Your meter and thoughts - Page 2

Breeze 2 User · 02-12-2010, 02:25

My Dr. hooked me up with the Breeze 2. It uses a thin aluminum foil disk which contains 10 test strips. Regular price at Walmart was $119.92.. my cost was $20.52.

I can't give you a review on the meter and lancets because I've just become new to the diabetes scene.. but so far the Breeze 2 seems to do more than I had anticipated.

Breeze 2 User

ett · 02-16-2010, 18:38

When I was first Dx'd as type 2. I was given a Bayer Contour meter.
I was generally happy with the meter. BUT every once in a while I would get a REALLY REALLY abnormal reading. Like 40 points too high. I would immediately take a few more readings within the same minute (and often from the same drop of blood); and they would all be where I expected my BG to be.
So about 3 months later; I started looking for the most accurate meter available.
I tried every meter I could get my hands on. ie. another Bayer Contour, a ReliOn, an Accucheck Aviva, Lifescan Ultra, Lifescan mini, etc ...
They are all just as accurate as the Bayer.
Except for the Aviva. That meter was just crap. 1/2 of the test strips failed for various reasons, and one of the buttons broke by getting stuck in the "pushed-in" position.

So in the end I stayed with the Bayer Contour. Simply because it allows readings to be marked pre-meal, post-meal, or specially noted. And allowed me to choose my own high and low settings. And As opposed to being forced to use the ADA's questionable highs and low readings.

I like the BG aims that my endo said to use. Which was 100 +/- 20 all the time.
That's easier to aim for than than "less than 140 after a meal, above 70 pre-meal," etc ...
So that's how I set my Bayer Contour.

--ET

Shanny · 02-16-2010, 19:31

Smart doc, your endo! I like that too . . . 100 ± 20 all the time. And I'm to where I could just about accomplish it too! heheh. Mind if I adopt it myself?!

Thanks, ET!

ett · 02-16-2010, 20:18

Absolutely you can use those aims.
I encourage everyone to give them a try.

Amusing story about those aims.
They are what my endo told me when he diagnosed me in the hospital.
Two weeks later at the family clinic for my first follow-up. My regular doc started spewing me the same aims except in a fashion more similar to the ADA's aims. ie "between 100 and 120 2-hours after a meal, etc.."
I stopped her and said "Don't you mean 100 give or take 20 ?"
She said "Why yes; I never thought of it like that."

--ET

ett · 02-17-2010, 02:40

Here's a perfect example of REALLY REALLY abnormal readings I get from my Bayer Contour meter. (I've also experienced similar readings from other meters.)
Tonight I had a can of beans along with my salad for dinner. So I expected to have readings a little higher than my normal of ~90.
BUT when I took a reading 2-hours after dinner I got 117.
That was much higher than I expected. So Immediately took another reading from the same drop of blood. That reading was 126.
That was even higher. So I took a third reading from the same drop of blood. Even higher yet; 147 !
SO I took yet a fourth reading from the same drop of blood. It was 114.

How in the world are we suppose to believe these meters ?? !!

--ET

Richard157 · 02-17-2010, 03:24

Those numbers are actually not so much out of line. I have experienced similar results when I did repeated testing. The average of your four numbers is 126. Your highest number is 21 points above the average and your lowest number is 12 points below the average. Even the best meters can be as much as 20% different from the "true" BG number. Your numbers seem to satisfy that.

I read something interesting on one of the diabetes websites in 2009. It said that the labs where our blood is tested have much more sophisticated equiptment for measuring our BG's. If a meter for home use was designed to give us the same degree of accuracy they would be very, very expensive. You would not be getting them free by calling the company or replying to an ad online. You would have to buy your meter and most of us could not afford one. So they make cheap meters that do not have as much accuracy. We can afford them and even get them free, but we have to put up with the results like you had today. My Free Style meter and even my Relion meter from Walmart have very little variation most of the time. Occasionally there is a larger variation.