Freestyle Libre Failures

MM1, This was my Endo and it only happened recently so no one is treating me currently. I’ll be looking for another doctor shortly. It seems the more I pushed back and refused to engage in the usual “try harder and see you in 3 months” stuff the more heated it got. Pushing for direct address of things I viewed as issues seemed to make things much worse. The last three visits were real barnburners…lol.

Good luck. There have been other recent posts with links to websites helpful to find local endo.

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I’ll take a look shortly. Thanks much, MM1!

So sorry you’re going through this. Your doctor is a jerk and totally incompetent. I’d make a formal complaint wherever you can and get that removed from your file. Not only is he writing a bunch of lies about you, he is also attempting to damage your future relationships with other doctors.

I hope you get better success with the freestyle, maybe you just had bad luck. Try contacting the company and tell them what happened. If you can get a dexcom that would be great. You’re. Have constant data 24 hours and most importantly trends of bg drops and rises as they happen.

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Thanks meee, I plan to reach out to Abbott on Monday though I’ve read in forums people claiming they didn’t receive much help with their particular issues. Still worth a try and I won’t judge until I see what they have to say. The more I read though it just seems like exercise, sweating during exercise, and potentially sleeping on the arm that had the sensor on it. The data backs up intermittent failure from my perspective (though simple…lol). I’ve yet to find and read the manual online and plan to do that next. When the sensor was put on by the nurse the one thing I was told to look for was submerging in water and nothing about vigorous exercise, what to do when you sleep, or sweating during exercise. I’m going to look at other devices for sure but I wonder if my lifestyle may be an issue due to the things listed above. I guess we’ll see though. :slight_smile:

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Here’s a link to the page with a download button for the Libre Pro manual. You need to scroll a bit once you’re on the page.

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Thanks Terry!

I just read the Libre Pro manual and nothing really stuck out concerning intermittent readings.

In regards to exercise :

“CAUTION: Intense exercise may cause the Sensor to loosen
due to sweat or movement of the Sensor. If the Sensor
becomes loose, the Sensor readings may be unavailable or
unreliable. Your patient should return to your facility for
application of a new Sensor.”

This seems to only pertain to a loose sensor. Both of the sensors seemed to be fairly well attached upon removal.

The weirdest part is the first sensor had no data for the first week or so and then had roughly 44 readings for the last 5 days. The manual does talk about interaction from vitamin C and a few other things but that seems to only apply to inaccurate (both high and low depending upon the interaction) results.

I wonder what effect dehydration may have as well? I get a reasonable amount of exercise and this was in Summer. I was having lots of blood sugar spike then also which made it very hard to stay hydrated.

Another thing I’m sure of is that the first unit was place incorrectly on the side of my arm. The nurse that applied the second device verbalized that “we are going to try the back of the arm this time” but of course the notes make no reference…ugghhh.

I’m going to try Abbott on Monday and see what they have to say.

Really appreciate the link, Terry. More food for thought.

Since CGMs are placed into the interstitial fluid just under our skin, it makes sense that dehydration can play a role. I’ve noticed that when I get dehydrated, my CGM trace gets lumpy and noisy. Then, when I drink a glass or two of water, I watch the CGM line settle down into a smoother trace.

From your description of events, I think both sensors were defective and your behavior had nothing to do with either of them not collecting data. Doctors sometimes blame their patients when things don’t work out according to plan. They will label us as “noncompliant” as a way of off-loading responsibility.

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I am not going to ask what your A1c was because I feel that is personal info one should one share if they offer it, but I will say this. Doctors have recently started being penalized by the insurance companies with lower payments when their patients have an A1c above 9 so many have or will be finding reasons to dump patients whose A1c’s are not below that. If your A1c was high, that might have been the reason for him discharging you from his practice but he didn’t have the decency to say so. I am very sorry this has happened to you.

The only way I can think of to consider an A1c result to be of a “personal” nature is if one thinks (wrongly or rightly) that somehow it’s a number to be ashamed of. It’s just a number that helps us keep track of our overall control. If mine was 10, or 5, or in between, I wouldn’t consider it an affront to be asked what mine was, given that the topic here is DIABETES.

(and my current number is 5.7. For years it was 6.1. It’s also been over 8 (I forgot by how much as that was back in the 1970’s))

I agree our numbers are nothing to be ashamed of. I on average have three different requests per day what my BG is and I always answer and if anyone wants to know my A1C (6.7), honestly I’ve probably already told them anyways.

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I agree that it isn’t anything to be ashamed of but some people do consider it to be personal. I don’t think ones age is anything to be ashamed of either but it is considered impolite to ask someone how old they are, for whatever reason. Same with how much they paid for their house, it is personal.

Some things are just personal so are just not the business of anyone else. I try not to ask people personal questions as I would rather not go against proper etiquette or be rude.

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Well, your A1c being so good means that isn’t it so there goes one of my theories as to why he might have dropped you.

Leaves me with just my other theory which is he is just an incompetent jerk you are better off without

Um… I’m not the person who started this thread. I was just replying to Dave44’s comment on A1C’s.

Switch Doctors until you find one you like.

My regular Doctor had tried me on many medications, all which made me sick, sometimes seriously. She referred me to the only endo they had and he wanted to put me back on medications that had made me sick. I refused to go back to him and my regular Dr put me on Lantus. By the way I had asked both Drs if I could be type 1 as my uncle had been and I kept getting a no from both of them.

But I decided to switch to an internist as I figured they would have more knowledge. That internist added Humalog which made a major difference. As soon as my group added a new endo my Dr sent me to her,

And she tested me first thing for type 1 and it turned out that’s what I was all along.

i got copies of my medical records, the first endo didn’t really say that much. (I only saw him twice before I refused to go back to him) But my regular Dr said I was uncompliant and didn’t cooperate with taking medications. How I missed my dr I had had for years before we moved.

Mad, yes! Moved on yes! I’m thankful I wasn’t compliant as I have trouble with all sorts of medications and have learned to be careful on any new medication whenever tried. Sometimes I feel like writing her a note that says see, I was a type 1 and that is a good reason while a lot of those medications made me sick, and I’m glad I was noncompliant as I’ve heard about some of the people that haven’t been diagnosed right and ended up sick.

If you go to a new group and a new Dr those records don’t have to follow you and you can start over.

I don’t have a clue about the devices failing, just a clue about how unfair you can feel about the Drs written reports. I have a wonderful set of Drs nowadays and absolutely love that.

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LOL, yep, I see that now. Sorry about that :slight_smile:

@M_Ray As everyone has pointed out, run as fast as you can from this idiot doctor!!! As far as starting over, just go to your new endo with your labwork and you can start over with a clean slate. (I sensed that you were having a difficult with this because of the possibility that you’d have to deal with this info following you around like some scarlet letter.) I just did this recently and explained that I would not be transferring my file from the previous office. We sometimes forget our power as consumers… doctors work for us, not the other way around!! Ask around this forum for endo recommendations in your area and keep us posted on your next CGM!!

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Hey Stang, I’m the original poster and sadly your theory may still be at play. My A1c has been as high as 8.6 and as low as 6.5 with this doctor. Most of the time I was in the low to mid 7’s. The short version of a very long story about my control issues relate directly to a variation on the dawn phenomenon. My blood sugar spikes about an hour\hour and a half after getting up and this lasts for several hours. This leads to many additional doses of humalog during this period of the day and adding a meal with an additional dose of humalog that is variable based on carb intake creates utter chaos. My doctor has verbalized several times that he believes I am covering a too low dose of Lantus by adding humalog at varying points in the day. Despite me doing very controlled (and repeatable) tests that show 10-12 hours of fasting blood sugar stability at 14 units of Lantus. Had he acknowledges the spike after getting up his whole theory falls to pieces. Like you and others have stated it’s time to move on and I look forward to a fresh start. Thanks much for replies.

Thanks much, msmusiq! I didn’t realize I had any power in this area. Might be time to research HIPA laws as well. I know I have to move forward but part of me still wants a say. :slight_smile: