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Lying Libre proving unhelpful
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<blockquote data-quote="Scott-C" data-source="post: 2098068" data-attributes="member: 374531"><p>Hi, Sophielouise, if you're interested in the transmitters, some links below about them.</p><p></p><p>Basically, they're small bits of electronics which sit on top of the libre sensor, read it every 5 mins then bluetooth the reading to a phone app. Because there's a reading every 5 mins, it turns it into "proper" cgm, so that you get a much more detailed graph than the "averaged" libre graph, so it's easier to identify trends and respond to them, you can also set hypo and hyper alerts at any level you want so the phone rings if you're going too high or low, and you can also "calibrate" by typing in a bg test number: this tightens up the accuracy a lot - libre reader might think it's 3.6 but if you've told the app that your bg at a particular point in time is 4.7, the app is going to interpet the raw number coming from the sensor as 4.7 instead of 3.6 and it'll then be able to interpret future numbers much more sensibly. It's usual to recalibrate once, maybe twice, a day as it can drift. I've gone for long periods with just 1 bg test a day, and I'm happy to bolus from it. With a good, well calibrated sensor, it's often only about 0.1 to 0.4 out.</p><p></p><p>The first commercial transmitter was the blucon, about £100 but not waterproof so needs to be taken on and off for showers, though they do have a waterproof version now as well. I used it for well over a year, it's looking a bit "beta-max" now compared to the newer one, but still has a price edge if money is an issue.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.ambrosiasys.com/" target="_blank">https://www.ambrosiasys.com/</a></p><p></p><p>The newer, sleeker (and waterproof) kid on the block is MiaoMiao. A bit more expensive at around £160. I've been using it for about 7 months now, it's reliable. They tweeted recently that a slimmer version 2 is coming out but noone knows when.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://miaomiao.cool/" target="_blank">https://miaomiao.cool/</a></p><p></p><p></p><p>Both transmitters have their own inhouse phone apps for android and ios, but they're very basic.</p><p></p><p>If on android, xDrip+ is highly regarded, there's a lot of folks here using it, including me for almost 2 yrs now. It's an open source app, not regulated by any authority, so "use at own risk" but many do and do so safely. The folks behind it are basically part of #wearenotwaiting. When dexcom first came out, a lot of users liked it but thought it could have more useful features, so they basically reverse engineered it, came up with dexdrip and Nightscout, and it's developed from there into xDrip+. It is a bit of a leap of faith using an unregulated open source app, but, hey, it works and it works well.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/releases" target="_blank">https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/releases</a></p><p></p><p><a href="https://jamorham.github.io/" target="_blank">https://jamorham.github.io/</a></p><p></p><p>If on ios, there's Spike, which was based on xDrip+. It's had a few issues with licensing from Apple, seems folks need to either buy a developer licence or renew the certificate each week, not been following it as I'm not using ios.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://spike-app.com/" target="_blank">https://spike-app.com/</a></p><p></p><p></p><p>The combination of libre, transmitter and xDrip+ is a fantastic tool which have helped me a lot but they are still just tools and you need to learn how to use them properly. There's a couple of books about cgm which I found really useful, both on kindle:</p><p></p><p>Sugar Surfing, Stephen Ponder</p><p></p><p>Beyond Fingersticks..., William Lee Dubois</p><p></p><p>My general take on it after using cgm for about 3 yrs now is that things don't happen overnight, but as time goes by you'll have seen so many cgm traces and situations that you start seeing subtler things in the line and start to realise how small, small adjustments made at the right time, 1u here, 1 dextrotab there, really go a long way to steering things, and it becomes way easier to say, ok, this situation need x units, and all that, given time, just sort of naturally leads to smoother lines. Except for Saturday nights when there's some beer and fish and chips involved - still haven't figured those out!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Scott-C, post: 2098068, member: 374531"] Hi, Sophielouise, if you're interested in the transmitters, some links below about them. Basically, they're small bits of electronics which sit on top of the libre sensor, read it every 5 mins then bluetooth the reading to a phone app. Because there's a reading every 5 mins, it turns it into "proper" cgm, so that you get a much more detailed graph than the "averaged" libre graph, so it's easier to identify trends and respond to them, you can also set hypo and hyper alerts at any level you want so the phone rings if you're going too high or low, and you can also "calibrate" by typing in a bg test number: this tightens up the accuracy a lot - libre reader might think it's 3.6 but if you've told the app that your bg at a particular point in time is 4.7, the app is going to interpet the raw number coming from the sensor as 4.7 instead of 3.6 and it'll then be able to interpret future numbers much more sensibly. It's usual to recalibrate once, maybe twice, a day as it can drift. I've gone for long periods with just 1 bg test a day, and I'm happy to bolus from it. With a good, well calibrated sensor, it's often only about 0.1 to 0.4 out. The first commercial transmitter was the blucon, about £100 but not waterproof so needs to be taken on and off for showers, though they do have a waterproof version now as well. I used it for well over a year, it's looking a bit "beta-max" now compared to the newer one, but still has a price edge if money is an issue. [URL]https://www.ambrosiasys.com/[/URL] The newer, sleeker (and waterproof) kid on the block is MiaoMiao. A bit more expensive at around £160. I've been using it for about 7 months now, it's reliable. They tweeted recently that a slimmer version 2 is coming out but noone knows when. [URL]https://miaomiao.cool/[/URL] Both transmitters have their own inhouse phone apps for android and ios, but they're very basic. If on android, xDrip+ is highly regarded, there's a lot of folks here using it, including me for almost 2 yrs now. It's an open source app, not regulated by any authority, so "use at own risk" but many do and do so safely. The folks behind it are basically part of #wearenotwaiting. When dexcom first came out, a lot of users liked it but thought it could have more useful features, so they basically reverse engineered it, came up with dexdrip and Nightscout, and it's developed from there into xDrip+. It is a bit of a leap of faith using an unregulated open source app, but, hey, it works and it works well. [URL]https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/releases[/URL] [URL]https://jamorham.github.io/[/URL] If on ios, there's Spike, which was based on xDrip+. It's had a few issues with licensing from Apple, seems folks need to either buy a developer licence or renew the certificate each week, not been following it as I'm not using ios. [URL]https://spike-app.com/[/URL] The combination of libre, transmitter and xDrip+ is a fantastic tool which have helped me a lot but they are still just tools and you need to learn how to use them properly. There's a couple of books about cgm which I found really useful, both on kindle: Sugar Surfing, Stephen Ponder Beyond Fingersticks..., William Lee Dubois My general take on it after using cgm for about 3 yrs now is that things don't happen overnight, but as time goes by you'll have seen so many cgm traces and situations that you start seeing subtler things in the line and start to realise how small, small adjustments made at the right time, 1u here, 1 dextrotab there, really go a long way to steering things, and it becomes way easier to say, ok, this situation need x units, and all that, given time, just sort of naturally leads to smoother lines. Except for Saturday nights when there's some beer and fish and chips involved - still haven't figured those out! [/QUOTE]
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