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Remifa non invasive blood glucose meter

2

2468mag

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Carer/Partner
Hi I keep getting adverts for the above on my facebook page. My son is disabled and cannot do finger pricking himself. Does anyone have any experience of the accuracy of such devices?
 
Nobody has yet made one that actually works and this one will join all the others. Don't waste your money, but if you do, do not use the numbers shown for any decision making.
 
What type of diabetes does your son have and what medication does he take? How often has he been advised to fingerprick?

If he’s been advised he needs to take fingerpricks but is having to have a carer to do this for him then he may qualify for cgm, depending on the situation, to reduce the fingerpricks needed.
 
He’s Type 1 and has a cgm. If he has a low, finger pricking is advised before glucose. It is impossible for him as he is visually impaired as well.
 
Hi @2468mag is his difficulty seeing to prick his finger and apply blood or is it reading the result on the glucose meter? If it’s the latter, I believe you can get ‘talking’ meters.

What CGM does he have?
 
And just to add, I’d stay well away from Remifa and the like. There’s always some ‘magic’ non-invasive watch or finger clip blah blah blah, which turn out to be inaccurate and a waste of money. As your son already has a CGM, he’d be better sticking with that and his meter and enquiring after aids to help him use them.
 
2468mag said:
He’s Type 1 and has a cgm. If he has a low, finger pricking is advised before glucose. It is impossible for him as he is visually impaired as well.
Click to expand...
If he’s unable to prick his bg and cgm says low he should be having glucose not waiting for a carer to come and prick his finger
 
2468mag said:
He’s Type 1 and has a cgm. If he has a low, finger pricking is advised before glucose. It is impossible for him as he is visually impaired as well.
Click to expand...
He should also be able to feel where the blood is to apply the blood to the test strip. Does he have a talking bg meter for example this?

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Thanks @Lucyr

I was going to try to look up one of the speaking BG meters.

Hopefully your son can find a way to access his sensor glucose values at least. Which CGM does he use? Is there a way to get the screen text read out loud?

I agree, that if fingerstick checks are going to cause a delay, it would be safer to treat on the basis of the CGM reading.
 
Yes I’m not sure what screen-reading apps (and other accessibility options) there are on modern phones.

This guest blog post feels like a long time ago!

Guest post: BG monitors for blind/visually impaired people

Because no two days with type 1 diabetes are the same. Except when they are. The ups and downs of life with T1D.
www.everydayupsanddowns.co.uk www.everydayupsanddowns.co.uk
 
Lucyr said:
He should also be able to feel where the blood is to apply the blood to the test strip. Does he have a talking bg meter for example this?
Click to expand...
This is perhaps easier said than done though, I have troubles in the dark and often miss the strip (or end up with the "apply more blood" message and a countdown, at which point the bedside light comes on to avoid a wasted strip/hole in my finger)!

It used to be easier with strips that required more blood, as there was a bigger drop on your finger (and the end of the strip also had a larger area to aim for)! It did also hurt more though.
 
SimonP said:
It used to be easier with strips that required more blood, as there was a bigger drop on your finger (and the end of the strip also had a larger area to aim for)! It did also hurt more though.
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The amount of blood the test strip requires doesn’t dictate the size of the blood drop on your finger. You can have as big a drop as you want.
 
True, but as I don't need a big drop during the day any more, I don't have a finger pricker setup to deliver one at night. I could of course solve the problem, and it's not really relevant to the OP's post either.
 
SimonP said:
True, but as I don't need a big drop during the day any more, I don't have a finger pricker setup to deliver one at night. I could of course solve the problem, and it's not really relevant to the OP's post either.
Click to expand...
Takes less than a second to change the depth on my fingerpricker. It’s relevant to OP because if it’s finding the blood that is the difficulty they could turn up the depth of the fingerpricker a bit.
 
I don't think I could use a BG meter and test strip if I was visually impaired. How do you feel where the drop of blood is? I have genuinely wondered for some time how blind people manage to check BG with a meter.
I regularly inject insulin in the dark or without looking because I can count the clicks and as long as I hit flesh with the needle, I don't need to see exactly where I inject it, but lining up a test strip with a drop of blood requires you to be very precise? I struggle to coordinate it and hold it still against the drop of blood whilst it sucks it up and I can see! Maybe I am missing something but to me that seems an almost impossible task where I might hit lucky once in a blue moon.
 
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