And it had all been going so well. I have to admit to loving having the Libre. It’s amazing to be able to track your blood sugars like this and gives you so much more control. And having the scan and strip tester in one device reduces the amount of stuff you have to carry about as well. I’ve even managed to avoid most of the issues that have been seen. I’ve had one sensor fail on insertion, but accuracy has been excellent and I’ve not yet developed a reaction to the adhesive.
Something had to happen though… And it did. See the video below:
The reader no longer accepts the finger strips. This was attempted with multiple strips (wasting them in my view) and not one will activate the reader. It is Kaphut. Dead. It is no longer a blood testing metre. Which is thoroughly frustrating. I don’t want to carry around multiple devices and I need to have the test strips for when I head into the lows as the Libre doesn’t really work properly in that scenario. This is a right pain in the bum…
Abbott customer service have been very helpful and have issued a replacement reader and sensor which I now await. It does mean starting again on a new reader so I will lose the trend data that I have been keeping. Time for another data export!
Interestingly, during the process of determining whether there were problems, I happened across an indicator of the number of test strips used with the Libre metre. I’ve had it three months and used 185 strips. This is still 60 odd per month. Now that’s significantly below the 200 odd per month I was using, so it has reduced my fingerpricking substantially, as the claims by Abbott all suggested it would.
With the arrival of a new reader, I intend to be a bit more methodical about setting it up and recording exercise, carbs and insulin. I think there is likely to be a wealth of data that is very useful. And of course I have a nice long run without a Christmas in the way to make sure that I make the best of my Low Carb diet. Roll on the trend data in the nearer term.
As a secondary issue, for the first time during normal blood sugar movement I’ve found a large discrepancy between the scan and a blood test. The difference is 6.6 on scan/9.1 on test, and I only tested because I felt the higher reading. Some 38% different. Is this the reader or the sensor? Is it an early indication of sensor rejection as others have had? Time to keep an eye on what is happening more closely, but is this where I start to fall out of love with the Libre?
And then I tested a different finger, and guess what? The blood was aligned. Looks much more like user error… Will have to keep testing and keep an eye!
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