libre / finger pricking

Hello Karen, if you drive then the DVLA insist that you test before you drive. Test every 2 hours while you are driving and stop driving and eat something if you drop below 5.5 while driving. They will not accept Libre results under any circumstances. If you drive then you need to be testing with finger pricks. The other thing is even the most ardent Libre fanatics cannot fail to accept that the results they offer can sometines be suspect and require finger prick tests to confirm the results that Libre offers. Perhaps at sone time in the future further developments may be made whereby finger prick tests are seen as quaint things we used to do and finger prick testing equipment might only been seen in a museum. A bit like me really. For now though finger pricks are still unfortunately a most and for some of us more than others.

karen8967 said:

just a quick question i thought that by using the libre you wouldnt have to do finger pricking i currently do my fingers at least 4 times daily b4 meals and b4 bed sometimes more reading other posts on here people still do fingers as well (i have posted about sore fingers b4 ) i know the libre does give you an idea about what bgs are doing throughout the day so why the need for finger pricking . just a bit confused !!!!! (believe me it doesnt take much haha )

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As I understand it the Libra needs a blood test comparison on a regular (? daily) basis, the DVLA require a blood test before driving, also as this is intarsomething fluid not blood there is an element of delay (so you might prefer a blood test to confirm a hypo). There is also something about possible inaccuracy at low bs levels. That said there are many positives which my too small mind cannot yet weigh...

Don't use Libre (not sold in US) but from posts here I note that some (many pumpers) do prick quite a bit and some have decreased pricks significantly and are quite pleased. One thing people like is the Libre gives you a glance at how fast sugar is rising or declining. I've said it before but again: the Dexcom is superior for Type 1's because it will alert you by phone when you are heading hypo, especially at night. Libre doesn't do that.

I went from finger pricking at least twelve times a day (waking, before and after foods - breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night snack - to know if I calculated insulin right, and before bed, which makes ten times, plus before/during driving, extra when lowish/hypo or after taking a correction) to finger pricking 2 to 5 times a day with libre. Even went three days without pricking, saving my last ten strips for emergencies when I had to choose between picking up my prescription and going sailing for three days. I definitely love the libre.

Whoops sorry Karen, I forgot to add that DVLA only require finger prick testing if you are taking medication likely to put you at risk of hypoglycemia.

karen8967 said:

just a quick question i thought that by using the libre you wouldnt have to do finger pricking i currently do my fingers at least 4 times daily b4 meals and b4 bed sometimes more reading other posts on here people still do fingers as well (i have posted about sore fingers b4 ) i know the libre does give you an idea about what bgs are doing throughout the day so why the need for finger pricking . just a bit confused !!!!! (believe me it doesnt take much haha )

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Karen, if you've just started using it, you might go through a few phases with it.

Other posters are, of course, correct about testing for driving, but for people who don't need or want to drive, it can be possible to cut testing substantially.

When I first got it, I knew I'd still be testing for meals etc. because the guidance said don't make bolus decisions from it, but I reckoned it was worth a pop anyway because being able to scan between normal tests would give me a heads up on developing hypos/hypers.

So, I just used it for that for a while (and, after a while, once I learned more about it, for basal testing, pre-bolus timing, food type responses, etc.)

Then, though, I reached a stage (it took a few months) where I'd kinda figured out some of it's quirks, and found myself testing before meals, scanning, and realised, yeah, what was the point of that test, the scan told me I was in the 5ish zone, that was consistent with what I'd expect from earlier testing, and I could have just run with the scan for the bolus instead of another test.

Soooo, although it's not technically advised, I just thought, **** it, I'm going to start doing a couple of calibrations each day just to check whether this particular sensor is in the general ballpark and I will bolus from it.

I've been doing that for about 9 months now with no ill effects. Looking back over my meter readings history, there's a few days where I don't trust what it's telling me or something unusual is happening, so there'll be 5 to 8 tests, but the vast majority of days are 1 or 2 tests. There's even been a few with 0.

Each sensor acts differently and it takes a few months of using libre to figure out how to "trust" or assess each one after activating it, but after a while, I found, for me, it is possible to safely bolus from them and really cut down to 1 or 2 tests.

But then, I've been in the game for about 30 years, and am maybe aware of things which recently dx'd aren't.

And, like I say, it's not technically recommended, some users seem to be unlucky with test/scan relationship inconsistencies beyond reasonable bounds, so it's always going to be a personal judgment call on whether to rely on it for treatment decisions instead of testing.

Have fun with it - even just getting a heads up on a possible hypo is worth the money!

TheBigNewt said:

Dexcom is superior for Type 1's because it will alert you by phone when you are heading hypo, especially at night. Libre doesn't do that.

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It can be made to do it, at little cost.

A guy who used to work for Abbot set up his own company, Ambrosia Systems, based in what looks like a rent-an-office situation in Market Street, San Francisco.

A few months back, I bought their Blucon bluetooth transmitter for just over $100 as a one-off cost.

It sits on top of the libre sensor and bluetooths results to their phone app, linkblucon, every 5 minutes. Unfortunately, linkblucon doesn't do alerts. But....

The good people behind xDrip+ (which many Dexcommers use instead of dexcom's software) have tweaked the app so that it will take data from Blucon.

That means that you can fork out 100 bucks for Blucon, stick it on top of the libre sensor with a 20 cents plaster, download xDrip+ for free to a cheap phone, then you can calibrate the inaccuracies out of the libre sensor and get alerts.

Here's a screenshot of my libre/blucon/xDrip+ setup waking me up last night at 4am, to fend off what might have become a hypo, but didn't:

Cool! And I again assume the reason the Libre's used in the UK instead of the Dexcom is because it's cheaper, and the NHS will sometimes pay for it, but not the Dexcom. And I assume the reason the Libre isn't offered in the US is because it doesn't alert people like the parents of little kids with Type 1.

TheBigNewt said:

Cool! And I again assume the reason the Libre's used in the UK instead of the Dexcom is because it's cheaper, and the NHS will sometimes pay for it, but not the Dexcom. And I assume the reason the Libre isn't offered in the US is because it doesn't alert people like the parents of little kids with Type 1.

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I honestly can't be bothered replying to that.

TheBigNewt said:

Cool! And I again assume the reason the Libre's used in the UK instead of the Dexcom is because it's cheaper, and the NHS will sometimes pay for it, but not the Dexcom. And I assume the reason the Libre isn't offered in the US is because it doesn't alert people like the parents of little kids with Type 1.

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In all cases you'd be wrong. I'm going to assume you missed the press release about 16 hours ago that the Libre is now FDA approved so will be available in the US (in my opinion in a hobbled form).