Switching meters

[New-journey]

This is so interesting. See my old Contour Next wins in accuracy, I miss it so much and wish I could find a way to get it back. Sigh! The Accu chek performa nano just doesn't do all the same things.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Good grief! the GlucoRx meter is really inaccurate! I just read some articles about GlucoRx now being the 2nd. largest surpliers in the UK of meters & is saving the NHS millions of pounds a year!

My prescription was suddenly changed, without notification back in Feb. 2017, just when I was having a series of hypos that needed my insulin doses almost halved, & I bought a GlucoRx meter. I DID find it very inaccurate in that the readings were sometimes about 0.5 higher than Freestyle meters. But, inexplicably, sometimes by 1.0 to 2.0 higher! I couldn’t continue using it with any confidence!

Thanks to @Northerner’s advice, I rang the practice & explained. My prescription for Freestyle lite strips was restored. But, I was told that everybody has been changed over to the GlucoRx strips & meters!

If the articles I read are true, is the NHS REALLY saving money in the long run with such inaccurate meters & strups?

I take a reasonably pragmatic view to meter accuracy - possibly because when I began monitoring my BG I was wiping blood off the strip with cotton wool after a minute, waiting another minute and trying to match colours on the side of a pot (which was a HUGE step forward and involved the 'BM sticks' many HCPs still refer to BG strips as).

If my BG is 5 and my meter reads 7, I won't do much different, so I don't really care. If it reads consistently out by the same amount in the same direction, I'm not sure I could really say that would translate to measureable difference in outcomes over 10 or 20 years. If it reads 12 and I'm actually 14, I would still use insulin to correct. The time when it's more troublesome is if there are large inaccuracies at low levels which are potentially problematic.

I have used meters over the years which had quite significant strip-to-strip variation every so often. And if I saw a number that I didn't 'like' I sometimes re-checked to see if I could get one I preferred 😛

These days I use a Contour Nextlink (that links to my pump) which is so rock solid that I don't have that option.

The ground rules for BG checks have always been the same for me. If a result doesn't match how you are feeling, recheck it. And try to do your best to wash hands etc or whatever the meter blurb suggests. And always bear in mind that these are helpful guides but they are not going to be 100% accurate all the time, so worry less about the small variations and establish your own 'those numbers are more or less the same' ranges of results.

Tbh it would probably help if meters gave 'ish' results rather than decimal places.

 

[Vince_UK]

I have ordered a Contour Next One off Amazon, should be there when I get back just to see how that one stands up.
Agree @everydayupsanddowns and "ish" result would be far more useful the decimal points give an indiaction of accuracy when in fact it can be misleading.