• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Just my luck. lol!

DisFanJen

Well-Known Member
Messages
144
Location
Lovely, Lovely, Wales
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
So, got my Freestyle Libre 2 training yesterday, simple, painless, and set up during the call.

Anyhoo, the numbers were a bit low but I knew it wouldn't be a direct match so didn't think much of it, then it said I was dropping into a potential hypo.

Bit worrying as I don't normally go that low but I went and grabbed something to stave off any issues (Hmm, carby goodness, *drool* ).

Tested about 40 mins later and still saying it was high 3s, so said "screw this" and got out my glucose meter.

7.8

Turns out after talking to Abbott I have a faulty unit. Well, at least it wasn't hypos!
 
Did you give the sensor 24-48 hours to settle in before you activated it?
Abbott may not recommend this but many users have found that this increases accuracy.
I have seen inaccurate readings over the first day or so before the sensor settles down.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Did you give the sensor 24-48 hours to settle in before you activated it?
Abbott may not recommend this but many users have found that this increases accuracy.
I have seen inaccurate readings over the first day or so before the sensor settles down.
Click to expand...

No but the numbers weren't even close. Libre = 3.9. BG = 7.8

Abbott are 100% that it's broken. Even now (about 24 hours in) it's reading 4.1 and the BG is 5.8. (all with that nice horizontal arrow so it shouldn't be lag).
 
I find my Libre 2 needs at least 2 days and preferably 3 days to bed in to give close readings.
Even then, it is less accurate below 4 and above 9.
 
DisFanJen said:
Dang! 2 days of dodgy readings? If that's true I might as well stay with finger pricks.
Click to expand...

Except that with the Libre you will get to see trends and patterns outside of your normal finger pricking routine. Unless dosing for insulin with it, the exact numbers are far less important than those trends, and you can take account of whether a particular sensor is running high or low. The problem comes when a sensor is erratically swinging between reading high or low.
 
Goonergal said:
The problem comes when a sensor is erratically swinging between reading high or low.
Click to expand...

Yes, I loved my libre 1, until I unfortunately developed an allergy to it (which I would probably could have lived with) and that allergy made the results randomly swing high and low. Abbott sent me any number of replacement sensors, and even a replacement reader but in the end I had to come to the conclusion that it was me and not them.

But even when the libre was working for me I found a glucometer useful for hypos and hypers.

Now I use a dexcom and have almost eliminated the allergy issue, but even so I need a meter for hypos. I've only once had it tell me I was hypo when I wasn't (near the end of a sensor and it was having all sorts of issues) but if I'm on the middle of a serious hypo I need a glucometer just to tell me when I'm on the way back up and no longer need to panic. I treat the hypo first, but then I get the meter out for back up.

Cgms are awesome devices and I just wish every diabetic who wanted one could have access, but they do have limitations.
 
DisFanJen said:
Dang! 2 days of dodgy readings? If that's true I might as well stay with finger pricks.
Click to expand...
What many of us do is to insert the sensor two days before we activate it.
The problem is not two days of dodgy readings but two days of our body getting used to the alien object inserted in our arm.
 

I’d agree. If you find the sensor is taking time to settle or you question a reading you can always finger prick before injecting or double check a hypo.
 
DisFanJen said:
Dang! 2 days of dodgy readings? If that's true I might as well stay with finger pricks.
Click to expand...

I would say definitely persevere. The libre lasts for 14 days whereas (I think) the Dexcom is only 10 days. I agree that two days of dodgy readings are ridiculous but I normally find the readings become more accurate for me between 18 & 24 hours.
 
In Response said:
What many of us do is to insert the sensor two days before we activate it.
The problem is not two days of dodgy readings but two days of our body getting used to the alien object inserted in our arm.
Click to expand...
That's worth knowing. So for a couple of days do you keep both in?
 
KK123 said:
I would say definitely persevere. The libre lasts for 14 days whereas (I think) the Dexcom is only 10 days. I agree that two days of dodgy readings are ridiculous but I normally find the readings become more accurate for me between 18 & 24 hours.
Click to expand...
Honestly I wanted to use it instead of finger pricks. But it might be better to have both tbh as I really want to dial in my insulin doses.
 
DisFanJen said:
That's worth knowing. So for a couple of days do you keep both in?
Click to expand...
Yes, I have one active sensor in one arm and another "warming up" in the other for a couple of days before activating the new one.
 
Ok, so my second libre arrived, I put it on my arm then waited 2 days before activating it but same results. At this point I can't see it's the libre, I mean what's the odds of getting two bad ones? But at the same time the readings are too far out for me to trust it.

As an example, it woke me up on multiple nights (multiple times a night) saying I was hypoing, I felt fine but tested with my BG meter and the BG numbers ranged from 4.6 up to 5.8.

In the end I turned the alarms off and for every meal I'm prick testing anyway, which sort of defeats the object IMO.

Popping to the GP Monday who is going to to a prick test with their machine on the off chance my meter is the issue, but honestly I trust the meter way more then the libre at this point.

Anyway, before I give this up as a bad job (and I'd really like to trust the libre enough to use it instead of constant prick testing), anyone have any ideas what the issue might be? I'd even accept user error but it's hard to screw up applying this IMO.
 

Nights can be difficult you can get ‘compression lows’ so if you lay on the sensor it gives low readings.. I had it a lot as I’m a side sleeper.

Even my Dexcom does the same
 
Some people's bodies don't fit the standard cgm model. Dexcom get round this by allowing you to calibrate the sensor against your own meter (used to be compulsory for previous models but G6 has it as optional.) I believe some libre 1 users sent their info to software that did the calibration for them? Xdrip???
 

Just started looking into calibration options, just not sure if they actually calibrate the sensor or set the software to adjust correctly. As I need the info to be available in Libreview (my diabetes care team are linked in to it) it needs to be the former rather than the latter.

I really want to get this to work as I find the finger pricks more painful than taking the insulin!
 
searley said:
Nights can be difficult you can get ‘compression lows’ so if you lay on the sensor it gives low readings.. I had it a lot as I’m a side sleeper.

Even my Dexcom does the same
Click to expand...

That's not something I was aware of, I do have it on the underside of my upper arm rather than the side though so it shouldn't be getting squished.

Though as an example I'm currently in the mid 4s (just did a BG test) but the libre is freaking out saying I'm at 3.3! I have a feeling I'd be feeling major ****** if I was 3.3.

Seeing the GP nurse tomorrow where they are going to do a finger prick test just to confirm my meter is reading pretty well, just to be certain but just based on how I feel in myself I'm certain the issue is the Libre.
 

I always had issues of libre reading about 1mmol low.. but pressure can make it worse
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…