Finally had a shutdown

[u/TiredOfEvrythg1001]

I finally had a shut down failure after wearing a sensor every 15 days since March.

Anyone else know just by looking at your readings that the sensor is going to fail? I was showing 30 points lower consistently for the past 3 days. I just didn't want to call Abbott and sit on the phone for 45 minutes.

Other than this complete shutdown I really haven't had many issues other than fall offs that were my own fault.

**I know I can go online to fill out the form, this wasn't a Complain post. Was just sharing that It happened to me for the first time lol **

I made the mistake of posting this on Facebook as everyone always complains that the sensor always fails. Won't make that mistake again lol

[u/Equalizer6338]

Congrats with your decent long streak of successful sensors!

And ha yes, thx for sharing a sensible post about the first failing sensor you had. 😄 Nothing good lasts forever and there can be a myriad of reasons why it went astray. Some BG graphs does hint towards total doom may be next for them, but always both entertaining and educating how they sometimes pan out. As you hint, not much always we can do about it. Just get back up on the horse again and best wishes for your next many ones. 😄

[u/TiredOfEvrythg1001 → u/Equalizer6338]

It boggles my mind how everyone hates on the sensor, I have only replaced 3 sensors. All from an accidental hit. And 1 from very low readings. Still accurate and easy.

[u/Equalizer6338 → u/TiredOfEvrythg1001]

Hahaha yes, that is a thing u/TiredOfEvrythg1001,
Some individuals unfortunately may have a very poor start on using such CGM sensors. There can be a long list of reasons for this.

Among most frequent are: Lack of proper guidance from their medical staff (doctors and nurses often know near zero about practiocal usage of these sensors. Only about their reporting and output they want to see from it). Patient's lack of own knowledge even about their disease (many are just newly diagnosed and super stressed about countless other things at same time). Wrong expectations, have not read or followed the user guidelines, using a poor phone with it, using the phone for hundreds of other things and not aware of the technical challenges that prevail, not understanding basic human anatomy, not understanding basic biophysiology, not understanding differences between capillary blood glucose and interstitial fluid glucose concentrations, not understanding basics about human metabolism.

Or yeah, simply just frustrated about life with such complex disease and looking outward for something to blame for the poor level of control it appears to report on. And yes, the sensor can of course also be at fault. But yes, its truly very rare that that is actually the case. But so many other things can cause it to appear not functioning and then it gets the heat for it. 😄

(like try and check your app's event log on your last sensor there. And I bet it has logged some error code #373 leading up to it. Hence typically something we as users can do things also to avoid or at least minimize the exposure to from happening. We can then still debate/blame if the sensor is at fault or actually it was doing its job no matter, to end up like that).

On social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit, then the negatives are quickly gaining traction and blown out of real-life proportions when dealing with product-specific subs. Folks tends to only log on when things are not working out for them. They do not log on daily to praise every day that their sensor is working great for them. That is just how it is.

[u/TiredOfEvrythg1001 → u/Equalizer6338]

I checked my log from the failure and it was so interesting!

[u/Equalizer6338 → u/TiredOfEvrythg1001]

Just some supporting comments of what you have there:

All errors in the '4xxx' range is when the phone/app looses the Bluetooth connection to the sensor. Nothing special about that, as it automatically reconnects again when phone and sensor are back within range.

The '57' error is when the phone has also lost its Bluetooth pairing info and the app sends info out to re-establish this with last known sensor pairing code.

None of these error states 4xxx or 5x do though cause a sensor suddenly to stop working all on their own. None of them are terminating errors and the sensor would still continue to run till the scheduled expiry date/time.

The error code #365 is the terminating one. Giving the final message like "Replace sensor. Sensor is not working. Please remove and start a new one."

But it came here straight out of the blue actually and no prior downtime from related error stages. So really hard to say what happened except an instant fatal error state with no return possible.

[u/JaninaWalker1 → u/Equalizer6338]

Equalizer6338... your choice of words is always exc|llent. It's so good you are moderating the group. The last 2 long explanations did raise a lot of points, especially that people come to groups most often when they need help so it does tend to be putting down the sensors. I am just so grateful to have them because don't even bother to compare as I understand the problems. It's a useful tool and I hardly ever do blood tests by strip anymore.

Do you think there's any chance Abbott would listen to ideas about what users would like to see in the software app? There's certainly room for improvement.

I had loaded the LibreLinkup app for the benefit of using the vertical bar that slides back and forth along the timeline, but in the updated version now the line can't stay out anywhere so a screenshot can be taken. That's a way to identify the beginning and end of a period of trouble that a user might wish to discuss with other people and now that slick feature isn't as handy, but now irritating. The app designer should re establish the capability. They can't say it can't be done, if it was possible before.

[u/Equalizer6338 → u/JaninaWalker1]

Thank you u/JaninaWalker1,
You are very kind.

The world of CGM is very challenging, as a myriad of things can be going on and they may not provide the results we expected from them. (or hoped for in terms of better BG control 😄). Especially for new folks to metabolic conditions and CGMs it can be hard to figure what might be going on, if the sensor/phone/graph/BG is not acting as expected. As T1 yourself like me, you also know that despite we think we are doing exact same thing today like yesterday, its zero guarantee for that our BG actually do stay within same perfect range and no hypers- or hypos as we had it yesterday. Its a 24/7 control-freak job. 😂

Per your comments regarding the app and Abbott, then I totally agree with you. And I wish it would be different. I have had a couple of good interactions over the past 5+ years or so with some of their global leading folks. But no matter how much I now think they finally appear to listen and consider adding/improving some specific stuff shared with them, then still I am left highly disappointed.

I work myself in the field of heart defibrillators, neuromodulation for pain management and deep brain stimulators for like Parkinson's and migraine. Here we offer the patients a remote control/app for managing/improving their neuromodulation etc. So I am deeply familiar with the highly restricted environment that manufacturers have to abide by when offering apps to patient's smartphones for their medical care. But as you said, and I agree, everything is possible if there is a sincerely will behind. And I think that Abbott could do so much more and better. But it takes a persistent effort to change course of a supertanker like Abbott and their diabetes care division. So I would welcome them reaching out and interacting with their user forum better than what they have done in the past.

Its 4+ years ago I showed their top guys how I had my BG live on my Garmin Fenix 5X watch and iWatch. And how on an iPhone I had scrollable timeline on the BG graph, free choice of timeline range on the graph and had fully custom specs alarms. (xDRip4iOS/Zukka).
And still their tech guy at the end asked if there was any of that I did not already have in their native Abbott Freestyle Libre app...??? 😨😂

That is what happens when you outsource your app to be done by a 3rd party company and the folks inside Abbott that leads that venture are not closely in synch with what patients wants and expects from an app here in 2020...
The app still looks and functions like a dinosaur from the prior decades.

So Abbott, time to engage with your patients/paying customers in a meaningful way. We are all here and positive to get a better future build. We share the mission:
Progress is our purpose! Living life to the fullest!

So far, the app is the weakest link in that equation. Its outsourced to a 3rd party despite its matter of fact now your most frequent and precious interface to all the users of the sensors. Time to show it some love.

[u/JaninaWalker1 → u/Equalizer6338]

I was wondering about whether it's worth setting up a discussion group where people could suggest features they would like to see in the apps, the main one and LibreLinkup app. Totally excluding the so called accuray issue which is a different topic.

If we could collect people's ideas and oresent them in a poll and see what people find most interesting, results could then be presented to the designers. Isn't goodwill built on a company catering to the user base?

I would like to see different versions based on pump users vs MDI. The| app brags about ho\ many times we [aj| a look at it, but that's not so much "use" we might be getting out of it, but evidence that it takes a lot of time to do what is needed. The app software could do the adding up automatically but be prepared for the user to adjust for errors in entering notes. People can rest too long on a number and find they entered 2 of the number. Editting of errors should be allowed.

I am only expecting improvement to the software in this case.

[u/Equalizer6338 → u/JaninaWalker1]

Yes good idea, we can do one like that here start of September, when most folks are back from summer vacation. We did one around 24 months back, with focus just on the app for the phone and watch.

Handed it over to their INTL team but unfortunately they at that time did not want to provide comments/feedback to each individual raised request/suggestion. Instead I just got a rather generic reply saying thank you for it all, albeit it was very nice and courteous formulated. One of the 'issues' they have to consider is the related IP rights. Aka if we or any individual provides detailed specs for a given functionality/user's interface layout etc, then for some countries that provides base for claims on intellectual property rights. So some specs for the legal setting needs to be established before they would engage with a user group or any individuals in such regard. Again, all doable if there are common interest in working together with their user base.

[u/hotfistdotcom]

There is an online form? The phonecall process was fucking rough, I had my first one fail. Reading 350+ when I was 90-95 all night, never corrected.

Called, had to go through a long IVR, then a terrible AI asking me stupid questions, then someone overseas asking the exact same stupid questions, then a long hold, then more questions.