Freestyle Libre Review from a Teen

The Abbott Freestyle Libre was launched for sale in Ireland on November 1st. Click here to find out more about the Libre, what it does and how much it costs. And click here for some information on saving money on the Libre. The Libre is a less invasive method of checking blood glucose levels and provides a profile of blood glucose trends in a graph on a reader device for up to 14 days. Representing Thriveabetes, Rebecca Flanagan attended an advance briefing on the Abbott Freestyle Libre with several other members from the diabetes blogging community on October 13th. Hailey who is 16 and has lived with type 1 diabetes for eight years has never used a device this the Libre before. She manages her diabetes on Multiple Daily Injections (MDI) and blood glucose testing on a traditional meter.

Rebecca & Hailey’s Review of the Abbott Freestyle Libre.

in Rebecca's words.

My daughter, Hailey, was given the opportunity to test the Abbott Freestyle Libre before it hit the Irish market for retail. I was very excited about this, having read many other people's testimonies after they bought the starter packages from England. It was amazing to also get the opportunity to see how the device works, in detail, especially how small and soft the actual sensor under the skin is - technology is fascinating! I couldn't wait to get Hailey started. She is very sensitive and has a very low pain tolerance, so after psyching herself up she had me insert the sensor She said it didn't hurt going in, but afterwards there was some residual pain for a couple minutes as her skin got used to the intrusion. After that she hardly knows it's there.

We have not looked back since. The accuracy has been spot on. She is able to see where her sugars are going, especially when she starts to feel a low come on - I think there is a lot of comfort knowing, after treating a low, that the sugars are coming up again and this is clearly seen on the sensor after scanning. Over-treatment of lows are now more easily avoidable. The graphs are also such a blessing in order to see the trends, such as when she usually spikes or might go low. This information is invaluable in trying to maintain the correct insulin levels she needs, especially as she is on MDI.

I think that for parents of younger children especially, this device is a game changer when it comes to night checks - no more waking up your poor child unnecessarily if you don't need to! A simple scan will let you know whether they are safe and in what direction their sugars are going. For times of illness, the Libre will also be amazing.

Although there is quite a high financial burden attached to the Libre at the moment, I would hope that the clinics will see major improvements in the HbA1C's of patients using the Libre and this information will eventually help make a valid claim for the Libre to be included on the LTI. I am very excited for our next appointment! The additional benefits of less invasive blood glucose testing and the discretion the Libre allows are also important, but I think we all know that it comes down to the long term benefits. If we can offer devices like this that will bring about better blood glucose control which ultimately results in less long term complications, then everyone wins.

Hailey's thoughts on the Libre: 'The Libre encourages you to stay more 'in control' because there is no hiding from the readings. As in, with a normal finger prick test, you could KNOW that your sugars are spiking but your reading at the time can be in range when you do the blood test. With the Libre you can easily continue to scan and watch where the numbers are going and take action as needed. Over time you should see your readings become way more level. I much prefer the Libre to regular finger prick tests - and my fingers do, too!'

Hailey also told me that she feels that the Libre encourages more frequent testing. This is a great thing for a mother of a teenager to hear!!

DISCLAIMER

Abbott paid for Rebecca's travel expenses from Clare to attend their briefing but they did not ask her to blog about or influence her opinions of the Libre. Abbott did ask that Rebecca’s daughter try out the Libre and gave her the complete starter pack with two sensors for free.

CONFIDENTIALITY

We also had to agree to not discuss our briefing outside of the room until the media embargo was lifted on November 1st. This was really difficult, I think for all of us as members of the diabetes community and not being able to talk about it with our community. This was really difficult!

The Next Thriveabetes

Can you believe that it's been a month since we were all together in Naas, Co. Kildare at Thriveabetes 2016? Myself and they team are well recovered at this stage and have made some decisions for the next Thriveabetes that we would like to share with you.  

DATE - Spring 2018 We have decided that the next Thriveabetes will actually be a 2018 event. And we are looking for a date in February or early March. We are excited about having a spring event.

VENUE As you can imagine, it's takes a lot of time an effort to find suitable, large enough venues and neither myself, Rebecca or Christine we're ready to launch into that straight away. And this is what influenced us to wait until Spring 2018. We have a lot of the research done already and we will be stay in the major motorway areas of the east. We hope to have this all in the bag by this coming March/April.

COST Our fantastic event is a costly affair, even though all of the organisers volunteer their time and services for free and we have subsidies from the exhibition, sponsors and fundraising, we still end up with a shortfall of approximately 4,000. So, we have had to review our ticket price structure for 2018. We will still work very hard to keep it affordable but there will be a major price increase for the child tickets and a small increase on the adult tickets. If might soften this blow knowing that we will invest more of the ticket price into the lunch we provide.

FUNDING & SPONSORS

We are currently looking for donations of raffle prizes for our fundraising raffle next September. We hope that this will supplement some of the cost of Thriveabetes 2018 and keep the cost to our attendees down.

SPEAKERS AND TOPICS The survey we emailed to you provide so many ideas for future speakers and new topics. We will be hoping to have speakers from 2015 and 2016 return. And we have a lot of interest from our Irish role models too.

We feel that we learned a lot about layout and facilities by making a few oversights this year and those are the best lessons to learn. We will take these lessons and use them to promise to deliver an even better event again in 2018.

In the meantime, here are couple of photos from Naas to relive the moments.

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Type 1 Diabetes isn't Easy

This weeks post is from Kieran Flanagan who I met at Thriveabetes 2015, I didn't know him then, when he leaned over and jokingly told me not to get a swelled head. :-O It was only in the weeks after when he contacted me about how to set up a type 1 diabetes support group in Galway for adults, that I came to know him a little. Kieran's guest post is about not ignoring when type 1 diabetes becomes more of a struggle, that it's ok to not feel ok but that feeling not ok should only be temporary.

Kieran has lived with type 1 diabetes for 21 years, he's just two years younger that me - diabetes years that is. Today though, Kieran is a member of our diabetes online community who needs it more than ever to keep him on his journey with diabetes. And we know that he is not alone. Out of the blue Kieran emailed these words to me and I felt they needed to be shared. We tend to over accentuate the fact that diabetes doesn't stop us from doing anything but the truth is, sometimes it does put a spanner in the works and talking about it is always good.

So in Kieran's words, here is his story;

OK here goes nothing.

I took part in a small group discussion at Thriveabetes 2016 about living with diabetes complications and I’ve decided to write about what I’ve been going through these last few years in my life with type 1 diabetes.

I’m not going to start from the beginning as I’m sure being diagnosed was troublesome for us all. My real trouble started after my twins were born three years ago. Everything just got too much for me; trying to balance work, sleep, diabetes and doing my bit around the house. I work long hours; 14 hour days but I’m off for 3 days a week, so just managing my diabetes with work was tough alone. But just after the babies came along I hit a wall in my life and I didn’t think I was any good to anyone. I was deeply depressed.

It took me a long time to understand what was wrong with me and it didn’t make any sense until one visit to the clinic and where my consultant and his words changed a lot of things for me. His words were “How are you feeling and don’t say fine?” That was all it took, I spilled the whole lot out; from feeling crap one day to feeling on top of the world the next. I believe only for my consultant and my family, I wouldn’t be here at all today.

I went to counselling for 18 months and got the help I needed and learned so much about myself and others around me. My counsellor didn't know anything about type 1 diabetes but they didn't need to. Diabetes was just the sideshow of what was really going on but that's what was suffering the most. That was about two years ago. And everything seemed to be back on track. But then, just when all seemed rosy, I was hit again, this time with a diabetes complication. This time I think it’s bigger.

My kidneys are failing.

I was told 6 months ago that I’m heading for a transplant in 2 or 3 years but, if I’m honest, I think I’m looking at one a little bit sooner. And my a:c ratio is one point away from putting me one the transplant list. The irony is that my HbA1c has shown a sharp drop in last 6 months. After I changed my lifestyle completely to try lengthen the time to a transplant. But it seems my a:c is doing the opposite.

I will never know if those couple of years where I was struggling to manage my diabetes are the cause of my kidney failure but my gut tells me that that period wasn't long enough to do all the damage it has done. It doesn't make sense how I got here so fast.

I know I’ve a huge battle on my hands in the coming years. . I don’t know if this will make sense to any of you but if I can help one person out who is like me, who feels like they are the only one living with diabetes complications feel less alone then I will tell all. I hope I can. I have two messages for everyone living with diabetes. If diabetes gets you down, and it probably will at some point, Please talk to someone! Or if you’re pissed off with it, just don’t ignore it!. It doesn’t go away. And talking about it can only help. If that has to be a counsellor then remember that they are people just like us, except they don't judge and they are better equipped to say the right thing.

Thank you Kieran for your courage. And remember if you are struggling with your diabetes or anything - find someone to talk to.