banjobongo
Member
- Messages
- 7
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Other
I have Type 1 diabetes, I was diagnosed last summer.
I was lucky enough to be offered a few weeks free trial of the FreeStyle Libre sensor in late Dec/early Jan, which has recently come to an end, so in case its helpful for anybody else here is some feedback on it:
· Its fantastic to be able to take a reading whenever and wherever you are, so quick and easy;
· You get see where your patterns are and if your blood sugar levels are steady or going up or down, now Im without it I almost feel blind without it! You see on a realtime basis what impact exercise, food and drink have on your blood sugar levels. Prior to getting it I just took readings before my 3 daily meals and once again before going to bed, now Im trying to prick my finger more often to get more readings, especially before exercise (as I have discovered that exercise lowers by blood sugar readings, which is an important finding!)
· It does not hurt to get the sensor into your arm, there is a slight discomfort wearing it at first but soon you wont be aware of it at all;
· The device is delicate, I had 3 free trial samples and lost two of them, once when taking off my tshirt it dislodged the sensor, and once when swimming, it caught against a lane rope, so be careful, as they are very expensive – I see on their Irish website that just one sensor costs €59.90 so as one sensor lasts around 14 days that would be 120 Euros per month and if you lose/damage a sensor that could be 30e down the drain! – once a sensor is damaged, even slightly, that’s it, its gone, its broken and needs to be thrown away!
· If you are a swimmer like I am, yes, you can swim with it! I did a fair number of pool based swims, each session lasting around 55 mins or so, followed by a shower, no problems (apart from when I hit a lane rope and damaged a sensor!) I have also done karate and cycling and gym with it, with no problems.
· My 3 free sensors are all used up now, I still have the reader, which I am now using as my main reader.
· I cant wait until the Irish government supplies it free to diabetes patients. Unfortunately I cant afford to pay 120E per month for the sensors.
· It’s a real pity that you cant buy more than one sensor off their website and get a discount, I checked, one sensor costs 59.90 and 10 sensors costs 599!
Hope this proves helpful to somebody out there!
I was lucky enough to be offered a few weeks free trial of the FreeStyle Libre sensor in late Dec/early Jan, which has recently come to an end, so in case its helpful for anybody else here is some feedback on it:
· Its fantastic to be able to take a reading whenever and wherever you are, so quick and easy;
· You get see where your patterns are and if your blood sugar levels are steady or going up or down, now Im without it I almost feel blind without it! You see on a realtime basis what impact exercise, food and drink have on your blood sugar levels. Prior to getting it I just took readings before my 3 daily meals and once again before going to bed, now Im trying to prick my finger more often to get more readings, especially before exercise (as I have discovered that exercise lowers by blood sugar readings, which is an important finding!)
· It does not hurt to get the sensor into your arm, there is a slight discomfort wearing it at first but soon you wont be aware of it at all;
· The device is delicate, I had 3 free trial samples and lost two of them, once when taking off my tshirt it dislodged the sensor, and once when swimming, it caught against a lane rope, so be careful, as they are very expensive – I see on their Irish website that just one sensor costs €59.90 so as one sensor lasts around 14 days that would be 120 Euros per month and if you lose/damage a sensor that could be 30e down the drain! – once a sensor is damaged, even slightly, that’s it, its gone, its broken and needs to be thrown away!
· If you are a swimmer like I am, yes, you can swim with it! I did a fair number of pool based swims, each session lasting around 55 mins or so, followed by a shower, no problems (apart from when I hit a lane rope and damaged a sensor!) I have also done karate and cycling and gym with it, with no problems.
· My 3 free sensors are all used up now, I still have the reader, which I am now using as my main reader.
· I cant wait until the Irish government supplies it free to diabetes patients. Unfortunately I cant afford to pay 120E per month for the sensors.
· It’s a real pity that you cant buy more than one sensor off their website and get a discount, I checked, one sensor costs 59.90 and 10 sensors costs 599!
Hope this proves helpful to somebody out there!