Living with the Libre – 10 months on

More copyright-infringing stock photography stolen from Abbott

Back in February I became at least 10% more cyborg with the addition of a spanky, new Libre to my arm. After two weeks of using it, I wrote up my thoughts divided into the good stuff and the bad stuff.

It’s now been ten months (give or take a week or so either way) since I was kitted out with everyone’s second favourite flash glucose monitoring system, so “how’s it all going, Tim, have your views changed since February?” I hear you all cry.

Well, the Libre has become very much part of my everyday diabetic life.

I miss the damned thing when one gets destroyed in a Saturday morning DIY accident and I have to wait until Monday for a new one as I’ve forgotten, yet again, to make sure I had sufficient spares in stock.

Returning to ye olde finger-pricking just feels like a retrograde step back in time. It’s much like having your spaceship breaking down and having to spend a few days back on Earth with Ug the Caveman prodding forlornly at a stone wheel wondering how it all works. This, by the way, is a metaphor. I don’t really own a spaceship. But that’s what I would say…

Anyway, I’ve become used to checking my blood glucose 19 million times a day, just because I can, and I suspect my control is better than before. Rather than being guilt-tripped by the peaks and troughs shows on the screen, I shrug and try and get it right next time. Though I can see some people might be tormented by trying in vain to get a nice, consistent flat line. Like Sisyphus and his boulder, I think flat-lining is an impossible task. So lets just get on with life and use the data to make better decisions. So there.

Me in Verona. The sharp-eyed will notice the giveaway “pump-bulge”

But it’s not all good; I still have problems with itchiness. Though it seems to ;