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Libre trial?

I used the sensor while on holidays, swimming and in and out of the pool all day, no problems, it still worked.
 
Here's a handy libre tip which has nothing to do with diabetes...
I used one for 8 months before it became inaccurate for me (sigh), and my biggest problem was that I kept mislaying the meter (falling out of pockets etc etc). My daughter bought me a "tile" tracker for my birthday, which I stuck to the back of the meter with sellotape. It connects to my smartphone and allows me to use the smartphone to call the meter (it plays an annoying tune) if it's near enough, and if it's out of range it tells you a location where it last contacted the phone. I'm pretty sure there are similar devices out there but it was a total life saver for me, before that I was spending so much time per day just looking for my meter....
 
Oh it's an eye opener for sure

I keep thinking "I never knew that" whilst wondering how my HBa1C is at 52 on my last test....
 
I went through a few stages with it when I first got it.

First few days, just really used it to pick up on developing hypos so I could stop them before going too low.

Then started spotting slow slides which would eventually take me below 4 and found that really small amounts of carbs like 3 to 5 grams would nudge it back up into line without any danger of overtreating and ending up high.

Then used it to deal with "foot on floor" - if I wake at, say, 5, I'll easily go to 8 within an hour just by getting up and moving around, so learned to pin that by taking 2 units just to keep it line.

I also use it to keep an eye on developing hypers. On strips/DAFNE, the emphasis is on not testing between meals unless you feel hypo and save corrections till meals. To hang with that. If I see it heading towards being out of range, I'm not slow to take a 1 or 2 u correction between meals to keep it in range. Much easier to do little tweaks like that instead of taking a sledgehammer correction dose at a meal.

And great for basal testing overnight.

If you've got a kindle, there's a couple of good books on getting the most out of cgm. Sugar Surfing by Stephen Ponder and Beyond Fingersticks by William Lee Dubois.

If you plan on using it long term, there's an easy way to turn it into full on cgm. Ambrosia Systems make a small transmitter called Blucon. One off cost of £100 plus £25 shipping, pop it on top of the sensor, it reads it every 5 mins and sends the reading to a phone app xDrip+. It gives hypo and hyper alerts and a whole stack of other things. The graph is way more detailed so you can predict things better.

 
Scott-C said:
I went through a few stages with it when I first got it.

First few days, just really used it to pick up on developing hypos so I could stop them before going too low.
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Yesterday was all about my Lantus not working properly, that pen is in the bin now, today's about a waking 3.8, spiking to 11 after porridge but dropping back to 3.6, 3 hours after injection.

Then started spotting slow slides which would eventually take me below 4 and found that really small amounts of carbs like 3 to 5 grams would nudge it back up into line without any danger of overtreating and ending up high.
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I levelled with 2 glucose tabs at 4.5, debating lunch and am gym bound shortly.
Then used it to deal with "foot on floor" - if I wake at, say, 5, I'll easily go to 8 within an hour just by getting up and moving around, so learned to pin that by taking 2 units just to keep it line.
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Yeah! That'd work for me too but.....


I've never met DAPHNE, and can miss hypo's till I drop under 3, I test an hour after food usually, but corrections depend on whether a swim's planned etc.

And great for basal testing overnight..
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Yes, I'd say it's berserk

If you plan on using it long term,
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Yes if available on prescription as I can't afford it, I'm not getting too excited as there's no decision yet here, I'd meet the criteria on at least a couple of points used by some other CCG's but did hear that >8 tests a day isn't going to be one of them. I do have it here in black & white (MP correspondence inc a letter from the accountable officer)that our CCG will make their decision this month (though there was a meeting on the 10th) so we continue to wait and see and continue trolling the CCG Twitter feed...
 
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I've gone from a graph line like an FM radio wave with a strong signal to a sine wave shaped one, but now nearly in range and that's in 3 days.

I'm already planning a 'free the freestyle' protest outside the CCG's front door
 
It's survived a few hours cleaning windows with a few arm stretches, and is going swimming shortly (tho not a long swim) and gymming after that.

More to the point I think I see my lantus not working to full strength, but in the past have only seen it by finger pricks, the drop I use for a lunchtime sarnie isn't there, and a slow rise follows rather than the slow drop to tea time.
My chemist says UK lantus isn't arriving till 24/01 from sanofi, I won't use pi.
 
It's survived 3 swims so far, this evening's was 21 minutes + shower, and warned me of a lead up to a hypo in the gym afterwards, I do like it and will be sad to see it go, but I'll have learned a lot from using it.

I'll wait till there's a couple of days left before I swim a long session.
 
4 swims and about to have a keg session in the gym, I'm absolutely amazed by this device, it's showing me things I've not seen in 33 years although the experiment I tried with a unit of fast acting at bedtime to lower a spike caused a bad hypo and I'm getting on quite well with it so far.

Is 70 scans a day excessive??
 
Hey @kev-w . Sounds like you're having a great time. I've been out the gym for almost 2 weeks, **** Aussie flu..

Very interested in this keg session though.
Now I'm kinda assuming it's a typo, but I also know there's always someone who starts a new workout craze.
So is it a leg workout or some barrel based workout?.
 
therower said:
Hey @kev-w
Very interested in this keg session though.
Now I'm kinda assuming it's a typo, but I also know there's always someone who starts a new workout craze.
So is it a leg workout or some barrel based workout?.
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If I lived in Liverpool I'd swap my kegs for shorts to work legs.

Or sumfink

2 weeks out for flu? That'll be a painful return then.
 
The only gripe so far would be the hypo warning bit, post swim telling me 3.4 but my finger prick saying 4.3, and that went on for a couple of hours, which I found frustrating. (especially at the lowest point where the libre showed 2.6 but the Aviva showed 3.8).

Yesterdays CCG phone call assured me the local decision (made on 10/01/18) will be announced by the end of the month, they even know my voice by now as I've rung them daily just to be a nuisance

My finger tips are enjoying the two week break mindst you, and I do hope their recovery won't be compromised by the need to be tapping the keyboard writing complaint & appeal letters
 
4 days left on the sensor, it doesn't seem as close to the finger prick results anymore, definitely not for hypo treatment as it reads me at 3.6 when at 4.3, but helpful for portion control for food.

7 day average 6.2
Time in target 49% above 22% below 29%
14 low glucose events and dispute that showing blood tests alongside.

I'd work with it if on the NHS, but wouldn't self fund even if I could afford to.
 
Last night tonight but it's funny, last few days I've had it showing a fairly straight line, apart from hypo drops (although blood tests have shown 50% or so to be over 4.1) and haven't risen over 10 for a week.
The funny bit is thinking I feel quite good, more energy and last night had the best back session in the gym for years, for a 50 year old guy I really 'smashed' it after swimming a km in 24 minutes.

I can't wait to start finger pricking over 10 times a day again. Said no-one ever
 
6 hours left, as it tells me each and every time I scan, with a little alarm too, just to wind me up and the time warning showing before the glucose reading makes me think it's a sales tactic.

But hey, it's a useful tool, not a life and death necessary one per-se, but useful nevertheless, it'll be a godsend to parents of young T1's saving waking the child to finger prick, the data they gather will help future pump & insulin technology and sooner or later it'll be scaled down in size,

Just need my local CCG to [publish their criteria, or at least a single sheet, as at the moment I've two different sets, one with 4 bullet points detailing categories and the other detailing 7, but not testing >8 times a day as in the first one.

How to they get a test strip average at 0.5 strips a day when using the Libre btw?
 
Oh and could I ask a question here? As one I asked on another part of the site remains unanswered 3

How does one remove the sensor at the end of ones trial?
 
Another question! So it peeled off ok, left a sticky pad on my arm that peeled off too, the device has a black wire but it looks like there were two wires, can anyone tell me what I should see?

I'm not worrying there's something left behind under my skin as it all went a little too smoothly did the 'trial'
 
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