Libre Allergy?

Please forgive me if this has been asked/answered before but I have searched and Googled and not found anything.

I was just wondering if anyone has come across someone being completely allergic to the Libre? I’m not talking about the adhesive as I found plenty on that, what I am asking is being completely allergic to it, body rejecting it and just feeling generally awful since starting using it?

I did ask my GP last week and he hadn’t heard of it, but couldn’t rule it out, so I left mine out for a few days and started feeling better, to the point I thought I was over whatever this infection is last night as I managed a proper dinner (oven baked salmon and steamed veg) and snacks! I took my previous sensor off on Thursday and because I was due to drive today I fired a new one in yesterday evening and BAM woke up this morning feeling like death again.

I’m at the stage I’m possibly very much clutching at straws, but I have now felt grim for two solid weeks, my appetite is almost non-existent, I have lost 7lbs this week alone (luckily I have it to lose and wanted to lose weight anyway, but not as drastically as this!), I feel like my life is on hold until we find out what is causing it and I’m just wanting to get back to work, back to routine and I just want to feel normal again. I have had two visits to the GP for a check over, a trip to the hospital MAU for blood tests (which came back only slightly elevated white cell count at 11.7) and a few hours of monitoring and was discharged the same evening.

EllieM said:

My guess is that you may be allergic to the filament, though googling doesn't tell me what it's made of. But I also wouldn't rule out an allergy to the glue giving you an all body reaction.

There's a fascinating article low about the prevalence of skin conditions (scarily high)
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/dia.2018.0080

There's also a scary thread here about reactions to the libre

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/freestyle-libre-poll-have-you-had-a-skin-reaction.77681/

Post number 89 is particularly scary.

Do you have any known allergies eg metals used in jewellery etc?

Just curious, I gave up on the libre when the allergy made the results completely inaccurate/inconsistant. Are you getting good results from it? There's a 15 minute gap between the libre and a glucometer, BTW (the libre result lags behind).

Good luck.

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That’s what we were thinking, allergic to the filament rather than the adhesive and my body is fighting it every time I put one in. I’m going to keep this one in as long as I can to see how it goes as I am getting really accurate results from it - anything between 4-9 is spot on or at worst 0.3 difference between the Libre and my finger tests. I’m crossing everything that I’m not allergic to it as it’s a fantastic gadget and I love being able to see exactly what is going on.

The only other allergy I have (that I know of) is garlic, I’m pretty hardy otherwise! Would be handy to find out what the filament is made of, but like you I can’t find out, despite a fair bit of detective work.

Thanks for those links, very interesting reading indeed and post 89 on that thread is horrific, what a horrible reaction to take!

EllieM said:

I take it you've asked Abbott? Their usual official response appears to be to deny there is an issue, tell you to talk to a doctor about allergies, and then offer a free replacement for the malfunctioning sensor. But if they told you what was in the sensor you could probably get a test to see if you have a problem with it. And you're not a standard skin reaction complainant, so maybe they'll answer you honestly.

Good luck. It's promising that you are getting good results from the system.

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Spoke to them again today and they completely deny any allergy issues, according to the chap I spoke with no one has been allergic to them at all! One quick Google search or look on here proves otherwise. Tried to get it out of him what the filament is made from but he kept telling me to consult an HCP, so I gave up and promptly ripped the **** thing out of my arm.

@urbanracer I completely understand and I didn’t really expect to get the information out of them, but I thought ‘well you don’t ask, you don’t get’ but it was more him just repeating his script over and over and his denial of any issues that got on my nerves.

That MSDS sheet is an interesting read though, even more so after the phonecall this afternoon.