To recap, i was diagnosed T1 about 5- 6 weeks ago and started on Libre 2 and MDI about 4 weeks ago. Love it over the finger pricks previously and it seems pretty reflective of how i’m feeling or finger pricks after day 1 of the sensor. Based on what i have read here and everywhere, there are much better options. i have 4 more sensors left and want to upgrade to something else - i prefer using phone as primary receiver. Any suggestions? I’m leaning towards Dexcom G7 and it is covered by my insurance.
I don’t know which pump you use (if any) but that makes a huge impact on what CGM you choose. I use Dexcom G6. It’s works great and everything, but it’s also compatible with my pump, Omnipod 5. G7, however, does not connect to Omnipod so I’d lose that if I switched. I’d totally switch right now to G7 (it’s supposed to be amazing), but I want to keep the loop.
Hey @pady87 . How’d the endo appt go? Like @Darth_Yader said if you are considering a pump start with a Dexcom G6.
Is Dexcom covered by your insurance’s pharmacy plan or as “Durable Medical Equipment”? If its DME you’ll need those Libre sensors in case your first order takes a while, 30-90 days isn’t uncommon, or so you’ll have a spare Dexcom sensor. Here’s a list of DME vendors that sell Dexcom in a recent thread with other opinions https://forum.breakthrought1d.org/t/medical-supply-company-recommendations/73158/6?u=spdif
Abbott’s Libre line prior to the Libre3 has been on the market for a lot of years and been a runner up for the whole time. The Libre3 came out last year and no pump manufactures support it in the US yet so there are fewer people here to talk about their experiences. The once a minute readings might be awesome.
@Darth_Yader & @spdif I am not on a pump yet. The endo appt went great - one of the reasons i picked them was because they had a lot of publications in both Type 1 and type 2 treatments. One of their recent ones was using ozempic with insulin in a very small group of newly diagnosed Type 1s to extend honeymoon phase with excellent results; since i already had the trialnet antibody results & 2 weeks of cgm data, and also met all their requirements for newly diagnosed, they started me on that right there and gave good advise on dosing… since then, ive been able to stay in target mostly with just basal and 1 or 2 small bolus doses a day and back to my past level of activity. my weight loss also seems to have stopped.
Based on their experience with this treatment plan, they felt i may be able to stay away from needing a pump for longer. thats why i was considering G7. maybe by the time i need a pump, it will work with he G7??
There’s no reason not to try the G6. A few key differences between it and the G7 are: the G7 warmup time is shorter (30 minutes versus 2 hours); each G7 comes with its own transmitter (the G6 requires a new transmitter every 3 months); and I think I’ve read user accounts that while the G6 gives false low readings for the first 24 hours or so, that’s less of a problem with the G7.
The G6 is a great device, and if you do get a pump it loops with some of them, while the G7 does not just yet.
Don’t feel pressured to use a pump unless you really want to - they are great tools but some people do just fine on injections and if that’s okay with you don’t feel you have to change.
I highly recommend you check out the book Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner. He has Type1 diabetes and works in the field so has a unique personal perspective that is particularly helpful.
I am a Libre fan due to the 14-day sensor vs only 10 days with the Dex. The Dex is supposed to be a little more accurate but I have been happy with both the Libre 2 and Libre 3. Both Libre 2 and Libre 3 have apps for your phone, you just have to start the sensor with the app on your phone and not use the separate reader device.
The Libre 3 has a much smaller sensor and overall size and is shipped already complete to put on. It also doesn’t require scanning with your phone or external reader device for current BG readings, just open the app and see where you are at. While there are fewer pumps supported by the Libre 2 and none for the Libre 3, that doesn’t bother me as I am an MDI kind of person and am frankly not looking at going onto a pump anytime soon. While I am a 40+ year T1 I don’t mind the shots. It really depends on insurance coverage and if they can successfully be appealed to get the device you like.
So i upgraded to the libre 3 and loving it - because its smaller, dont have to scan, good for 14 days and seems way closer to fingerprick tests from day 1 than the libre 2 was… also, it let me shut off alarms which is great… my husband phone with libre link up still screams at my lows and highs, but mine only screams for extreme lows… i haven’t had any extreme highs the last month, so don’t know if it does for that too… a bunch of times since starting libre 3, we would see a low alarm on my husband’s app ( ii would receive no alert and it may just rise up to normal levels on its own… later when i look at the graph , it wont show anything below 70… like last night, i went to 54 and it screamed, i took 15g of glucose tablets in my sleep and saw an hr or so later that it was 176 or so… this morning tho, when i look at the graph, it doesn’t show a dip at all… the logbook only saves a reading if i make a note when i check the level. I did last night when i took the glucose tabs, so i know i wasn’t just craving sweets in my dreams… any thoughts on why it does what it does??
Thank you for sharing what you picked! That’s a huge help for others.
When I had the 14 day libre I saw it revising the graph also. I found that by downloading the data from Abbott’s https://www.libreview.com/ and opening the file in Excel/Numbers/Sheets I could get the actual list of values including the outliers that caused the alerts.
I went from Libre3 to G7 at end of Feb 2023. The Libre 3 was not accurate at all. Had readings of 63 and multiple blood tests that were in the mid 90s. Unfortunately this happened often so I moved to Dexcom. The G7 is far superior. I’d give up 4 days of use for accuracy all day long.
i thought that too. I wore both at the same time and like L3 much better. G7 was v inaccurate for me for 3-4 days despite multiple calibrations and errs on the high side. Libre3 errs on the conservative side when I’m going low and when I’m steady it is very accurate.