Good morning and a little help please!

[rebrascora]

I emailed ascencia customer services and they sent me a bottle of test solution for my Contour.
I used it and got a number, but not entirely sure what that number meant and how it related to accuracy.

There will be a range on your pots of test strips possibly 2 or 3 different ranges depending upon the make and model of meter. The solution you were sent should give a reading within the appropriate range on the test strip pot.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

I am a retired Chartered Civil Engineer and have along the way a lot of Structural Engineering experience (but I'm not Chartered). From this background I am comfortable with earthworks where the accuracy is governed by the size of a bulldozer blade or 50 ton self-propelled motorised scrapers (driven by madmen at 40 kph) and multistorey structural steel buildings, needing tight 3 dimensional accuracy. I looked after a team of Engineering Surveyors who would calculate to within a mm and set out ground positions to better than 5 mm from National datums long distances away and I was closely involved with field surveyors who mapped closer to 5m. This background allows me to pragmatically differentiate for my purposes between required levels of accuracy. (Sometimes those accuracies sat in total contradiction to the details specified within D of Tpt documentation.)

Diabetes has highlighted to me that nothing that we do in managing it can be done with pinpoint accuracy and that aspect is extremely well made as far as I'm concerned by the last dozen or so posts. Two things stand out for me though, @Simpo:

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1. There is a real risk of getting Diabetes burnout, chasing an accuracy that is effectively unattainable; staying relaxed about what can be sensibly achieved is less stressful and stress is an unquantifiable factor that will almost certainly affect your blood glucose.​

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2. The relative importance of getting stringent accuracy in managing D in relation to managing your liver transplant seems to me to be far more important. I have no precise idea about just what that entails, but I can imagine that keeping a relaxed and pragmatic view is better for your short and long term health.​

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So given that the means of testing is not accurate, but adequate, do you @Simpo also have any CGM? If not, I would encourage you to press as a matter of urgency for that to be on your prescription list. Finger pricking to see trends is unnecessary (and less stressful) when CGM will do that for you. If you need assistance in making an appropriate business case for CGM (and that really ought to be unnecessary, but in practice it might be needed) we can offer our success stories plus the relevant NICE Guidance Notes.

Also, if you'd like to share with us where you are finding dietary conflicts we can almost certainly share with you what workarounds or alternatives that we have found. I've noted you are on Multiple Dose Injections (MDI) and "in theory" there ought not to be too much conflict. Your insulin can be used to mitigate against both background BG elevation from your steroids and with sensible (but not pinpoint accuracy!) help with carb counting for sensible dosing for meals; we can share our knowledge on dose timings and interpretation of subsequent BG readings. But that "in theory" has its own hassles and from what I've seen over the last 4 yrs this Forum is invaluable to translate the theory into practical outcomes.

I hope some of this flood of info since 0630 this morning continues to be of help. I do think and I say this as a fellow Engineer, move on from the apparent unsatisfactory nature of the accuracy, accept what it is and get the help we might be able to offer focussed on the practicalities of managing your D. Good luck.

 

[trophywench]

Diabetes is complicated and confusing and works to its own rules. The treatments there are for it seek to manage it, not control it. If you or I seek to control blood glucose, then basically we're on a hiding to nothing and any such attempt can only lead to madness.

It is absolutely not like engineering calculations eg calculating what size of RSJ is required here or there to support the next storey of a building, cos you can calculate that, providing you already know all the parameters involved in the equation. There are no variables - if there are you take the worst possible scenarios and factor them in so the 16th century single storey wattle and daub cottage roof could probably withstand being hit by an Exocet missile before its likely to collapse, whereas factoring in wind gusts of up to X mph for a month a year is more realistic.