through his checklist. I'd sat down before I rang and made notes of Reader number, sensor number & the error codes prior to failure, along with a brief list of the info I wanted. He also took note of the previous sensor number which failed on it's last day of use, which I hadn't kept for their records.
He has replaced the sensor even after 10 days use from it without any quibble. The will send a post paid return package with the replacement sensor for me to return the faulty one, but couldn't say whether there would be any feedback on the failure. He showed concern when I explained about the skin irritation, said he wasn't given any information with respect to how many are suffering with this, but recommended should it continue I should seek medical advice. Also he had no information on any change in the adhesive or use of barriers between the sensor and the skin.
Similarly, when asked about alternative sites, he said that Abbott only recommended the back of the arm as they felt they couldn't guarantee accuracy anywhere else & wearing it elsewhere would be a personal descision.
All in all, good customer service from the call centre, bearing in mind that most call centres operate on a script/checklist basis.
However, I now have to decide whether to take a break until my arms have healed, try one somewhere else, perhaps with a barrier installed. I lean towards Smidge's theory that the body's auto-immune system starts to reject the sensor, and the gunge produced upsets the sensor enough that it fails.
Hey ho... I must stress that other than the failure & irritation from the last 2 sensors, that the libre has been the best bit of kit, accurate & usable. Having finger-pricked since saturday, I've realised why the libre has been so good. Apart from the pain from the pricker, reverting back to old ways is like having to put a blindfold back on after being cured of blindness... frustrating!