• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Aviva expert meter

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
N

NatB

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi there went to the hospital yesterday and been advised to use the aviva expert testing meter. I was shown how to set it all up and am now up and running with it.
I have ordered the 360 software and am now just waiting on it arriving.
Just wondered if anyone uses it and have got any tips as I am always apprehensive with new things.
Natb😱
 
Hi Nat.

I've been using one since January and am getting on fine with it. I would suggest trying the bolus advice for a week and see if your BGs are stable. If not, then you need to tweek your ratios or review your timings, etc.

One of the harder things to trust is the exercise and stress options under the 'health' option.

I tend to use my own judgement from experience on whether to use them. It's often a case of just adding or subtracting a unit here and there but then it would make it pointless having it. So I try to stick to the advice it offers and add in the options as needed.

There's a few other members who've got one or used one.🙂

Rob
 
Thanx Rob will take your advice. Had to do a correction this afternoon and it worked. Thought it was good telling me how much active insulin was on board as I am sometimes quick to do corrections and then hypo.
Natb🙂
 
That's one of its strong points. I also use it as a food diary of sorts. If I eat something because I feel I need to without testing, I try to remember to log it in. It can all help to refine ratios later on.

Rob
 
Thanx again. I'm just getting use to it all. It's always daunting isn't it but I was the same with the pump to start with. 🙂
 
I've not had that joy yet. But maybe in the next few years.🙂

Rob
 
Oh the joys of the remote control, Nat! My meter had a major glitch after about 2 months so I was without it (We happened to be going on holiday the morning after it went haywire, and we were touring in France for the next 3 and a half weeks 'of no fixed abode'!) so had to go back to an ordinary meter until we got back. Even after that short time I could hardly remember how to operate the pump! LOL (Even though I had already had the pump without the meter as a remote for the first few weeks!)

At least I'm pretty sure about how they both work now!

Just yell up if you can't find something.

By the way, don't try and set up the software if you haven't got a lot of time, you really do have to tell it quite a lot of things before it will work optimally and it won't make all that much sense until you can get your meter and pump downloaded to it - but once you are up and running and can play with it properly (changing reporting parameters and stuff to see what happens when/if you do)

The only thing that really really annoys me about it is, with 'hypo' set at 4, if you test with your meal in the other hand which I often do! - then if you are eg 3.9 it will NOT dispense bolus advice. Grrrrr. You have to start eating, break off to test again after 15 minutes and then bolus. It's tedious.
 
Last edited:
Hi there I am on the spirit pump at the moment. Not looking forward to using the software as I'm not good with computers! I have to rely on my husband to help me. My diabetic nurse wants me to start using it so I can e- mail her regulary.
Poor u having a break down with the machine. I always worry incase the pump packs in and I have to go back to injecting and I won't remember what to do. Going to turkey this year so that will be an experience!
 
I used the Expert for a year or so before I got a pump and liked it a lot. It did take me a good few months to get the settings right though, you it will do you good to persevere. Does the Spirit not have a bolus calculator then?

I can't remember what the expert allows in terms of partial unit suggestions but you may find you need to do a fair bit of overriding taking the 0.whatever suggestion from the 'calculation' screen before the adviser rounds it up or down. Bear in mind too that the expert only tracks corrections in 'active insulin'. It ignores whatever part of the dose was allocated against carbs and assumes you got the meal estimation right.

Hope you get on well with it!

Mike

PS Wrote a review of the Expert here if you are interested: http://www.everydayupsanddowns.co.uk/2011/01/accu-chek-aviva-expert-review-one-month.html
 
Last edited:
Hi Mike,
Thank you for your help. My pump doesn't have a calculator.
Made a mistake with the expert today.
Checked my level as I was going out and then it started raining!
Decided to have lunch so I went to put my carbs in and then gave my bolus.it then advised me to check my level again which I did but then I put the carbs in again! Oops can I not delete it? :confused:
 
You can't change things where the bolus calculator has been used, but I think you can edit other entries. Can't quite remember how off hand! Is there an edit option on the 'my data' screen?
 
That's another annoyance. Once you use the bolus wizard, you can't go back and modify any part of that entry. I would imagine you can delete the entry once uploaded to the PC though.

Mike's review is spot on and gives some good tips.

And what TW says about the hypo alert. I changed mone to 3.5 so a minor low could be catered for without delaying the meal further.

Also, I switched off the reminder to retest since sometimes I don't feel the need and will have got up and got on with things when it goes off again.

All things that need to be adapted for your own lifestyle and how you manage things.

But you can customise a fair bit. Except the 'lead-in' time for active insulin. It's fixed at 45 mins before it allows for active insulin. Not sure why it can't be stepped down a bit.

Rob
 
This is NOT the Expert, it's the Combo. It does everything in 0.1 of a unit. The bolus wizard for the Combo pump IS the meter! No need to ever touch the pump until you get undressed at night.

Nat - if you didn't deliver the insulin it said, you should be able to amend it using the meter. If you delivered the insulin then it doesn't let you.

My Data, then View Data. Scroll down to the one where you didn't deliver the insulin, click the middle button,, two choices Back and Modify, choose Modify, scroll down to carbs and change to 0, then 'Save'.

I know that, because I've just done it to make sure it works and am thoroughly enjoying the coconut macaroon (19g LOL) thank you! - I wouldn't have had it were it not for you! :D Very nice indeed.

So I did a normal test, carbs, bolus, worked it out, 1.7u - then turned the meter off. Made coffee, got cake, came back in, retested and told it the carbs and asked it for the bolus again, 1.7u, yes please, deliver it. Turned meter off then back on and when I got to View Date, the apple and the insulin were showing at the latest one, but just the apple for the first one. So I chose that and changed the carbs to Nil.

You do not have to retest when that happens you know, you can tell it NO. Remember it's still getting the info from your pump so if your pump hasn't recorded a bolus, then the meter knows you haven't had one and there's an end to that. If you don't change it and leave it as it is, it will show up when you download em to the software, comes up in red or with some sort of sign by it to show it's a query. Meter data does not match pump data or something.

These poor pumpless people who use the Expert with MDI are missing out, aren't they? Shame LOL

As since I've had the twins (LOL) I haven't ever delivered any insulin my injection, there is a way of recording that you have (and when you download it, it has a little syringe by it, quite sweet!) but I dunno how you actually tell it that. I tend to not concern myself about subtle nuances like that until I have a real one to practice on LOL, then you can make sense whereas if it's all in theory and you are only playing, it might not behave the same as if it was real.
 
Tried what you advised mike and it won't let me change anything.
Thank you for all your help everyone.
I can't have a combo pump yet as only been on the spirit two years.
Just want to improve my levels and get my hb1c down from 7.8.
Seem to be controlling the hypos better after exercise.
Will keep at it🙂
Thanx again.
 
It sure is! I'm sure I will get sorted.
Took advice of expert today and had a low of 3.3. Oops!
Then it was 12.2 later on and it wanted me to give myself more insulin so I didn't do that and it was 7.9 later.
Think I did right?
 
Make a note of what it tells you to do and what you actually do + the outcome and you'll be able to tweak it so that it better reflects how your body reacts.

No point in it telling you theoretical ideals if it sends you hypo or hyper.

Did you over correct your 3.3 ?

Rob
 
Is it programmed right? - what parameters are set? - like what Time Blocks have you got in?

Say you want to be six-ish, but don't mind being 4 or 8 at certain times (before/after you eat etc) then if you tell it 4 to 8 it will correct down to 6. As it would if you said you wanted to be between 5 and 7.

Is your Carb ratio in right? What's your Duration in at, how many hours.

Ohhh - hang on. ISTR Mike saying it didn't calc the Insulin on Board that was boluses - only if you marked it as a correction.

(Again the Combo does it right and recognises all boluses whether they are meals or corrections, in its calculations)
 
Thanx for all the replies will write it all down. My diabetic nurse programmed it all for me. Haven't looked at setting the blocks yet.
First hypo in a few days which is good for me!
Thanx again🙂
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top