confusing readings!

[bev]

This morning i gave alex his insulin 5 minutes before his breakfast to try to reduce the spike he has - but it has backfired and he is 29.5 - but the problem is we checked him on his spare metere and that came out as 22.2 - so we used control solution and both said both meters were within range!
Acu check are sending me two meters out - but that'll take 2 days - so which meter should i use as he could be 3 or he could be 10! Confused! Bev

 

[Adrienne]

Hi

None of the meters are brilliant when high or low. They are much more spot on when an ok level. The email group has had this discussion many times as has another international group I'm on re Congenital Hyperinsulinism. The meters that come out top everywhere seem to be the Lifescan One Touch meters. Luckily for us we have always used that make but even they differ.

The one rule is go by one meter and one meter only (except if you have a different one at school). I would probably have done another test and taken the average. Also the finger that read 29.0 odd may well have had something on it to make it that high maybe, you never know.

The mid morning spike is horrendous for some people and uncontrolable unless on a pump. Someone on the email group I think has their Lantus at 4 am to stop the mid morning spike but that is not helpful for a young boy. Jessica's 6am basal is our mid morning spike rate but she still gets them. Rather than 5 minutes before you should maybe do what Jackie suggested and go back at 5 minute intervals. Most people who do this say about 15 to 20 minutes before. With Jessica it made no difference at all.

 

[sofaraway]

I think often using 2 different meters isn't always helpful if they don't read very similarly.

Just wondering how much difference it would have made in the dose (i assume this was a pre lunch dose?)

I would have corrected the 22 to be on the safe side, and then re-tested later and could always throw another correction in if needed.

 

[bev]

Yes just pre lunch it was - i aired on the side of caution and assumed he was 22 and corrected by giving him an extra 1 and a half units as he is very sensitive to insulin. He was coming down nicely until a few minutes ago and then started to plummit - he just had a hypo - but hopefully he will be back on track by dinner time! I have just got another meter from his DN as acu check told me not to use either of the meters as they want them back to check them - just in case they are both faulty! They were very helpful i must say and their customer care was excellent. Bev

 

[grovesy]

Yes just pre lunch it was - i aired on the side of caution and assumed he was 22 and corrected by giving him an extra 1 and a half units as he is very sensitive to insulin. He was coming down nicely until a few minutes ago and then started to plummit - he just had a hypo - but hopefully he will be back on track by dinner time! I have just got another meter from his DN as acu check told me not to use either of the meters as they want them back to check them - just in case they are both faulty! They were very helpful i must say and their customer care was excellent. Bev

I have Lifescan meters but have to say when I contacted them about a pot of test strips I had that were out of the control range, there system asked for me to send not only the strips back but the meter too. I had the replacements the next day along with packages to return the strips and the meter, as they had to go to different destinations.
That was a few years ago and I was very impressed.