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Comment by acoster | Hacker News Reader

My partner is type 1 diabetic, and CGMs were a game changer for her (they started rolling out in Switzerland last year).

She's been using the FreeStyle Libre (https://www.freestylelibre.co.uk/libre/), which uses NFC and on select markets has an Android app available, but here we still have to use the handheld reader.

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I seriously recommend testing xDrip+ with the Libre. Better results and you don't need to carry an extra reader device with you all the time:

https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip

Pull requests are welcome too :)

In what way does it offer better results?

There's an official android app for libre too, i'm not sure if it's available everywhere though.

The libre measures the glucose from the interstitial fluid, which doesn't map directly to the value measured from blood. Think about coordinates, where X is the value from interstitial fluid and Y is the value from blood. You must draw a line somewhere to map the values correctly and the Libre is calibrated in the factory. For me the Libre reader was just an ok indicator about the trend, but the actual value was sometimes not even near the value shown. It's ok between the normal range 4.0-8.5 mmol/l, but I'd be suspicious about every value outside of that range.

With xDrip you can input values measured from blood and the software will try to estimate as accurate values as possible, meaning that in the best case you can be quite sure about the reading, but always better to check from blood.

Remember, that calibration should happen only when the levels are steady and you should calibrate from the whole range to trust the readings. Anyways at least 2-3 measurements per day from blood is suggested, even with the more expensive CGM's.

I find the non-official Android Libre reader app 'Glimp' useful. Even though I have the official one, I keep both installed, because Glimp does less smoothing/extrapolation of the readings.

The Libre only gives you a reading when you manually check it, right? Or did I misunderstand that? I wouldn't want to lose the low/high/rate of change alerts the Dexcom gives. Even if you're sleeping, it'll wake you up if the blood sugar starts getting low.

Officially, it stores 8 hours of data in five minute intervals and you have to read it with an NFC device, so automatic alarms are a no-go.

If you want to hack, it is possible to turn the Libre to have automatic alerts. I did it, it's not perfect, but if you have nightly hypos which you don't notice, this can be helpful:

https://github.com/pimpimmi/LibreAlarm/wiki

http://www.freestylesticker.com/product/freestyle-libre-cgm-...

If you're in Europe, I have one modded Sony Smartwatch 3 which I can sell :)

> they started rolling out in Switzerland last year

Wow, do you know why this is? The Dexcom G4 is already 5 years old and is absolutely a life-saving system.

That's because there are so few of us Type 1 diabetics and not enough political pressure to get the new stuff faster. There are some activist doctors and nurses that help in Germany, but we also got the G4 for free only on last November.

The insurance companies are conservative and see the systems as very expensive investments and the technology is something scary in a country which is still very suspicious about Internet and computers in general.

There were also some privacy/bureaucratic slow downs (my girlfriend had to sign a monster of T&C regarding data sharing with her doctor).

It is quite annoying when you are getting intimate though.

The libre or the pump? I usually just unplug the pump for sex and take some extra insulin when I plug it back. Small price to pay for the luxury of steady sugars.

The libre. I am afraid to tightly grab that arm and it's distracting when caressing that arm so I just keep my hands away from it which creates this weird spot I am afraid to touch...

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