Wife of a new libre sensor user

[Worriedwife75]

Hi all
My name is Angela I am 75 married to Gray for 53 years 23 years of these he has had type 2 Diabetes and using insulin for about 10 years recently been given a sensor that has thrown us into total chaos that’s why I’ve joined hoping for some help

 

[KennyA]

Hi and welcome. What is it exactly that you need help with?

I'm T2, no medication, and I've only used a CGM on a couple of occasions for greater insight into blood glucose variations. There are many people on the forum with much more CGM experience - I'm sure someone will be able to help.

 

[Tony337]

Hi and welcome
Type 1 of 50 years here and libre user of about 8 years and absolutely adore it and it has helped me achieve my last hba1c of 39 or 5.7.

What is the chaos of which you speak?

Tony

 

[Mark T1]

Hello Worried wife. Like 337, I have been T1 for 50 years and have used the Libre CGM in the past and now on the Guardian 4. Can you provide some insight into what your concerns are and we will all do our best to help

 

[Worriedwife75]

My concerns are, before Libre he would check levels before and 2 hours after meals. And ignore everything else he has never been very good at eating correctly. The first night he used it the low alarm went off at 3:00 a.m he took the same measures as B4 a couple of jelly babies. It then went off another twice for loss of signal
I downloaded an app that shows carbs in all foods and for once he started to take it seriously things were better until this Wednesday when after a carb counting meal his GL was far too high but by early morning he had another alarm at mid morning
Then last night he was 4.1 at 20:00 and going down. So he ate some cereal but his GL have been high ever since. He didn’t have breakfast this morning and took a small amount of insulin mid morning it still didn’t come down
Lunchtime he had a small lunch 19g of carbs and took 28ml of insulin and at the moment of typing he is 18.9
I have spent the last two days constantly reading and watching on iPad about diabetes
Funnily he thought getting a Libre would be good this is just week one

 

[grantg]

Then last night he was 4.1 at 20:00 and going down. So he ate some cereal but his GL have been high ever since. He didn’t have breakfast this morning and took a small amount of insulin mid morning it still didn’t come down
Lunchtime he had a small lunch 19g of carbs and took 28ml of insulin and at the moment of typing he is 18.9
I have spent the last two days constantly reading and watching on iPad about diabetes
Funnily he thought getting a Libre would be good this is just week one

both highs and lows should be checked against fingerprick readings. libre appears to me to predict to try narrow the gap, the prior 10-15 minutes can suddenly change as makes sense of data, they are more accurate within 'normal ranges'. if dehydrated can also read wrong. Sometimes its possible to just get a faulty sensor if call abbot they will tend to replace without issue and you send the old one back to them via an envelope which has tracking prepaid so wont cost anything.

Theres a difference in time approx 15 minutes lag behind fingerprick blood glucose results.

you can also have whats called compression lows. where any pressure anywhere near the sensor can restrict movement of the interestrial fluid which will then can give a false reading. in generally i've found most to be somewhere between 0.6 and 1.6 mmol's out.

before any treatment decision the libre instructions clearly state not to use for medical decisions hence important to verify data (highs lows) with fingerprick tests.


if done fingerprick test and confirmed low/high has he been given any info on 'correctional doses' if not get him to speak to his DSN/Consultant