Optium xceed error messages

[wsmum]

Hello all. I wonder if anyone else using the Optium xceed meter has experienced the same problems as my son? We are on hols in the Lake District at the moment, lovely walking in the hills
BUT having real problems with his meters - both of them. Yesterday he felt very low so he did a test and it came out 'error 4', four times!!! (Will be putting in for some more strips a bit sooner than expected ...). Error 4, according to the manual, means bg too high to read!!! We decided to ignore it and fed him with Kendal Mint Cake. He started to feel much better after a rest. He's cut his Lantus and his ratios to ward off hypos, but I guess all this walking is making things tricky. When we got back to our holiday house, we tried with the spare meter. First test, error 4 again!! Next test, 8.1. Bedtime test also worked OK. I wonder if it could be the new test strips? You don't have to calibrate them any more. We never had this problem before and he's not changed his technique in any way. I will call Abbott when we get home, but it's a bit of a worry while we're away (3 more days). Thanks everyone!

 

[Cheryl]

Just an idea, but could it have been the weather (cold, humidity) affecting either the meter or the strips? Especially if the meter was behaving itself a few hours after getting back indoors. When I ski, I always keep my meter in an inside pocket to keep it warm.

Re walking, if I go hiking, I reduce my basal rate by 50% & also the bolus doses that I have with meals immediately before or during the walk (easier to do on a pump, but manageable on MDI). It always amazes me how much energy one uses just walking. A 1 hour walk at average pace on the flat uses about 20 grammes of carb, so imagine how much more a Lake District hike will use!

 

[wsmum]

thanks Cheryl. I did wonder about the weather, but as the back up meter, which was at home, suffered the same issue my feeling is that it could be the strips ... Interesting about a one hour walk! That really makes me think he needs to cut the novorapid even more than he has been doing. Do you cut your bolus by 50% in a similar situation? William only changed his lunchtime ratio from 1:20 to 1:25 which was obviously nowhere near enough. Today we might try 1:40 and see how it goes, but having dodgy meters makes it a bit difficult to check ... Having said that, it's pouring with rain right now and he's still asleep so we might not be doing a big fell today.

 

[Cheryl]

My most recent walk was 8 miles on flatish fell, but leots of boulder hopping in places. We started after lunch, I reduced my basal on the pump by 50% from one hour before the walk until approximately 1 hour before the end and also reduced my lunchtime bolus by half as well. I ate an apple & 2 satsumas on the walk & gave myself just half a unit of insulin. It's easy to do this sort of thing onthe pump, but much harder on MDI, I remember well.

Have a look at this link:

http://www.diabetesnet.com/node/237

Scroll doen to the table, it gives you some idea of the amount of arbs needed for an hour of different exericses. I'm about 150lb, so can be expetced to burn 22 grammes of carb per hour on a 3mph walk, significantly more if it's more strenuous & gets me out of breath at all as normal walking at 3mph wouldn't.

A good plan is to look at the walk, length/estimated time & difficulty, estimate the amount of carbs that your son will use then reduce the pre-meal bolus by an amount which will equate to half those carbs using his usual ratios and add extra fast acting carbs every half hour or so to add up to the total carb expenditure over the whole walk. This assumes that you start the walk within a couple of hours of eating, otherwise he'll be sky high.

I am half way through my first pack of freestyle optium strips (without calibration) and have nad no error messages so far, but I'l know to look out for it now. A call to Abbott has to be the right thing to do.

 

[wsmum]

That table is interesting! Thanks for the link. Today was much more successful. William used 50% of his usual ratio for the picnic lunch (bg was 5.5 just before we ate) and had some choc covered kendal mint cake or some fruit cake for the regular snacks. He did feel a little high towards the end of the walk (6 miles, quite strenous ups and downs) and when he tested in the pub at the end he was 9.1, but he was pretty happy with that really as the crashing low yesterday was hard to handle and left him exhausted. Thanks for all the tips - they helped a lot. Thankfully the back up meter has been behaving today.

 

[wsmum]

Thought I'd follow up on this thread by letting you know what Abbott said when I rang them. They were very helpful and said that Error 4 was usually something to do with the calibration, and that recalibrating might sort them out. But to be on the safe side they're sending us 2 new meters and some control solution, and we'll return the current ones. He has had a few Error 4 messages since, so I think new meters will be good for confidence! I have also downloaded some software from Abbott and have a cable that we can link to the computer, which will be interesting for spotting patterns.