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Freestyle Libre Reader Malfunction

M

Miss90

Well-Known Member
Messages
223
Location
UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
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Diabetes
Hi all

Has anyone ever had a problem with their reader? Last night before bed I was showing as hypo so I had my lucozade, waited and rechecked. Still hypo despite no symptoms so I had some more lucozade and went to sleep. Woke up 30 minutes later to test and it was 'LO'. Didn't feel low but too scared to sleep so I stayed awake for an hour, and I was still 'LO'. I was 'LO' for 4 hours (having chugged back almost 2L of lucozade at this point but still too scared to sleep as I've suffered a bad night time seizure in the past) but I decided to check with my normal meter as I felt high. A BS of 32.8!!!!! At this point it was still showing 'LO' on the freestyle. Has anyone experienced this?
 
Hello @Miss90 its not happened to me but if it did I would be calling Abbott first thing to report it, it might not be the reader which is faulty as it could be the sensor but regardless they need to be informed and a replacement sensor sent.
 
It's not happened to me either but I'd be straight on the phone to Abbott to see about a replacement sensor, I got a reader changed as it was leaving gaps in the display, they sent a sensor too.

Definitely worth ring their customer services.
 
I've had it happen once to me, but I know they can be terribly inaccurate below 4.5 for me anyways, so if it shows LO I'm always slightly sceptical anyway, I will normally have something to eat and 20 mins later if it still shows LO and I feel perfectly fine, I do an actual test to see what it's at.

When it kept showing LO for me I left it on overnight so to see if it'd sort itself out, but by by the next morning there was a big fat error message when I tried to scan it anyway - Abbott replaced it for me.
 
I was told to use the Libre to identify trends but to always finger prick if you are going to take an action on the current Libre readings. This action may be to treat a hypo or to do a correction or before meals.
Libre is not as accurate as finger pricks due to the mechanism it uses to calculate BG.
It is good ... and some people find it very accurate but it cannot replace finger pricks.
 
Thanks all - going to call them after work and hope they can replace it. Just don't understand how it showed 'LO' when my bs was over 30!!
 
Miss90 said:
Has anyone experienced this?
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I used the libre happily for 8 months but after that I developed a skin allergy to the sensor and the readings became hopelessly inaccurate for me. (eg readings of LO all night even though a blood test showed 6). It sounds like your issue is a faulty sensor, though. I have read that others get occasional faulty sensors, and I'm sure if you ring Abbott they'll replace it.

In future I'd recommend doing occasional tests to make sure you're not being led astray by your sensor, and in particular to be very suspicious of hypo readings when you haven't got any symptoms.

It's an awesome device when it's working, but does appear to have (hopefully only occasional) reliability issues.
 
Miss90 said:
Thanks all - going to call them after work and hope they can replace it. Just don't understand how it showed 'LO' when my bs was over 30!!
Click to expand...

Probably a faulty sensor. I have had 1 faulty one where the readings were showing so far away from finger prick test. I called it in and had a replacement sensor sent withing 48 hours
 
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I never treat a low or high without checking bloods first as the Libre is nowhere near as accurate when reading lows and highs. Which Abbott admit. However this sounds like a dud sensor.
 
Had plenty of incorrect 'LO' readings, don't use the libre any more because of the skin reactions. But always check with a blood test though before correcting (for either way). Not sure how you could knock back almost 2L of lucozade and still think you were low, unless you had a silly amount of IOB................
 
slip said:
Had plenty of incorrect 'LO' readings, don't use the libre any more because of the skin reactions.
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Honestly, I'm starting to wonder how reliable this device is. Obviously I'm biased, as it doesn't work at all for me, but there just seem to be so many threads posted by people who are having issues. Of course, there are probably a lot more people using libre than other cgms, so that might explain it.

I'd love to know the statistics on faulty sensors....
 
I'm a T2 who uses a sensor, and I've found that uness I leave it sitting on my arm to settle down for about 48 hours after insertion I'll get some very erratic and extremely low readings particularly overnight - I learned about this from other forum users but i think that needing to wait 24 hours is more common! Waiting for this settling down period results in "normal" levels, but I think if I'd not had access to forum wisdom I'd have had the living daylights scared out of me when I first saw these scary graphs:



(I've never actually contacted Abbott about this as I assumed it was me rather than the sensor(s) !)

Robbity

ETA The only diabetic medication I ever had was metformin, so nothing that would cause me to go so low!
 
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slip said:
I'd also love to know what percent of users have had skin reactions................
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Ive had very bad skin reactions on my arms after months of being fine i now use lower back near bottom just below waistline im on 2nd one there an its been fine reading about same as arms i think maybe abbott have changed glue because all of a sudden loads seem to be developing rashes round the same time also when ive had lo readings i always do a fingerprick test
 
@EllieM

I don’t know the official failure rate, but I’ve been using the system for over a year. Three of my sensors were faulty due to very inaccurate readings. Two sensors failed to activate at all. That’s 5/35 sensors or approximately 14%.

In every case, Abbott replaced the sensor without complaint.

I haven’t had a problem with a rash, etc.

I always try to have a “reserve” sensor in addition to my next replacement, but I appreciate not everyone can afford this. (I don’t want to wait a week for Abbott to issue a replacement if a sensor develops a fault.)
 
It's interesting that in the US users are required to wait 24 hours before activating their sensors - I assume it's the same device, so it must be a requirement brought in to avoid the first 24 hours inaccuracy... The sensors also only last for 10 days. Is this because they're worried about them falling off, or because of accuracy issues in the last 4 days?
 
@EllieM US versions have a 12hr warm up and shutoff after 10 days - I don't know if Abbott put in to the FDA for that or whether the FDA forced it. But I do believe the Libre is cheaper in the US than elsewhere.
 
My son used to work for Abbots. They were producing 40k a day at their branch just outside London and were meant to be doubling production earlier on in the year and the branch in N. Ireland were going to be doing the same. I think we just see the negative posts in our news feeds in social media and I would be surprised if the failure rate OR skin irritation was anywhere near 1% of the numbers produced
I have been using Libre since January. Only had 1 which didnt work too good and Abbotts replaced within 48 hours. They have been VERY accurate for me
 
Yes, I had exactly the same problem as Miss90 with continual LO readings last Saturday and just before going to bed too. Had changed the sensor at 6pm that evening but it had worked fine for the next four hours. Luckily had some blood test strips, as I didn't have a replacement sensor, so could still monitor my BS levels.

Kept reading the Libre. Sometimes it said faulty sensor but mostly it said LO. All of a sudden on Sunday evening, twenty four hours after first fitting the sensor, the meter began to read again. The BS levels recorded were rather low but after a few hours the Libre returned to normal. Blood test and Libre readings were virtually identical. Still good now, two days later.

Have used Libre for over six months and this is the first time ever such an incident has occurred. Bit worrying but just glad it wasn't the other way around. Imagine a normal reading if you were on the brink of a hypo... hopefully that could never happen. Just to be safe I'm testing by both methods for the remaining ten days life of this sensor.
 
Yes, after several years of use without problems, I suddenly have two sensors in a row giving nonsensical LO readings which are completely off when checked against a blood test. Called Abbott which told me about unevenness for 24 hours, as some people are reporting here. I'm not optimistic but will be patient and I don't understand why after using dozens of sensors I would get two in a row with this problem. Wondering if the monitor, rather than the sensor, is off. In any case, a false LO reading is unpleasant, the first time it drove me to emergency sugar consumption (banana and meusli).
 
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