Recent Posts by marke
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656 posts found
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Oct 28, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) Hi, I think the check-up idea is what most of us will do who can't afford the running costs. I had to bite my tongue (yes I know, hard to believe) when I met up with the Abbott Rep and DSN last week to report to them on my experiences with the device. The DSN after saying that the NHS won't pay for it was trying to say that it sounds a lot but people spend more on their mobile phones etc each month. This is true but I have also paid into the NHS via taxes for more years than I care to mention so asking me to pay on top for a new device seemed a bit rich :-(I pointed out that when other companies release similiar devices which they are bound to do, the price will get pushed down. I understand that Abbott and any company need to recoupe their costs for development etc, but eventually the price of the sensors must come down. In the meantime we will jsut have to use them intermittently. |
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Oct 23, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) How confident am I to go solo with the device ? Not very if I'm honest but I have no definite basis for this, its probably that I am used to my meter and individual blood tests. I am still checking through all the data that the sensor generated and comparing it with my meter. There are often differences of between 15-20% which is inside the legal requirement but still make me uneasy. Of course I have no idea which device was closer to the real value of my BG, it could be either, more likely both are off the true value. Once I have got to the bottom of some of the weird variations I will report back on here and maybe others can do the same. I'm sure many will run both the sensor and their current meter for a while.With regards to airport security, providing you have the reader/meter with you and can show them you scan the sensor its unlikely to be an issue. I have never had an issue in an airport with any of my diabetes kit so I don't think there will be an issues. Its nice that I'm not the only one who gets the bladerunner reference and indeed this technology would fit right in with the technology in the film 
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Oct 22, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) Day 15:I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Abbott Sensors reading off the shoulder of my arm. I watched BG's glitter in the dark near the DAFNE targets. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die. (if you don't understand this quote, you have missed a great film !!) So no more sensor, between you and me being a techie once I had removed it from my arm I pulled it apart to see what was inside. Basically a battery and a single device on a round circuit-board. The thing that goes in your arm clips into the sensor with three contacts onto the circuit-board. Interestingly the 'pin' in my arm when removed was soft like a hair, it must have a coating that disolves over the 14 days. So do you really need to dispose of it in a sharps bin ? Worst case you can inclip the 'pin' which is small and put that into a sharps bin. I dumped all the data into csv file and examined it, very interesting. It looks like when you scan yourself it takes a reading there and then since these have a different 'type' id than the 15 min ones and are not in time sync with the other readings. Whats even more interesting is these readings don't seem to be consistent with the regular 15 min readings i,e a reading 1 minute before is 0.8 different to one a minute later. More investigation needed I think
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Oct 21, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) Day 14: 20 hours left until shutdown News today is a managed to get some questions answered by Abbott ! Some were not very useful and I have questioned the answers so won't bore you with them. One interesting point is the response to why the sensor only lasts 14 days, the answer is: Among the reasons that the sensor life is 14 days is the reaction of the skin, both to the adhesive, and the presence of a foreign object (the fibre). Also, the enzymes in the sensor cannot continue to work indefinitely. Since the size and weight of the sensor had limitations to make it as discreet as possible, the battery had to be sized accordingly. The sensor life is not directly related to the number of readings it can hold, as readings older than 8 hours are overwritten. Not convinced by the first part otherwise you would only be able to wear one for two weeks, so why sell a continuous supply ? But anyway an answer. The question of can it be worn in other places I can answer, no, they have only done testing with the sensor on the upper arm so their data is only for this area. If you attach it somewhere else then the readings cannot be gauranteed to be accurate. SimonC thanks for your full write up as well, all useful info. Final how did we get them to try ? luck, pure and simple
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Oct 20, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) Day 13:Not a lot to say about the sensor today, the reader/meter gave me another annoying error telling me that I would have to change the sensor in two days. You have to 'click' through this before it will show you the readings. It only does this once a day but in my opinion its completely un-neccesary. I had a quick look at the website again today now that its launched and to be honest its a bit half-baked, it talks about a subscription but has no pricing details for it on the same page, it talks about training webinars but none are available and I am confused about this statement when talking about the inbuilt bolus calculator: 'Yes, the system can calculate a suggested mealtime insulin dose when using the built blood glucose in meter since it has a built-in insulin dose calculator function.' What does this mean ? Who knows, can you use the bolus calculator with the sensor or just blood test strips, no idea. They need some web quality control I think  Not anything that would necessarily stop you getting one but you would hope they would have presented a professional image.....
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Oct 19, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) Day 12:I haven't posted in the last few days since not much has changed and there is not a huge amount to report. Apologies if I sounded a bit prima donna ish in the previous post I'm just a bit suprised. This thread has less views than one regarding 'Beer after dinner' yet this is technology that could make a big difference to people. I niavely assumed that people who had been given detailed education into their diabetes and had a number of tools to manage it would be interested in a technology that could add significantly to those tools. It seems 'generally' the majority are just not interested. Where this leaves Abbott with this technology I'm not sure. I have to say I'm a bit un-impressed by Abbott's support for the device. I first contacted them over a week ago. It took nearly a week to get a response which was largely a template and said 'ask us questions'. I did send a load of questions last Thursday and as yet have had no response whatsoever. I didn't expect instant answers to my questions but an acknowledgement would have been nice while they are working on the answers. One thing that has just occured that is more than a bit annoying. I now have 3 days left on the sensor, when I scanned I got an error beep and the displayed a message about changing the sensor. Is this necessary ? It tells you on the display how many days remain and given the costs you are highly unlikely to remove the sensor early to put a new one on ! Every day costs so you are going to leave the sensor as late as possible before changing it, right ? On a positive note, I haven't charged the meter for about 6 days and the battery is still about 80% charged judging by the display. |
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Oct 16, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) Day 9:Not a lot to add apart from Abbott have no responded to emails and so I am asking them a load of detailed questions, if you have any questions let me know and I will add them to my list. I will update people as and when I get answers. The results from the sensor today are a lot closer to my One Touch readings and are generally well within + or - 20%. The most interesting thing from the last few days is that the biggest spike in my BG is after breakfast in the mornings, perhaps I need to change the cereal I eat ? I will try and see what happens. |
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Oct 15, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) Day 8:Nothing much to report today and judging by the number of people reading this thread there doesn't seem to be much interest in this type of meter. I would have thought that a CGM meter would appeal to DAFNE graduates given the information it provides but it seems not. I will report on any 'interesting' developments over the next week or so until my sensor shuts down, so the information is there in case people consider getting one in future. |
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Oct 15, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Hi, sort of. The BG star plugged into the bottom of an older iPhone ( the 4 series iPhones) and you installed an app on the phone to access the plugin and act as a meter. The major problem with this is that apple promptly changed the connector on the bottom of the iphone when they released the iPhone 5 which meant you had problems connecting the 'meter'. It was an interesting idea but fatally flawed I believe. That said the accuracy of the meter is independent of how it displays the results i.e via an iPhone app or via its own display. |
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Oct 14, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) Days (6 and 7):Sorry no post yesterday as I spent the evening being entertained by a musical performance at the O2 , however as the saying goes 'a funny thing happened on the way to the forum'... When I tested my BG with my meter at the O2 it said 5.8 when I scanned the sensor with the reader it said 11.2 woah !! sorry thats a huge difference ? One for which I have no explination and worries me slightly. If I trusted the sensor and adjusted accordingly I could have been in trouble. I intend to feed this back to Abbott to try to understand what happened. Today the readings are back in tolerance with my normal meter. If it happens again when I am at home I have dug out a range of meters that I have strips for so I can do a comparision between them all to get an idea of what the correct reading might be by the law of averages.On another related subject, I was at a Diabetes meeting this evening and a lady said she had phoned Abbott and had been quoted a cost of £160 for the meter and £57 for the sensor ! I will follow this up with Abbott. For one thing I would never pay for a meter, companies give them away to get you to use their strips/sensors which is where they make money. Second £57 is different to £48, this could be a VAT issue or jsut an adjustment of price. I will try to find out. More news tommorow, hopefully
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Oct 12, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) Day 5 ( sorry must have hibernated through day 4):Well not a huge amount to report, however something that has been raised on other threads that is relevant here. That is that the meter seems to give readings different to my one touch i.e yesterday lunch time the one touch read 8.6 but the sensor said 11.0 , however this lunchtime the meter said 2.6 but the sensor said 3.8 both are low but the meter reading if correct means I really hypo treatment where as the sensor reading is suggesting I need to 'think' about eating something at least in the way I tend to react to lows. Either meter could be out of range but I have no way of telling which it is. At the moment I tend to 'trust' my one touch meter, since I have had it a few years and my HBa1C is within suggested range ( it was 7.0 last time). However the one touch is just giving me 4 readings a day so there is a huge difference in the amount of data collected. I know this is a big issue for a lot of people so If Abbott start talking to me I will ask the questions. On a normal meter you can get test solutions to verify to some degree the restults you get. How can this be done for a sensor that is inserted into your arm, all the meter ( reader) is doing is collecting data from the sensor. Its the sensor that needs the testing and how can you do that with it in your arm ? I will try to find out. Until next time, Na-Nu, Na-Nu
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Oct 12, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / New Glucose testing system Hi Alan, Firstly Abbott need to make a profit on these devices or they won't make any more, they are a business and like all the others are in it to make a profit. But getting back to the point , I'm not sure how often the device measures but the best granularity I can export is readings 15min apart. Its impossible to tell if the device records more than this and the meter and software only give access to 15min intervals. Reducing the rate that readings are taken won't make a difference I think because the limitation is the reliabilty of the sensor. This is attatched to the flesh and has a pin that sits under the skin, Abbott say the sensor is limited to 14 days because after that the readings become less reliable i.e not within the legal range that all BG measuring devices have to confirm to ( which are pretty lose anyway). I don't know if this is because the technology is new or its just not capable of working for long periods. I do know that there are other devices at the trial stage that are designed to last longer, however these have not got past the trial stage as yet so may never become available. I think the issue with all these devices is accuracy of reading long term, not the rate that they take readings at,
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Oct 10, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / IBG STAR - reliable readings?? If you google 'blood glucose test strip accuracy' you will find loads on information about this. Although you may be used to a one touch (I use one as well ) you have to understand that ANY blood testing system only has to be accurate to + or - 20% of the true value to be considered compliant with regulations. This means that what appear to be large variations in BG readings can still be considered 'accurate'. You also have to understand what you are seeing is effectively a best guess based on basic chemical reactions in an uncontrolled environment i.e you finger and where ever you happen to be when you do the tests.I tried out a BG Star and agree its not as good as I thought, of course they have big problems now that apple have changed conenctors and their meters no longer convieniently fit to an iPhone. As for the accuracy it was different to my one touch but who can tell which one is really accurate and which one is not. Its what you are used to that you will tend to believe I guess, you just can't assume necessarily that it is correct, since the results are never truly correct. |
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Oct 10, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) day 3 and the beat goes on:Sensor still attached and causing no problems. The data it is collecting is causing me the problems though. After the first night when my BG soared over night, last night it bumped along around 3 and until about 5:30 when it started climbing to about 8 at 7am. So although there was some dawn phenomenon it was not like the night before. So more info tonight may help. The really interesting stuff is what happens between normal BG tests, all the stuff you don't normally see. I have to say the only criticism I have at the moment is the PC software which is very rudimentary and not really that useful. It does provide reports that you can view and print and even save as pdf. However the number of reports is 7 ( plus one settings report), of which 3 are variations of the same report over a day, a week , a month. Of course you can't format any of them like a DAFNE log book that might be quite useful. I would like to see a lot more flexibilty in the reporting, I don't know if software for their other meters provides a better range of reports. Given the wealth of data being collected the ability to examine this data would be a lot more useful. I will feed this back to Abbott if they reply to my email. |
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Oct 9, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) day 2 in the cyborg house:Well I have been wearing the sensor for over 24 hours now and to be honest often completely forget I have it attached. The only time is when I almost hit it on a door frame ! So thats why they recommend you wear it slightly on the back of your arm. Taking the readings is very simple, just press a button and hold it near the reader and it just works. Sadly my readings have been outside my target range today, but thats fine as it has shown me that my BG rose from about 3am last night until it hit 15 when I woke up. I dose adjusted as I have been doing and have watched my BG fall durign the morning and stay in range pretty much for the rest of the day. The most interesting thing is the apparent lack of spike post my lunch and dinner. Of course my BG went up but according to the meter it stayed below 8 the whole time ! I intend to change things tonight and see what happens to my BG's. Its really useful to be able to see what was happening overnight. Being in IT, I only read the meter manual today after I had been using it. Turns out it has a built-in bolus calculator but this can only be enabled by a HCP with a special code, so I can't test that at the moment. I have of course installed the PC software and connected the meter. I'm a bit concerned to find that it only works with the meter connected and it doesn't seem to copy the meter readings to the PC. What happens if I loose the meter ? No readings to view I have emailed Abbott to try to get contacts so I can ask about stuff like this and pass the information on. The funniest thing in the manual is the meter has a 'LO' warning, if you go below 2.2 it will just display 'Lo' and the advice is to contact your diabetes team immediately. Quite how they think you will do that whilst having a hypo is highly amusing, they obviously have not got someone to have a hypo and try this advice Well that will do for now, more tomorrow. Oh one last thing it really is shower proof ! |
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Oct 8, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Hi, not as yet but I will be trying to get information and as and when I get it I will add it to the cyborg thread. As I said I have been told that the sensors currently cost £48. Generally I would expect this price to drop particularly if another company launches a similiar product to increase competition. I have no idea if this is likely as they will all keep things under wraps until they are launched. |
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Oct 8, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / New Glucose testing system All I have started a new thread to record all the details of my Abbott Libre experiment. You can find it here |
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Oct 8, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Cyborg Times (new BG meter) greetings humans I am now a Diabetic Cyborg having been fitted with my Abbott FreeStyle Libre sensor today. I intend to use this thread to keep you up to date with my experiences with the device. Hoepfully it will help you to decide if the device is for you ! Currently the NHS is adamant they won't pay for the sensors which cost £48 and last 14 days. We won't get into the logic and justifications for this at the moment. Lets concentrate on the device itself.Ok the 'reader' as they are calling it is a BG meter with a touch screen. It can take Freestyle Optium test strips and ketone strips so you can do 'normal' blood tests on it. Part of the reason for this is they make it clear that the sensor measures interstitial fluid and NOT blood, this is the stuff under your skin in the 'flesh'/'fat'. It can lag the BG readings of blood by upto 15 mins, so if you think you are having a hypo they recomend you do a BG test to compare. This is not unreasonable since it is doing 'continuous' testing and looking at trends. The 'sensor' is a disk about 3cm in diameter with what looks like a pin in the middle. You have to fit it to your upper arm as that is the only location they have fully tested readings from. They recommend that it is slightly at the back of the arm so it doesn't get caught on things. So far I have had no problems with this. If you do accidentally remove the sensor you have to fit a new one you can't re-attach it. Its supposed to be water proof ( to be verified) and is worn constantly for 14 days. The applicator is a bit like a big lancet device, you open the senser pack put it in the applicator and pushdown on the location you want to fit it. Despite nervousness you don't feel it attach at all ! Once attached you scan it with the reader which logs it and then waits 60 mins before it will start taking readings. This is apparently so the sensor acclimatises to your body. After 60 mins you just hold the reader over the sensor and it automatically gets all the readings. You can do this through clothes, I did it through a t-shirt AND sweatshirt and it read no problem. It emits a tone to indicate it has made the reading. You can then look at all the readings on the meter. I will go into the use of the meter reports and the PC upload tomorrow once I have built-up an amount of readings. |
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Oct 3, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / New Glucose testing system All, I hope to be able to give you all details of this device next week. My consultant has set me up with a trial and I'm meeting someone to have it fitted. I too asked about the sensors on the NHS and was told no but we shall see !! If nothing else it will hopefully give me a more detailed BG trend. Since normal BG readings are only an approximation anyway I am not too worried that it doesn't measure blood directly.I will let you know how it goes !! |
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Sep 22, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Site Development / Online pump diaries Hi, not at the moment because we are currently not allowed access to any of the pump course materials. If and when we are we will of course try to adapt them for the site |
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Sep 22, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: DAFNE Online Mobile / iPhone 6 I will highlight this to Simon, he usually has app updates for ios ready in advance so I will check if he knows about this. |
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Sep 11, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Online version of DAFNE? First of all no there is currently not an online version of the course, why not ? because it involves changes to your insulin regime ( some quite radical changes for some) that are not necessarily safe to try at home. Yes some people could manage it at home, but many could not and how do you decide which are which ? My guess is this is why they don't do an online version. It is also about more than just carb counting There have been a number of trials of a 5 x 1 version of the course recently and your 'local' centre might be running one of these. This would mean doing the course over 5 weeks that may be slightly easier for you to undertake. You can always contact my via the 'message' system on the site and I can find out if there is such a course in your area. I too was dose adjusting before the course but there is more to it than that as I said. |
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Aug 2, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / How much do Steroids increase BG? Hi, please DO NOT miss a does of prednisolone, it is not a drug you can experiment with. Steriods are a serious drug and you should always follow the dosage instructions. Warick is correct in that it will vary from person to person and unfortunately its effects are not linear either. The problem with Steriods is they cause insulin resistance and as I said it can vary all over the place. I had the pleasure of taking them for 2-3 months for Nephrotic syndrome ( another auto-immune disease) and had great fun with BG levels going haywire.You just have to manage best you can and try to adjust your doses accordingly. Another important point, that no one told me, if/when you stop taking them (usually you are weaned off of them) you insulin sensitivity can come back with a bang. Had my only severe hypo coming off steriods. |
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Jul 25, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: Questions ? / Forgot BI today Hi, I would do what you have done. Your BG will obviously go higher but it won't cause any long term damage and better to be high for a day than have a serious hypo by trying to do a BI injection now. We all forget injections from time to time, I forgot my BI earlier but fortunately it was only for 30mins. I have forgot QA doses in the past, just have to spend time getting my BG back under control when that happens. |
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Jul 23, 2014
marke
657 posts
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Topic: General Discussion / Blood glucose animation using protective lancet caps Hi, I changed your post so the link can be clicked. My initial comment is where did you get the time to do it It's very good and a different approach, although I'm not sure people would realise they were lancet caps unless you told us |