Changing Blood Glucose Monitors

How do you know how low you are?
How do you know that the Contour One was more accurate and not the Glucomen Areo?

helensaramay said:

How do you know that the Contour One was more accurate and not the Glucomen Areo?

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I think there's a good chance the Areo is correct.

I got a Contour Next One late last year, and it reads at least 2mmol/l higher than both my Abbot Freedom Lite and Accu-Chek Performa which have been tested as correct against each other and the pharmacies test machines. The fasting blood test corresponds to the fasting test at the pathology shop also.

Tipetoo said:

I think there's a good chance the Areo is correct.

I got a Contour Next One late last year, and it reads at least 2mmol/l higher than both my Abbot Freedom Lite and Accu-Chek Performa which have been tested as correct against each other and the pharmacies test machines. The fasting blood test corresponds to the fasting test at the pathology shop also.

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This surprises me and I have to wonder if your unit was faulty, however unlikely that may be. Certainly, if one takes your 2mmol/L overestimates and applies it to my meter, then I am waking up at ~2.5mmol/L each day and never going higher than 4mmol/L at any time of day or night.

That’s not to say I’m discounting your experience, rather just adding that I don’t believe it is representative of the Next system’s accuracy on the whole.

emily deacon said:

Sorry i didn’t really explain it properly. I have a freestyle libre aswell. So at the moment i am buying spare contour strips for when my gluco men doesn’t match my libre i double check it with the contour and the contour always matches the libre. So for example my libre might say 5.3 arrow straight down, so i’ll check on my glucomen and it will say 8, so i check on my contour and it will say 4.7. Sometimes i then re check on my glucomen and it will then be like 5. I have done this several times and it proves that the glucomen is just so temperamental and i worry that if i don’t just continue to have a back up meter like my contour i won’t be able to trust what reading i actually am

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Hi Emily, my GPs changed me to this one too (against my wishes) but they said if I wanted more strips then it would have to be this new one, basically. Overall I found it gave higher results than my old one. I had two others as well so tested them all together over a few days. They all varied by up to 2 whole points, even when the same monitor was used both times one test after the other. I now just use this Areo, it's about as accurate as the others which in my view aren't as accurate as they ought to be, especially when your levels are between 4 & 6. Test at 4?, could be 2, test at 6?, could be 8. I look on it as giving me a bit of a clue with regard to a trend but it's hit and miss when I am using it to gauge how much insulin to take.

KK123 said:

Hi Emily, my GPs changed me to this one too (against my wishes) but they said if I wanted more strips then it would have to be this new one, basically. Overall I found it gave higher results than my old one. I had two others as well so tested them all together over a few days. They all varied by up to 2 whole points, even when the same monitor was used both times one test after the other. I now just use this Areo, it's about as accurate as the others which in my view aren't as accurate as they ought to be, especially when your levels are between 4 & 6. Test at 4?, could be 2, test at 6?, could be 8. I look on it as giving me a bit of a clue with regard to a trend but it's hit and miss when I am using it to gauge how much insulin to take.

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Surely if the values at 4 and 6 are in the range you state then the meter is defective as they have an accuracy of +/- 15%. Those figures are well out of this range.

Local CCG's send a list of preferred meters to the Practice Manager........your Gp is passing the buck he can continue giving you strips for your old meter, our Practice Manager tried it on with me but I printed out a copy of the local "Formulary", which you should be able to look at online, which says "those using insulin, glucose lowering drugs or are carb counting" are allowed to keep the meter of their choice........when I asked for an increase of strips and they refused I reminded them as a user of insulin I had by law to test before driving away from the house and again before I left the place I'd been and that their allowance of 4 strips a day was sorely short of what was required......I also pointed out to my GP that as I was injecting myself multiple times daily with what was for others a poison then having faith in my meter was paramount or I could end up killing myself.......and that would look bad for the practice

Bittern said:

Surely if the values at 4 and 6 are in the range you state then the meter is defective as they have an accuracy of +/- 15%. Those figures are well out of this range.

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All 3 of them?, I doubt that.

This is alarming to say the least. My GP does what my clinic says and always has done. I've never experienced anything like this. I would sat that if the contour and the libre are agreeing it does seem the one your GP is forcing you on is the dodgy one. Given the contour works with the medtronic pumps so well, that makes me even more suspicious.