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New SD Codefree Meter

Thanks iHs .. I'm lucky with my strips etc on script, but many in here are not ... thanks again :clap:
 
Xyzzy, I think you're being a bit mislead on the plasma calibration thing. You SHOULDN'T divide by 1.12 on the British readings.
The statement you had from the SD referred to the time when british meters measured "whole blood" rather then plasma. Nearly ALL (as far as I know ) new british meters are now plasma calibrated (as your new SD is) Also means the 7.8 is right for your meter. My Bayer contour is 18 months old, plus whatever time it was in storage, and is still plasma calibrated. The confusion is that meters measure "whole blood", but are calibrated to plasma! I contacted Bayer on this to see if I needed to multiply by 1.12 before using the plasma converter to HbA1C and it's a firm "no"
 
Well, mine arrived this morning and it is fine for me. I just hope they keep the test strips at a reasonable price and not start pushing them up when they have established a market.

H
 
My Sd Codeless meter arrived this morning and I've given it a go along side my Accu-chek nano before and after lunch, here are my readings;

Before lunch - Accu-chek: 5.8
Sd Codeless: 5.5

1 Hr After - Accu-chek: 5.4
SD Codeless: 5.6

I'm going to try it again with the nano before and after my dinner just to make sure I'm still getting comparible numbers, but they look similar enough to me.

It's a nice little meter, as iHS mentioned, there's no back light, the diary is too small to be of any use (I'm going to keep using my Accu-chek diary), and it doesn't look quite as good as my nano, but the strips are so much cheaper, I'm happy enough to switch to this brand from now on as long as the strips stay nice and cheap :D
 
Not being smug or complacent but I picked up my prescription from the chemists yesterday and the box of Aviva test strips I'd added to the list of repeat meds was duly prescribed so no need for a cheap meter at least for the next couple of months :D
 
Posted this on the wrong thread yesterday evening, senior moment :?

A quick update on the SD meter.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the meter but for some reason I just don't like it. It maybe there is an occasional duff strip that for what ever reason wants to only give the reading 7.5! when the One Touch says low 5's but apart from that it seems to be usually within -0.3 to +0.7 of the One Touch so at its extremes it can give you a reading of 1 different. If it is your only meter I don't think it would be a problem.

I am however beginning to see why some DSN's may recommend not testing as to be honest I've now stopped and gone back to just testing with the One Touch because I think the phrase is "it was doing my head in". :crazy:

I never dreamt that simply testing with two meters that gave roughly the same results could be so stressful. At some point yesterday I had to stop myself after doing the same test 5 times. What a weird and unnerving response. It got so stressful that my fasting BG's have actually risen quite considerably.

Today rather than doing my normal routine I have only tested using the One Touch and only when I got up and before and after my main meal. I chose close to zero carb meals for breakfast and lunch. I have now hopefully unwound and had a lovely steak, peas, stilton and those really big mushrooms for dinner followed by my normal fresh fruit salad.

Good luck all.
 
Lucky you Sid!! Unfortunately, not all off us can get our strips on prescription. I'd much rather continue to use my Aviva meter as I much prefer how it looks and I trust it's readings (as far as you ever can with a home meter), but I'd only be able to afford 50 strips a month, and I'm much happier using around 100 strips as month. As as student though, even buying the strips through ebay is a little out of my league for the time being. Hopefully, I'll be able to afford the Aviva strips again eventually.

xyzzy,

I totally understand what you're saying, whenever I test with this new meter I'll always be thinking, what would my Aviva meter reading be? But if I had to replace my Aviva meter for any reason and I bought the exact same model, I doubt it would give identical readings to the previous one. There's just too much variaton between meters, even if you stick to the same brand and the same model :(

I am a bit nervous about switching to the new meter though, I'm a bit of a control freak about my numbers, and tend to freak out even about small differences! :roll:
 
Sid Bonkers said:
Not being smug or complacent but I picked up my prescription from the chemists yesterday and the box of Aviva test strips I'd added to the list of repeat meds was duly prescribed so no need for a cheap meter at least for the next couple of months :D
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Good for you Sid, I shall have to move back to West Norwood as my doctor in Lancashire has put on my records Test Strips not needed. So as a 75 year old pensioner if I want strips I either eat off my meagre pension or starve and buy strips. I have decided to eat and when I hypo hubby will call an ambulance. :thumbdown:
 
It is going to be the meter of choice for any type 2 denied test strips who cannot afford any of the others. This might even be too expensive for some. :(
There will be discrepancies noticed between any two meters of different makes. Even the most expensive ones have different readings. I have two and they vary. Best to stick with one rather than get frustrated by it.
 
Sirzy said:
I am a bit nervous about switching to the new meter though, I'm a bit of a control freak about my numbers, and tend to freak out even about small differences! :roll:
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My advice, make a snap choice and choose one or the other and then put the rejected one in a drawer somewhere and forget it. Probably an over reaction as I'm still quite new to all of this and maybe I'm not quite so in control as I thought I was...

Feeling a lot happier today even though my BG's are still a bit higher than normal.

I have given my SD and the 300 extra test strips I ordered to a deserving relative so it's no longer a temptation.
 
I think I'll do some more comparison tests with my Nano and the new meter before I'm fully convinced by the SD, but if I wanted to stick with the Aviva, I'd have to test alot less often, and I don't think I'm happy to do that yet. Hopefully I'll continue to get readings within 0.3mmols of each other, but even this small amount makes me slightly nervous. It's daft I know, 'cos a meter won't ever give a 100% accurate measurement of BG anyway :crazy:
 
On reflection what I started to find unnerving was this.

Been measuring with the One Touch day in day out since Dec 8th. Once I got my BG's down and under control I began to be able to predict quite accurately what my BG's would be within around plus or minus 0.5 ish. I could do that simply because my carb intake (not necessarily my diet) is split into roughly the same amounts each day and at each meal time. I do around 10 carbs at breakfast, close to zero at lunch then a 35-50 main meal + recently another 15 as fresh fruit salad for pud most days.

That pattern quickly broke down when measuring twice even though the two meters were never really that far apart. It was the loss of control that freaked me out not that the meters produced different BG levels I think.

I am one of those people who can't have their BP measured at the GP's without it being 180+ I have a cheap BP monitor at home that I calibrated against the nurses at the surgery to make sure it gives the right reading. So I do my own BP measurements and then tell my GP if she / he asks. When I take my BP I have to think happy peaceful thoughts and relax. I think a similar thing happened with the two meters. It's all stress related stuff.

Anyway wont be doing that again!
 
Lol, xyzzy, you sound a bit like me, needing to be in control all the time, I expect you can be a bit of a back seat driver too, I certainly am!! :lol:

I can do a similar thing with predicting what my bg will be within about 0.5mmols too, and tend to panic when they're not doing what I expect them to do. But if your two meters only differed by small amounts, how come your pattern broke down? Or was it a case of you expecting something between say 5.0 -5.5, for example, and getting a 6.0 instead? That would worry me a fair bit :( I like to stay within a very tight range, particularly in the mornings when I can't handle carbs well at all, and even the addition of 0.5gs will make a big difference to my post meal readings.

Maybe I'm just over analysing this though, it's what I usually tend to do, and then worry myself sick over it! :roll:
 
No it literally was the pattern went haywire and all over the place. At the moment (or up until a few days ago my BG's were)

Wake up 5.0 -> 6.0
11.00am 5.5 -> 6.5
1.00pm 5.0 -> 5.5
3.00pm 5.5 -> 6.0
6.00pm 4.5 -> 5.0
8.00pm 5.5 -> 6.5
10.00pm 5.0-> 5.5

all are ish and I'd got them good and steady day in day out except for a few days when I felt or was a bit ill.

They just went haywire, nothing that serious never got more than a 7.5 but they became unpredictable and higher. Honestly it was the stress of it all. My highest readings in the last few weeks have all been taken at post stress times such as driving for a meeting getting stuck and worrying about being late, that gave me over 9. Having stressful meetings usually gives readings over 7.5. According to my son its my evolutionary flight responce kicking in. You get stressed and your liver dumps glucose ready for you to make a sharp exit. Nothing you can do about it except reduce the causes of stress in your life.

It's not so much a "controlling" thing with me it's an "understanding" thing. I have to be able to logically work out what's going on and why or I have real problems so understanding /controlling diabetes is a given for me its the way I cope, big flashy spreadsheet all colour coded up etc. So I need a logical explanation as to why my BG's have risen and if I can't understand why that's when I get real tangible anxiety problems.

At the moment they're now consistent again but up around 1 on where they all were last week but so long as they don't go past 6.5 (my personal max) I'm relatively happy. I will do a quick "power" walk in the morning as that normally kicks them back down by 1 by 11.00 and then back into the 5's for the rest of the day.
 
I know what you mean, I'm very much into my colour-coded spreadsheets at the moment, and if I have an unexplained reading it bothers me for the rest of the day if I can't find a logical explanation for it.

Like this morning, I usually have a fasting reading of 4.4-4.7 if I haven't had a snack before bed, but this morning it was 5.2, the highest it's been in a long time and I'd not eaten anything different and had avoided eating anything before bed, so it's been niggling at me all day.

So do you think it was the stress of changing meters that caused your bg to radically deviate from the norm? I tried the SD with my Nano before dinner and there was a 0.5mmol difference between the two, I did a second test with them both and found the same thing, but as my partner pointed out the Nano gave a higher reading the second time around whereas the SD was the same (only 0.1mmol out). But this doesn't take into account the accuracy of either meter, the nano may be closest to my actual bg or maybe the SD is :(

I'm not sure what to do now, the strips are cheaper for the SD but if I'm constantly questioning it's readings I might just be better off cutting down on my Nano tests. Eee, diabetes is never straight forward... :?
 
Don't let it get to you. Whenever I wake up with 5.2 it's a great success d**n that DP!

One reading means nothing. Your BG's may rise for no apparent reason just because you've got some hidden bug or virus that your immune system is suppressing and destroying without you even feeling any ill effects.

Look at it the other way round if you got a one off really low reading would you worry, no you'd be celebrating! Remember any meter can also have its off moments and even if it produces consistent results that you understand it can in reality be out by + / - 0.4 ish anyway. If I get a weird one I will remeasure from a different finger on the same hand usually find that sorts it out.

I just got 4.9 for my +2 hour post main meal. Never been in the 4's at this time of day before so really happy but in reality its more likely a fluke and I'm most likely my normal 5.3 -> 5.5 but that 4.9 is definitely going on the spreadsheet!

Sounds like you're getting my double meter syndrome so do the same as I did. Make the choice, don't measure that much tomorrow and then start again with whichever one you've choose on Saturday.
 
Definately put that 4.9 on your spreadsheet and highlight it in bright pink!! :D

I know other things can effect bg other than just diet, and I know diabetes is a really unpredictable disease, so one odd reading shouldn't both me so much :?

I'm really letting this meter thing get to me now though, and I'm feeling more and more inclined to just stick with my Nano. My after dinner readings were;

Nano: 1 hr - 4.9, 2hrs - 4.9 (which seem about right for what I ate)
SD: 1 hr - 4.4, 2hrs - 4.7 (which seems slightly odd)

I also just read on another forum that Dr Bernstein recommends Accu-Chek meters to his patients as they tend to read slightly higher than most of the other meters on the market.

I'm just a bit grumpy about spending £18 on a new meter and strips which won't get used now, when I could have bought another box of Aviva strips. :x Ah well, you live and learn... :roll:
 
Hi sirzy and xyzzy

Seriously, it really doesn't matter that much that there are minor differences between the SD meter and the ones you are both using. It's not going to affect the way your control is going - your hba1c will still be the same. By all means if you can both afford to buy teststrips privately paying out approx £12-£15 for each tub of 50, then carry on doing so. I think the SD meter offers excellent value for all the people on the forum who cannot afford to pay privately and cannot get teststrips prescribed.
 
iHs said:
Hi sirzy and xyzzy

Seriously, it really doesn't matter that much that there are minor differences between the SD meter and the ones you are both using. It's not going to affect the way your control is going - your hba1c will still be the same. By all means if you can both afford to buy teststrips privately paying out approx £12-£15 for each tub of 50, then carry on doing so. I think the SD meter offers excellent value for all the people on the forum who cannot afford to pay privately and cannot get teststrips prescribed.
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No it doesn't matter about the minor differences. I said I thought the SD meter was fine if its your only meter and its great value for money.

What sirzy and I were discussing is how when assessing the SD meter measuring with two can muck with your head. In that regard it did effect my control as it stressed me out and raised my BG's which is why I've given mine away to a relative who has no meter so it will hopefully do them as much good as my meter has done for me..

Perhaps you control your BG's using a different approach that's up to you but to me testing is how I psychologically deal with things and I find it incredibly important. I fully admit I probably don't need to test the amount I do as I have good control but if at the moment I stopped then very quickly I would feel out of control regardless of whether I fundamentally knew my BG's where in all likelihood fine. Maybe in a few months but at the moment I'm only two months into being diagnosed and still trying out foods and ideas and getting my head around things.

Out of all the numbers bandied about I think HbA1c is one of the least useful. It will just tell me an average BG level over the last few weeks. It won't tell me that eating 75g of pasta spikes my BG's up to double figures after 2 hours even though after 4 hours I will be sub 6 and fine. So for 23/24ths of the day my average will be fine and therefore my average will be largely unaffected by the dangerous spike. Putting that all together if I did the same thing day in day out I could be spiking dangerously high each day but end up with a very low HbA1c.

I would love my GP prescribe or even partly subsidize test strips. I even said that to the DSN but no joy. Overall my attitude now is the test strips cost me about the same amount to run each month as I use to pay out on takeaway meals and certainly far less than when I was smoking. The healthier diet we're now on is actually saving on our monthly outgoings even after taking into consideration buying test strips so both I and my wife see it as money well spent. If I was testing and ignoring the outcomes that would be an entirely different matter and I'm sure my wife would soon be having words.

I buy test strips for my One Touch off eBay and am actually averaging around £9.50 / 50. You just have to look most days and spot the bargains.
 
xyzzy said:
Out of all the numbers bandied about I think HbA1c is one of the least useful. It will just tell me an average BG level over the last few weeks. It won't tell me that eating 75g of pasta spikes my BG's up to double figures after 2 hours even though after 4 hours I will be sub 6 and fine. So for 23/24ths of the day my average will be fine and therefore my average will be largely unaffected by the dangerous spike. Putting that all together if I did the same thing day in day out I could be spiking dangerously high each day but end up with a very low HbA1c.
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I don't get this xyzzy...

If you were spiking every day your average would be higher and so would your HbA1c.

The way I see it, every time you spike your HbA1c edges very slightly upwards. Your HbA1c is then a (weighted) measure of all your spikes over a the past few weeks. (There is obviously a contribution from your fasting BG too, which is like the baseline from where the spikes are measured).

I love HbA1c. If diabetes is a game, then HbA1c is the score.
 
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