Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)

Recently I purchased a freestyle libre CGM. I’ve had it for a few days now. What I have noticed is:

1. Super convenient and nice to get your blood glucose charts all night/day. Can be linked to a PC so that data can be extracted. However, this is a somewhat cumbersome process. Still worthwhile if you would like to see your data in excel or word.
2. The measurements for the first day or two are ridiculously high and I thought I’d wasted my money (with insurance it was $40 for the reader and $40 for 2 14 day sensors – I’m not a diabetic but my doctor wrote me a Rx so that I could monitor by blood glucose).
3. Accuracy isn’t great. After it settled down for a couple of days it was high by about 26 mg/dl (read about 116 mg/dl when my actual blood glucose was 90 mg/dl according to two Contour Next Plus devices). The following day it was identical. But the next day it was high by 10.
4. Automatic measurements are done every 15 minutes. You can also take measurements on demand.
5. The meter is calibrated by the manufacturer prior to shipping and the user is unable to calibrate or add in an offset.

Overall though I love it and the trend information it gives me is very helpful. I noticed right away that if I slowly bike (heart rate 80-90 BPM) after a meal the typical spike I get in blood glucose is much diminished. And I can see the effects of various types of meals on my blood glucose. The cost is about $40 a month for sensors (reader doesn’t have an expiration date).

First chart covering 9/12/19-9/15/19