My experience with The Freestyle Libre 3 CGM

So, after a recent visit with my Diabetic care doctor, I was prescribed the Abbott Freestyle Libre 3 Continuous glucose monitor. Now in the past I have tried the Dexcom, starting out with the G5 (which in my opinion was the best version and should have become their stopping point) and the G6 and then the G7, all of which I did not care for in the least!

So, when I was being talked to about the Libre 3, I was a bit apprehensive. I didn't want to have to lug around a special PDA type device and I didn't want something with a huge real estate or profile. I wanted something simple and small, and that I could use with my smartphone.

When I saw the nickel sized Libre, I was sold.

Being kind of techie, I was able to set it up with very little to no need for instructions, outside of turning on my phones NFC (Near Field Communications: a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4cm or less to initiate a connection.) ability. Most newer cellphones have this ability tucked away somewhere in the settings. If your phone can do "Tap to pay" then you have access to this feature.

Anyways, the next step was getting the device inserted. If you have used an insulin pump or other type of "auto insert" device, then this is going to be easy for you to use. You just unscrew the bottom, select the location on which you wish to attach the device, and push down. It instantly and securely places it on your arm, stomach, or leg. 

The life span of one of the transmitters is 2 weeks. You may also want to look into getting a cover for the sensor as it can fall off before the 14 day expiration. 

Once you get everything set up it is pretty much a straight shot for all of your monitoring needs. I do suggest testing with your regular glucose monitor at least once or twice a day to make sure that everything is tracking properly. I did find that there was a discrepancy between the two devices, after I had to remove a new sensor and install another one after inserting it into a vein on accident and bleeding through.
But after about 3hrs everything was back to normal functionality. I am going on week 6 of wearing mine and I do have to say that I am rather impressed with it.

It has made managing my diabetes a bit easier, though at a slight few time's more difficult. You see, you can set alarms to let you know when you are going to high, to low, or critically low. And you can turn all of these alerts off, with the exception of the critical low. And it is a loud ear-piercing alarm that you cannot ignore. And this can be rather embarrassing if you are out and about, or in a movie theater, and trying to quickly silence the alarm. You also, can not change (at least that I have found) the sound of the alarm. 

I've also noticed that within the settings, there is no way to correct the devices glucose readings with those of an external glucose. So if my traditional finger prick style says im 320 but the cgm says im 205, you can not change it. You can make note of it within the app, but no way that I know of to change it.

You do get a wide range of reading graphs which allow you to see how your daily, weekly, and 90 day readings look. I like to see graphical information like this because it helps to see spike trends and gives me an idea about what time of the day things are likely to be out of whack. This data also helps your care team to make adjustments to your insulin regiment and just gives you a better more comprehensive look at your overall diabetic health.

The other thing that I like is that there is a screen that shows your Glucose Management Indicator. This is an estimated guess as to what your A1C can be like with your current trends. This however, is not meant to be a replacement for your 90 day check up with your care team. More an idea of how things could be looking.

All in all I do like this CGM vs some of the others that I've tried. And no device is ever going to be the end all be all. However, with its few personal draw backs, I am happy to announce that I will be keeping this for a while as part of my overall management toolbox.