FreeStyle Libre cost?

Good to know - thank you!

So about that if… :wink: Guess I should go look at the posts about the Libre again.

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Michel, if you go to the “vendors” topic thread, you will find my post about Abbott. they were horrible and i would not use their products based upon their miserable customer service.

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I always had great customer and technical support interactions with Animas, Dexcom and Tandem.

I am (was in the case of Animas) on the frequent caller program. Give me a 24x7 tech support number and better believe I am going to use it.

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That’s what I’ve heard, too. Very disappointing!

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I would put a link to @daisymae’s review but I can’t as I am on my phone.

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DM’s review:

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The problem with their lab claim is that when your BG is changing, the interstitial readers are not more accurate than meters. They are way off.

I don’t think there is any way they could be doing tests on changing BG and getting better results. I could be a test subject and totally blow up their claim of better MARD.

This is from a post I did a while ago

@sam, when you saw your doctor, did he take a BG reading? Ask him why he doesn’t just look at your CGM instead, if he is in love with their MARD so much.
:roll_eyes:

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While statistics tell exactly what they tell and nothing else, I would say that for us the CGM is correct 95% of the time, except during times of rapid change as you have noted. Getting mad at MARD is kind of funny.

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I do not get mad at MARD. But I do get mad at fool endos who believe that the CGM is a more accurate measurement when they have not actually used it in real-world situations.

The most recent study I saw was that Dexcom was 9% for BG’s between 40-400, compared to the Contour Next which was 5.6%. And the study had no indication of whether the BG was changing at the time, which would make the Dexcom even worse.


The other thing that would make me mad is the idea that an interstitial reader could replace test strips.

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I think the bottom line concerning absolute CGM accuracy is what Dexcom says about dosing from the Dexcom readings. The rule is that if you think the CGM is correct you may dose from it. Otherwise do a finger stick.

That tells me all I need to know about it, despite the MARD.

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My Dexcom is frequently off by over 100 pts if my bg is actually moving… maybe they only work great for people whose blood sugar movements are closer to a speed they can track

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Possibly Afrezza contributes to less than desirable readings for you since it could cause more rapid BG changes?

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It adds its own complications with the cgm but it’s way off even if I’m not using it

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I would maintain (again) that there are a lot of individual differences in CGM outcomes that mean that the average results won’t necessarily be a great predictor re: how CGMs perform for any specific individual, until those moderating factors are identified, tested, and included in predictions/recommendations. That really needs to be done to a much better and more transparent extent, if CGMs are going to be rolled out and recommended much more broadly. I still suspect part of it is physiological, like maybe there are tissue differences that make some people’s interstitial readings more quickly and closely tied to their blood glucose, as well as ones that degrade the sensor filaments faster or slower. I still don’t think it’s a coincidence that I have extremely accurate and reliable results with my CGM (to what seems like an unusual extent) and a connective tissue disorder that means all my collagen is abnormal/weaker.

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Good point. With Humalog, I doubt we could get movement that fast.

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Well two sides of that explanation, afrezza would explain faster downward motion but would slow down crazy upward spikes for me. So half the time it’s giving the cgm the opportunity to work better and half the time worse… the cgm just doesn’t work well for me regardless of what insulin I’m using

That’s what frustrates me about the notion that a lab report would potentially dictate what insurance is going to cover… but oh well… my insurance already only covers strips that are total junk, but they can prove they’re not junk with a lab report!

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WHat were your overall impressions of the libre? Was it reasonably accurate? Particularly for post prandial levels? How’d it compare to your meter readings overall?

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It was was pretty much always fine for telling me if I was low, normal, high, or really high. Getting more accurate than that could be a crapshoot. Sometimes it was consistently off (like always 50 points high), other times it was spot on. I’d say it was reasonably accurate around 75% of the time. Just like with the Dexcom it is not necessarily accurate when blood sugar levels are changing.

It was usually inaccurate for the first day. I started inserting mine the night before and activating it the next day and that seemed to help.

I do like how flat it is and insertion is really easy too.

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Yeah the physical dimensions of it sound like a really nice benefit to me… the Dexcom transmitter really bugs me

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The insertion is way easier/more pleasant than Dexcom and it is much flatter. It is easier to knock off though and I don’t find the adhesive lasts the full 14 days. I knocked my first 2 off early and have had to use Tegaderm in the 2nd week to keep my sensors on. The accuracy is slightly worse than Dexcom overall but still reliable most of the time. I find it is better at catching spikes than Dexcom was - for example, Dexcom might say I’m hovering around 7 for an hour while the Libre will show I’ve actually gone up to 9 and back down to 7 within the hour, which corresponds with my meter. It also doesn’t read as low as Dexcom did at night for me. I would often wake up with Dexcom showing 4 or 5 and really be 7 or 8, but the Libre isn’t as far off. I have only gotten 1 sensor to last the full 14 days, most start giving me frequent sensor errors (equivalent to ???) once I get past 10 days. I’m wondering if this is why the FDA went with 10 days instead of 14. Customer support is near non-existent, at least in Canada. It took 2 months of emails and phone calls to get my sensors that fell off early replaced. Dexcom always answered right away and sent me new sensors within a day or two.

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