There are a lot of unlucky Zafira drivers in the world
You can't have fewer than one problem.
I've only had one sensor, one problem, badly handled.
I've shared that with people who, like me, may come to these sites to research before they buy.
They are now aware that Abbott won't replace the sensor if it comes off your arm.
They will read that, in my experience, the sensors come off very easily
They will read that lots of experienced Freestylers use tape to keep it on.
They can decide if this the hi-tech solution they thought it was.
I owned and ran a medical supply business for 10 years, selling mainly online, with a miniscule turnover compared to multi-million pound multinational pharmaceutical company Abbott, that you all seem so keen to defend. God knows they need all the help that they can get, these multimillion pound multinational pharmaceutical companies!
@Diabetic Diatribe have you provided Abbott with some design improvements they could make to improve the product given your certainty there is a design fault?
Thanks! I was beginning to feel like a Hillary supporter at a Trump rally there......Worry not, this thread was created to discuss anyone's Libre experiences and issues - not just yours.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to trial the freestyle libre. As part of this trial, I had to sit through a sales pitch but in return I received advice direct from Abbott on how to use the libre, a free reader and one free sensor.
Amongst the advice the gentleman from Abbott gave were
- your body may react to the sensor at first. Therefore, for some people it will take 24 hours for the readings to "calm down". Therefore of the 14 days, there may only be 13 days of useful data
- don't be tempted to attach a sensor to your other arm on day 13 to overcome the calm-down period. The reader cannot cope with two sensors in close proximity.
- the reason for the "pre-injection swab" is to ensure nothing goes into your skin with the sensor. This includes soaps, detergents and shower gels which are often shown to effect the BG reading
- as part of the trial, if the sensor falls off (which it did), I was entitled to one free replacement
- if you the sensor falls off at any other time, you are entitled to two free replacements. This was clearly not 2 replacements for every sensor so I am not sure what time period
- you should NOT (the reps capitalisation, not mine), stick anything to the sensor. This may effect the readings and removal of the sticky tape may pull out the sensor.
- he recommended some vet tape which sticks to itself but not your skin (or sensor) and costs £1 from Wilko. Something similar seems to be available on line for a similar price but costs £2.99 for P&P
- to get standards approval for the libre, it has to be 11% accurate.
- it is only approved to be warn between the elbow and shoulder
- it cannot replace finger-pricks for pre-driving readings but Abbott are campaigning with the DVLA to change this
- the reading is about 5 minutes delay from finger pricks ... which is better than old cgms which were 15-20 minutes out.
- the reader can be used as a finger prick tester and has the same accuracy as the sensor
And now for a question to the community:
- there was some talk at the start of this thread about calibrating the libre. How is this done? Do you use calibration fluid with a finger prick? Or is this an "off-line" calibration that you do in your head after comparing with your usual meter?
Thanks @AndBreathe. I read the documentation that came with the Libre and their online Q&A but had not found any instructions to calibrate the sensors. Now I understand that the calibration is done manually on every reading ... which us what I meant by "offline". This makes sense. Glad I was not missing something.Hello there.
I can't speak for everyone else, but I always "calibrate" my sensor by undertaking a few sensor scans and finger-prick tests, with the relevant gaps to ascertain how closely the numbers are. For me, some have been very close and others well out. If the difference is consistent, that's not so bad and can be factored by adding or subtracting a margin from the the number on the reader scan. If it's highly erratic, then for me, it's a bit of a chat with Abbott.
I have always found the Abbott responses to be fair, based on my findings and subsequent presentation of the data to them.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?