Meters

[Grace]

How often should we be replacing my son's meter?

We've had a wild couple of weeks.

First, he finished his last Lantus pen given him by the NP at his last appointment and then went back to the bottle of Lantus he's been using IN NOVEMBER! It had been sitting in his kit the last two months. Yea... can you spell "hi"? First time we've ever seen that reading since dx.

Two days after we figure this out, he wakes up at 145. No problem. Has a bowl of cereal with milk at 8am, bacon at 10am. He tests before we leave for basketball and the meters says 377! Ack. He takes a correction and tests again 30 mins later when we get to the gym. It says 450-something! Huh? How can it be going up? He hasn't eaten anything...


Drive to Walgreens and buy a new meter (one that has the control solution). Sure enough, the old one is fried. It was off by over 130!

So, he has the One Touch Ultra Mini for now. But, we get the AccuCheck and strips free from the Ft. Campbell pharmacy. It doesn't come with the control solution. How do we know when it needs replaced? Is it worth it to pay the $30/month and just get the strips at Walgreens?

[joy orz]

I was just going to ask a similar question. We use the precision extra, which is total misnomer, because it is not often precise. We had two and they were off by 100 points. UGGG! We've gotten them replaced, but I just got 415 then a 240 within 20 minutes. Yipes. My babe was napping when we got the 415, so I went downstairs to get the insulin to correct her and checked her again before I gave her a huge correction dose. That's when we got the 240. WhatTheHeck?

We use the precision extra because of the blood keytone strips, but does anyone know of the best meter?

[Mama Belle]

Couple of suggestions:

-Obviously always make sure the finger/toe is clean and dry before testing. This can throw off a reading. Using alcohol to clean immediately before a test can give you an erroneously low result.
-Keep in mind that the margin of error for meters is a whopping 20%. So the higher the BG the more likely that the numbers will be skewed.
-We've had great luck using the One Touch line (we used the same meter for over 3 years) and the Freestyle Flash. I adore the flash, which we use now, for many, many reasons. I have heard that the Accucheckline is also good.

[Grace]

Originally Posted by Mama Belle

-Obviously always make sure the finger/toe is clean and dry before testing.

Just for the record, he used the same prick to get the two results that were so different. He checked again with the AccuCheck when we were at Walgreens.

I said 130, but my math was WAY off. (Always happens when I try to multitask... I'm an embarrasment to my gender!) The AccuCheck said 450s and the new OneTouch read 280s. That would be a difference of 170! I think that would be more than a 20% margin of error...

He's had this same AccuCheck for almost a year. It is the first one he received from Ft. Campbell. He used the OneTouch he got from the hospital for a while while the other one sat in his box of stuff... maybe four months.... Eventually I got tired of buying test strips and told him he needed to use the AccuCheck.

[funnygrl]

My doctor's office says new meter every year.

[Mom2Will]

I have an Accu Check, I hate it, it takes so much blood. It is not an Aviva which I've heard are good.

We used a Freestyle that I loved, less blood, seemed accurate but is wasn't "preferred" on my insurance.

We now are using a One Touch Ultra 2 and love it even though it uses a little more blood than the Freestyle.

I have a Precision X-tra only for ketone testing as I've heard the BG isn't very accurate (don't know that for a fact)

Hope that helps

[clb1968]

Contact Accu Chek and they will send you another meter, replacing the one you had, and they will send you the control solution also. They might even send some strips. Accu Chek has good customer service , they have always been great on the phone and I used their meters for years. I got new insurance this past year and changed over to One Touch Ultra 2, and I use the BD Link with my pump.

[Grace]

I'm so embarrassed... It is NOT an AccuCheck. It is a Precision Extra.

Guess that shows how often I really look at these things! I noticed that AC is made by Roche when I googled it for the phone number. I know my son's meter is an Abbott product because we made comments about it when he got it. My sister works for Abbott.

[Diabetes Pharmacist]

Far and away the most popular ones that we dispense are the One Touch Ultra and The Free Style Meters. These are the ones that most doctors recommend and they are also great because both use alternate site testing; you can use fingers, palms, forearms etc , wherever there are less nerve endings.
Most meters can be obtained for little or no cost because the manufacturers want the strip business and if you like the meter you have and it's defective, call the toll free number on the back of the meter to request a free replacement. These companies want your loyalty; they will gladly send a new one for free so you continue to use their strips.

[Shannon's Mom]

We have always used the Freestyle. My insurance changed last year and only covered the one touch. Tried it but took too much blood. Went back to the Freestyle deciding to pay the $45 non formulary co-pay. That was for 200 strips. I just found out that my insurance also offers mail order and I can get 600 strips for the same cost. Talk about feeling stupid - it pays to read things!!!! I had a problem with the Freestyle a couple of weeks ago with strange readings. Called them and I mentioned something about the 20% differential. They told me that is only between 2 different meters. If you are doing multiple testings with one meter, there should be no more than a 10% differential. I asked why no control solution in the new boxes. They said because they don't know how long the boxes sit on the pharmacy shelf, it can go bad. They said to call when I needed it and they would send out. So they sent me a new meter, 2 control solutions and 100 strips for ones we wasted with bad meter.