Recent Posts by marke
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656 posts found
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May 27, 2025
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Apple software updates Hi,It's not just Libre I'm afraid, Dexcom take just as long. The biggest issue is they are medial devices which have to be 'certified'. It's not like ordinary software that if it goes wrong it doesn't matter, you can make serious decisions based on its output. Therefore they have to do a lot more testing everytime the OS is updated. That said, they get the new releases in advance so you would hope they have more time to test. However I'm not sure how long the MHRA in the UK and other bodies in other countries take to approve the new versions of the apps. |
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Jan 5, 2025
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Carbohydrate Counting / Hypo's in the morning Hi,Losts of questions there  . Will try to answer them all....Overnight drops, this could be a couple fo things. You don't say when you last did a QA, but remember that the profile of most insulins is they last for around 5 hours. This is not an exact figure , the insulin might not last that long or might last longer. If you have given too much insulin , the remaining insulin can cause you to drop. If thats not the case and you don't do any QA from early evening around 6pm, then its more likely that your background insulin is too high. If its right you should stay around level overnight if you don't inject any QA. This also depends on how you do BI, it could be a once a day, a twice a day and again it varies from person to person. You might need to speak to your Diabetes Support Team or consultant. It's the same answer for the post meal drop, it could be either of the above. Also exercise WILL cause a drop if you still have 'extra' insulin in your system. The answer to bruising is you can't avoid it. You are hitting small capilaries in the outer layers of your skin. Its random if you hit one or not. In terms of lipohyopertrophy, again you can't really tell, you need to see a diabetes nurse. I had it and had no idea, everything looked completely normal to me. However the DSN took one look at it and said 'oh, you have a lot of Lipo's'  Regards MarkE |
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Nov 30, 2024
marke
657 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / iPhone software updates Hi,This is ALWAYS difficult to decide  I use a DexCom G6 and they have been getting slower and slower to approve updates. I use third party websites to decide if I should apply the update. My main source is https://www.reddit.com which has sub-reddits ( forums ) for everything and there is one for 'Freestylelibre' . There are people in this forum that say they have updated to iOS 18 and have no issues. However phones are like normal computers and there are many variations of each phone and each phone update. It's generally agreed that minor version updates are pretty much all ok i.e 17.6 to 17.7 , the risker ones are going from 17.x to 18.x as the changes in iOS are bigger and more likely to cause issues. That said iOS 18 has been around for months now and I haven't seen anyone with major issues with a CGM.Regards MarkE |
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Sep 4, 2024
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Libre Link 2 alarm signal loss in the night For me, I would want to fix the signal loss. The idea of CGM is to warn you if you are going too low or too high. If you are not really concerned about this , why do you wear the Libre ? Just curious not being critical in any way. I need mine as I can go low overnight and have been woken by the CGM multiple times because I was going low and needed a Hypo Treatment. That's why for me personally, fixing the signal loss is most important.Turning it off does in effect put you back to just finger pricking but as you will have seen having worn a Libre, 4 times a day misses a huge amount of information that could be used to better manage your diabetes. In theory the data should all appear when the signal is restored, I don't know how much data a Libre can hold though before some is over ridden and you lose it completely. |
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Sep 2, 2024
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Libre Link 2 alarm signal loss in the night I use a Dexcom G6 rather than a Libre but its pretty much the same thing. I also read a lot of Reddit forums on the Dexcom and a lot of Dexcom G7 users have complained about similar issues. The explination makes sense. If the phone is on the other side of your body on a nightstand, the Bluetooth signal gets attenuated ( or absorbed) by the body and so doesn't reach your phone. The G7 like a Libre is a small disk which doesn't contain much space for a transmitter or a battery, so the bluetooth has a relatively short range, which when added to the body absortion causes the signal loss.Personally I am now lucky enough to have a Tandem T:Slim2 pump which also links to the dexcom, since I keep the pump on my waste band on the same side as the Dexcom , the signal has a lot less distance to travel and so I don't get signal loss errors 
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Sep 2, 2024
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Site Development / On line carb counter Hi Annette,We have had quite a discussion with the current DAFNE Programme Team. As you say they no longer provide a carb book ( except in one instance , the Closed Loop Pump Course). They told us to remove the Carb Counting stuff we have and use Carbs & Cals. We can't do this as we don't have permission to use Carbs & Cals data on our site as its copyrighted and a charged for App ( with In-App purchases). We are therefore going to keep it until we are forced to remove it. Anyone can add values to our Carb area , these can be filtered out of people don't want to see user added values. I have no idea what happened to the DUAG as I left it years ago. I know it was carrying on until a couple of years ago as we got feedback that someone on it was complaining about our site. The complaints were never made to us and we have no idea what they were. It just convinced me even more that I took the correct decision to step down form the DUAG. It never seemed to really go anywhere or have much an effect on the DAFNE Programme. In theory it was a good idea in reality I don't think it ever happened
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Aug 20, 2024
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Site Development / On line carb counter Hi,Its updated if we are provided updates. We haven't been provided any for a while, so I will email the DAFNE Management Team and see if they have forgotted about us again
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Sep 14, 2022
marke
657 posts
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Hi, Sorry I am as guilty as everyone else of not posting enough on the forums. You should not have to report it to the NHS as reporting it to Abbott should be enough. They have a legal responsibility to investigate all issues reported by customers/patients and this will be audited periodically by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). If you keep having issues with sensor 'implanting' then Abbott should investigate this and try to advise you on how to avoid this. If they don't I would encourage you to take to something like Twitter with those on the DUK forums as companies like this REALLY don't like bad publicity. They make all their profits from repeat users , so if they user base is not happy then its not good for them. As Sally says we are Dexcom users and I get my Dexcom via NHS funding. I prefer the Dexcom to the Libre but its all personal preference. I do know that Dexcom take issues seriously. The one time I have an issue with the sensor separating from the adhesive plaster that holds it in place, the got me to send pictures and return the sensor so they could investigate it fully. |
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Aug 4, 2022
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Freestyle Libre I also get the Dexcom via NHS funding. Sadly its the old story of post code lottery. I stayed under Guy's hospital in London when I was put on a pump. They have far more resources than my local hospital and they were happy to fund me, my local hospital won't fund Libre's let alone the Dexcom. Hopefully this will change in the coming years when they see the benefits of Diabetics having CGM's and the long term money it will save the NHS.With regards to the accuracy, even with blood tests the rules state 'Under the new standard, meters will need to meet the accuracy guidelines 95% of the time: Within ± 0.83 mmol/L of laboratory results at concentrations of under 5.6 mmol/L. Within ± 15% of laboratory results at concentrations of 5.6 mmol/L or more' . A Libre or Dexcom measures inter-cell fluid sugar so at best it will be slightly less accurate than BG tests. Sorry but any test like this is never 100% accurate, its a best estimate. The advantage of Libre/Dexcom is the trends it shows i.e a warning you are heading low. Currently you can't use them as your only means of dosing insulin. One day that will change, but who knows how soon |
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Aug 4, 2022
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Using Sensors in hot weather? At the risk of advertising a business, I was using patches from www.diabeticsupply.co.uk . These are patches that go over the sensor and provide a bigger sticky part. They work pretty well for me when I put the sensor on my arm. I'm using a Dexcom G6 and tend now to put it on my stomach. I'm waiting for the Dexcom G7 which will be smaller and lower profile. I'm hoping I can put that on my arm without knocking it all the time ! When I had a Libre I lost several sensors that way
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Apr 20, 2022
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Flash Monitoring Hi,Not wishing to disappoint you but its not strictly true. The device they show is a FreeStyle Libre and in theory this has been available to UK Diabetics for a few years on our Health Service. However its roll-out has been patchy at best. We have a saying in the UK called 'the post-code lottery' (post-codes identify your address ) and it really applies to this. The funding for it comes from the local health care bodies and some are a lot more willing than others to let people have them. I think they would be a great benefit to many people and I am lucky enough to have my Dexcom G6 CGM funded by my hospital but thats only because I am under a London hopsital for my pump and when I told them I was self-funding the CGM they decided to pay for it. If I had tried the same thing where I actually live , more in the countryside, I would have had zero chance of getting it funded. Still hopefully all these devices will get cheaper, more will come onto the market to increase the competion meaning a lot more people will be able to get them. They don't replace finger pricking but thats a whole other discussion :-) |
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Aug 22, 2021
marke
657 posts
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sorry any kind of calculation means the app is deemed a medical device and has to be certified. This a long and expensive process and we can't afford to do it. We tried putting it in the app and people informed the medical regulator and we were forced to take it out again. We can't afford the legal costs of going against their instruction to remove it. |
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Jun 1, 2020
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Anyone out there ? So 107 people have viewed this thread but no one has responded ? So everything is rosy with all you DAFNE people and no one has had any issues with being locked up for 8 weeks . DAFNE really msut be good
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May 24, 2020
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Sick Day Rules As you may or may not know, we are not allowed to give people who have not done the DAFNE Course access to the course materials. This is at the insistence of the programme management team who own the copyright to all the course materials. However strangely they have started posting parts of the course on their newly updated site ! So since putting web links onto this site is not forbidden, I can give you links to these pages Standard Sick Day Rules Pump Sick Day Rules Not much granted, but hey its a start Also they have some FAQs |
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May 24, 2020
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Anyone out there ? So I'm sure there must be loads of graduates out there , sat at home wondering what to do, maybe struggling with their BG's ? Well you are NOT the only ones , I have been getting a lot of people signing up saying they are trying to get on top of their diabetes or saying they were down to do a course that has been cancelled. So if that is you, reply to this thread or ask a question on the forums, I'm sure there are people out there who can help you and would be happy to do so. Me included
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Feb 23, 2020
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Site Development / Site Development Hi, Sorry just catching up with this thread. I should also say immediately that this post represents my personal opinions rather than necessarily those of the site. I say this as I have a bad habit of getting myself in trouble So I totally agree with your points on the need to support the 51000 ex graduates. Sadly this IS appreciated by the DAFNE Programme team and has been raised repeatedly at Annual DAFNE conferences I have attended and by many graduates. However not a large amount of concrete action is taking placed to address this. There is now a DAFNE Plus version of the course being worked on that will supposedly have more after course support but I am not sure when that will happen. We have sort of lost contact with the development of this, to be honest I don't think they understand exactly how to do it. One of the biggest issues with it all is NHS politics. I'm sure its not just the UK that have these issues, but they are very wary of communicating directly on our site as are the HCP's and Dieticians that do the courses. They think that anything they say on here can be construed as medical advice and they could be sued if it was not used appropriately. Sadly the still live in the 1980's/1990's and think the internet doesn't really exist as an eveyday thing. The only way we will ever get effective after course support is if medical professionals are allowed to post on forums etc without the idea that they can be legally bound by what they say. Lets be honest the internet is FULL of people who think they are Diabetes experts, just like every other subject :-) I think we all learn to take anything we read with a degree of cynicism and want more than one suggestion before we do anything. We have tried many times to get more support for the site and although everyone 'wants' to help very little help actually comes from Medical Porfessionals. That's just the way it is at the moment. |
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Dec 31, 2019
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Site Development / E-Petitioln Hi, temporarily changed until a formal update. We use a system called Ruby-on-Rails which is sort of a content management system but not exactly that. It will disappear in a formal update. |
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Dec 29, 2019
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Site Development / E-Petitioln Hi, sorry yes we DO intend to fix it, the problem is when you manage the site you miss the obvious things :-( We need to update the front page soon anyway so I will ensure it does get fixed then !! |
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Dec 29, 2019
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Questions ? / High BG levels Hi, Would just like to echo torana's comments. I too was on Prednisolone for some time and it screwed my BG completely. It also caused my first ambulance call, that was when I came off them and no one told me to watch out for sharp drops in BG !! so watch out for that when you come off them. I found it hard to control my BG's when in Steroids because food would have a bigger more random effect on me i.e the size of portions would push up my BG's a lot more and I found it harder to get them back down. I agree you should be getting MORE help. I am surprised you are not getting it to be honest as I have found London hospitals have more resources and are able to do more with their patients. I think you should try speaking to them and see what help they can provide. MAaybe they could prescribe an abbott Libre sensor kit to help you monitor and manage your BG's more thoroughly when on Steroids. That is of course if YOU want to do that, we can only offer opinions its up to you what you do about it. I appreciate that not everyone likes hospitals or dealing with HCP's :-) |
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Nov 13, 2019
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / infusion set issues hmm, not sure I would agree that it is safe and more hygienic, but hey I have never been one to take medical experts at their word :-) Partly because I have been lucky/unlucky enough to be in rooms and meetings with them where they all disagree with each other. I guess there is no right or wrong answer to a lot of things relating to Diabetes. With regards to new techno gizmo's, the problem is the time it takes to get them to the public due to the need to have tested them endlessly. You can't use a device that is not 200% reliable, we rely on BG readings to manage if we go unconscious or not , so it can't give us the wrong information. There is also the complication that this type of device doesn't necessarily measure the blood directly so are potentially not as accurate. But I would love a device like that regardless. I know what you mean about app that can work out the carbs on a plate. We would ALL like one of those, wouldn't we :-) All these years and I still don't get it right when eating out..... |
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Nov 5, 2019
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / infusion set issues hmm no I would never do that , I would say you risk damaging the pump doing that potentially. The pump pushes up against the bottom of the reservoir using a rotating screw mechanism. When you change the reservoir it pushes up to the bottom and senses it and stops pushing. If you remove it and don't suspend the pump it will keep pushing up and when you replace the reservoir its going to apply more pressure than normal to lock the reservoir back in place. I guess it depends on how long its removed. Me I just detach the infusion set like I would when I have a shower and let it leak a bit while its off.I understand completely the lypo's issue ( or as you call it scar tissue). Problem is I never tend to notice it happening but the DSN does immediately and warns me to rotate sites better 
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Oct 28, 2019
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / DAFNE app for android Hi,You can ask Simon or me :-) Although I have been trying to re-implement the REST API ( just google it to get a basic idea) in the newer Android network stack as the original app was based on the Apache stack that is now depreciated. As you can see Richard is also helping . If you can work together that would be great. I think the key issue is getting the app to use 'HttpURLConnection' the now preferred method of interfacing with web sites to use the REST API . I think Richard is more focused on the UI of the app. MarkE |
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Jul 16, 2019
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Site Development / DAFNE Online App Missing From Android App Store The point of it being on the front page was we do plan to re-do it and get it on there again. Unfortunately we do it in a spare time and although I have the source code for the original app it no longer works with Android which is part of the reason it disappeared from the App Store. Hopefully I will soon get time to learn how to update it to the new standard approach for android apps, I can then get it re-published. I will of course let everyone know once it is re-released. |
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Jun 27, 2019
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / infusion set issues sorry to disappoint you , but I have used the quick set for about 3 years ( my pump is due for replacement at the end of the year and they change them in the UK every 3 years) and I tend to get an increase in BG when I change the set. Not as big a rise as you but definitely a non-normal rise. This I believe is what you would expect to happen. This is because when you insert it, it drip feeds insulin into you. This insulin needs to pass through tissue to reach the blood and become effective. With injections you put a relatively large dose in all at once and it does the same thing, but because the pump only puts small amounts in, there is less of an 'absorption' area so it takes a while to create a 'flow' from the set to the blood. In an ideal world you wouldn't change the sets and the flow would always be there. Sadly this is not possible as people who inject manually know, the area of injection hardens and if you use the same sites for injection they become less effective, the same is true of pumps. One day they will probably work a way around this if stem cell research doesn't make it all redundant, we can only hope
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Jun 25, 2019
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Site Development / Spammers Hi Torana, You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding about the site. It is NOT run by the DAFNE Programme but independently by two people i.e Simon and myself. This latest mass attack of SPAM occurred when we were both on holiday and so we could do little about it. I am now back and have removed all of the SPAM from the forums.The difficulty is how do we stop it. It is not automated as they have to register an account by making a number of selections. We could insist on an email verification when signing up but this has a number of issues. I won't bore you with them as they are very technical but its hard to block people on that basis. I have thought about blocking normal 'users' that don't have a centre code but we don't want to bar any diabetics with a real need for help or advice. My only hope is a more intelligent blocking mechanism but that will take time to design and implement. Believe me it is as annoying for us as it is you. However unless somebody finds a big pot of money somewhere and given its the NHS and home users not very likely we are just going to have to live with it until they get bored. |