Just fitted my first Sensor - FS Libre

Reading various questions on the forum suggests that it is not clear how the Libre works or how to get the most out of it.
Diabetes UK asked me to write a blog explaining this. Here it is https://blogs.diabetes.org.uk/?p=9247

This may all be obvious to you or you may learn one or two things.

Good luck with your Libre life.

It's a great device, @tubamanandy .

For the first week I used it, I actually tested bg a lot more than usual so I could get a sense of how it worked in relation to blood, because it's not measuring glucose in blood, but glucose in interstitial fluid, and there are differences.

Doing it that way, I got a clearer idea of the differences so after a while could say, ok, libre is saying x, so blood is probably y. Eventually got to the stage where I was happy bolusing from it with just a couple of calibration checks each day to see how on song it was.

Apart from the obvious heads up it gives for developing hypos, also good for checking how basal is working overnight, pinning foot on floor rise in the mornings, and generally Sugar Surfing a la Stephen Ponder - tweaking with small 5g carbs or 1 u insulin here and there to catch a situation long before it goes out of range.

I've pimped mine up a bit by putting a £100 Blucon transmitter from Ambrosia Systems on top of it, so I now get readings sent every 5 mins to xDrip+ on my phone. Means I can calibrate it if the factory calibration is out, the graph provides way more info than the libre graph, warns of predicted lows, and phone rings if I get too low or high, so it basically does the same as dexcom without having to fork out for a new transmitter every few months and hoping the sensor will restart ok.

Libre's briliant on its own but using it with blucon and xDrip+ takes it into a new league.

Here's what the graph looks like.

Oops, sorry, @tubamanandy - just noticed you're T2 so ignore the Sugar Surfing bit - when I saw libre in the title I just went onto autopilot!

tubamanandy said:

Just fitted my first ever Freestyle Libre sensor and it was painless and really easy.

Area cleaned with the special wipe, shaved and fitted. Really didn't like the look of that needle when the sensor was sat in the applicator but it really didn't hurt. I then secured it with the wound dressing Tegaderm which cost me about £1.60 for a decent sized piece.

Was really concerned about messing the process up especially with the cost of the sensor but so far so good.

I will be activating the sensor tonight with the application on my phone - didn't want to purchase the reader for the additional cost when my phone `should` do the same thing.

Any comments appreciated - especially from longer term users (that sounds bad)

Click to expand...

I remember I was trying to psyche myself up so much to push the sensor in the first time that when the spring went, I just jumped and squealed!!!!

My biggest issues now are skin irritation with dates with short expiry... !

Hello

Please can you let me know how this goes for you? I want to do some endurance sports and am keen to see how what I eat during the events has on me

Ross

Hi @tubamanandy
I am about 10 days ahead of you in the use of the Libre system, and I have been writing a continuing thread about My Life with the Machine.
I have found it to be very useful when giving me more data so that I can make an informed decision about my food, timings, increases and recovery times. So far, so good.
You can see the thread, and report, here .
Let me know if it helps,,,
Thanks
Peter