SD Code Free Strips Batch no. S0318075.

[jjraak]

Ok, it is probably a stupid question.
But i'd rather ask it here as it MAY be meter related then bother others.

Am i right in thinking, that a BG of say, 5.8 pre food..AND a reading of 6.3, 2 hours after is slightly abnormal
or am i managing my carb intake particularly well.
from what i have taken in, i thought that the rise would be considerably higher, as it has been several times, though always under 2.0 mmol

( if it helps, meal was one beefburger, some lettuce leafs, perhaps 4 mushrooms thinly sliced alongside a red onion fried in olive oil.
placed on burger, on top of a small dollop of goats cheese, and a guilty splash of salsa.)

many thanks in advance for confirmation or theories.

 

[Goonergal]

I have just emailed Home Health to ask how long he wants me to continue parallel testing. I have now parallel tested seven times a day for over a week and all the readings bar two showed a higher reading with the rogue batch S0318075. The two remaining readings showed identical results.

@Rachox would you mind giving me the batch number for the Codefree strips that are behaving better than the rogue batch? Think I’d like to test Codefree vs Codefree as I suspect something is going on with me rather than the strips. Testing with strips from the same meter might be more informative than vs the Caresens which I have no history to compare with.

 

[Rachox]

@Rachox would you mind giving me the batch number for the Codefree strips that are behaving better than the rogue batch? Think I’d like to test Codefree vs Codefree as I suspect something is going on with me rather than the strips. Testing with strips from the same meter might be more informative than vs the Caresens which I have no history to compare with.

Sure, I have tested two other batches so far which were S0318099 and S0318084. Both of these have shown much more expected results for me.
I hope you’re ok x

 

[Rachox]

Ok, it is probably a stupid question.
But i'd rather ask it here as it MAY be meter related then bother others.

Am i right in thinking, that a BG of say, 5.8 pre food..AND a reading of 6.3, 2 hours after is slightly abnormal
or am i managing my carb intake particularly well.
from what i have taken in, i thought that the rise would be considerably higher, as it has been several times, though always under 2.0 mmol

( if it helps, meal was one beefburger, some lettuce leafs, perhaps 4 mushrooms thinly sliced alongside a red onion fried in olive oil.
placed on burger, on top of a small dollop of goats cheese, and a guilty splash of salsa.)

many thanks in advance for confirmation or theories.

Your numbers don’t look too bad to me. You are aiming for a rise of no more than 2mmol/l from before to after a meal but in any case no higher than 8.5. Oh and be careful of the salsa, did you check the carb count?

 

[Bluetit1802]

All my readings have been getting higher but at my annual revue my practice nurse said my HbA1c was 'fine, normal'. She refused to give me a result as she was too busy tearing strips off me for testing in the first place and for eating low carb!

Your nurse has no right to refuse to give you your result. You are entitled to have a print out of the test results, which will also include your cholesterol and anything else included in the test. It is important you see these results in black and white. What is "fine" or "normal" to your nurse may not be as fine or normal as you would like to be. You could be teetering on the edge of not being fine, and you need to know. I suggest you contact the surgery and ask the receptionist for a print out. Knowledge is power!

 

[xfieldok]

They have sent me 5 tubs and asked me to test along side the bad batch. I will post batch numbers in the next few days when I have a bit of data.

 

[DCUKMod]

I've been a Codefree user for virtually 5 years now, and I'm about to order some more strips.

Like others, I had an issue a few years ago that they dealt with very professionally and sympathetically. The conclusion was the contingent may have become very cold in transit, but who knows.

When I think of the cash I have saved using the Codefree, versus the iBGStar I started out with, I can swallow some dodgy strips once in a while.

Of course, it's annoying at the time, but HomeHealth are so open and easy to deal with and genuinely want to do the right thing. That goes some way for me.

Just to add, I have no relationship with the business or owners if HomeHealth, except for as a long term customer.

 

[Rachox]

I've been a Codefree user for virtually 5 years now, and I'm about to order some more strips.

Like others, I had an issue a few years ago that they dealt with very professionally and sympathetically. The conclusion was the contingent may have become very cold in transit, but who knows.

When I think of the cash I have saved using the Codefree, versus the iBGStar I started out with, I can swallow some dodgy strips once in a while.

Of course, it's annoying at the time, but HomeHealth are so open and easy to deal with and genuinely want to do the right thing. That goes some way for me.

Just to add, I have no relationship with the business or owners if HomeHealth, except for as a long term customer.

I agree they are dealing with this in a fair and professional way and I do love good customer service. However it seems, aside from this definitely dodgy batch, I am getting more and more unexpected results with the odd strip in all batches that make me feel the need to retest. This kind of defeats the object of saving money by using cheap strips if I end up using more of them

 

[Goonergal]

Sure, I have tested two other batches so far which were S0318099 and S0318084. Both of these have shown much more expected results for me.
I hope you’re ok x

Thanks. Will call and see if I can order specific batches. Something odd is going on. My numbers are way higher than normal and the Caresens is even higher than the rogue Codefree batch. Last week readings were a bit off, but then so was I! However, the past 3 days I have eaten the grand total of 4 meals and 35g carbs (decreasing daily, 5.6g yesterday) yet I’m seeing numbers at all times of day that just don’t fit the pattern across a whole year. Unless it’s something to do with my fall (still quite badly bruised), I’m stumped so want to test Codefree vs Codefree before starting to get too worried!

Tend to agree with @DCUKMod re the price of these strips and general reliability. Only the Tee2 would be a possible replacement given the very high cost of other brands.

Will let you know how I get on.

 

[DCUKMod]

I agree they are dealing with this in a fair and professional way and I do love good customer service. However it seems, aside from this definitely dodgy batch, I am getting more and more unexpected results with the odd strip in all batches that make me feel the need to retest. This kind of defeats the object of saving money by using cheap strips if I end up using more of them

Rachox, we all have to do what we feel most comfortable with, but if I've had a slightly dodgy batch or few strips, it makes me question more than I usually would do.

I hope you can find something you can settle with.

 

[Rachox]

Rachox, we all have to do what we feel most comfortable with, but if I've had a slightly dodgy batch or few strips, it makes me question more than I usually would do.

I hope you can find something you can settle with.

That’s the thing I’m not sure what I’m most comfortable with at the moment!

 

[Oldvatr]

Well that's quite interesting because on the Codefree, unless fasting, I'm usually between 5 and 6 but then my HbA1c comes out at 27 mmol/m which would imply lower average blood glucose levels mid 4's to 5's. Knock 0.5 mmol/l of my Codefree scores and voila! All explained..

My experience is this too. SD has continually and fairly consistently read at leasr 0,8 higher than any meter I compare to over the last 3 years of parallel testing. It has only twice ever read lower than another meter in this period, and those were shown to be misreads. I do get differences of up to 4 mmol/l due to the SD misreading, and often one meter says don't drive, where the SD says No worries mate.

Worse still is when my body AND my other meter agree on a hypo, but SD does not.

One trick my SD does occasionally is to lose the plot completely, and give a result TWICE the repeating result i.e. 18 instead of a 9 on subsequent retests. These are obvious to spot since I rarely have a chinese takeaway nowadays.

My SD is now not only losing track of the date, but also the time, and my 3 daily tests now can cease to be in chronological order. I may also be suffering memory shuffle/ scramble since sometimes it throws in a wobbler that does not tally with the other meter, but also one difference I would have picked up at the time as being an obvious misread. My Caresense currently seems to be behaving quite well, but then i may be fooling myself.

I suspect that SD are using cheap flash memory that is write cycle lifetime limited, and are not remapping failed locations in the device. Repeated overwriting such as in a timer would quickly use up the memory lifetime, thus trashing it.

 

[DCUKMod]

My experience is this too. SD has continually and fairly consistently read at leasr 0,8 higher than any meter I compare to over the last 3 years of parallel testing. It has only twice ever read lower than another meter in this period, and those were shown to be misreads. I do get differences of up to 4 mmol/l due to the SD misreading, and often one meter says don't drive, where the SD says No worries mate.

Worse still is when my body AND my other meter agree on a hypo, but SD does not.

One trick my SD does occasionally is to lose the plot completely, and give a result TWICE the repeating result i.e. 18 instead of a 9 on subsequent retests. These are obvious to spot since I rarely have a chinese takeaway nowadays.

My SD is now not only losing track of the date, but also the time, and my 3 daily tests now can cease to be in chronological order. I may also be suffering memory shuffle/ scramble since sometimes it throws in a wobbler that does not tally with the other meter, but also one difference I would have picked up at the time as being an obvious misread. My Caresense currently seems to be behaving quite well, but then i may be fooling myself.

I suspect that SD are using cheap flash memory that is write cycle lifetime limited, and are not remapping failed locations in the device. Repeated overwriting such as in a timer would quickly use up the memory lifetime, thus trashing it.

I have never had a result appear to double, but I have had the meter lose track of the date, although not jummbling things up. It just "goes slow", like a mechanical watch might.

As I am not, and never have taken medication for my diabetes, I don't test before driving, although if I felt rough, forr wahatever reason, I wouldn't be getting behind the wheel of a car.

 

[Oldvatr]

Ok, it is probably a stupid question.
But i'd rather ask it here as it MAY be meter related then bother others.

Am i right in thinking, that a BG of say, 5.8 pre food..AND a reading of 6.3, 2 hours after is slightly abnormal
or am i managing my carb intake particularly well.
from what i have taken in, i thought that the rise would be considerably higher, as it has been several times, though always under 2.0 mmol

( if it helps, meal was one beefburger, some lettuce leafs, perhaps 4 mushrooms thinly sliced alongside a red onion fried in olive oil.
placed on burger, on top of a small dollop of goats cheese, and a guilty splash of salsa.)

many thanks in advance for confirmation or theories.

Beware the beefburger. I have fallen foul of this sometimes, and had similar problem with faggots. This product can be hiding hidden sugars in forms that the bgl meter is sensitive to - especially Malitol. These additives do not push up the 'of which sugars' on the label since the label only declares sucrose sugar and ignores all others like the sugar alcohols and also dextrose, maltose fructose HFCS etc,

I find that certain supermarkets tend to stock the 'popular' brands that contain most sugar, so I always test a new brand with my meter for future reference. Remember that these brands become more popular the more sugar they contain it seems, Fishfingers and fishcakes are also a minefield as are baked beans


BTT the Codefree may be more sensitive to the sugar derivatives such as Malitol which is a well known contaminant that certain sensing technologies are apt to react to. The ISO standard has been updated recently to add a test for malitol insensitivity.

But the SD from what I remember uses something like the 2012 version for their licence and may not meet the new EU requirements. This may be why the SD is not recognised by the NHS CCG tests and did not get a lookin even though they qualify on meeting their price range completely. The NHS review rejected the SD for NHS use for not meeting the ISO (2015) requirements,

 

[xfieldok]

@Oldvatr have you tried changing the battery?

 

[DCUKMod]

That’s the thing I’m not sure what I’m most comfortable with at the moment!

I get that.

I've just ordered, but only 5 tubs for now. There's no percentage discount incentive to order 10 tubs, against 5, so I usually just got for 5 tubs at a time, unless I'm going away out of delivery range.

Like everyone else, I'll have my fingers crossed for an excellent batch.

 

[PenguinMum]

I am interested in this because I will need to order Codefree strips soon. However I think its better if the dodgy ones are measuring higher rather than lower. Surely that is more likely to keep us keener in controlling carbs. Some should be surprised with a better HbA1c than expected or have I got this all wrong?

 

[bulkbiker]

I am interested in this because I will need to order Codefree strips soon. However I think its better if the dodgy ones are measuring higher rather than lower. Surely that is more likely to keep us keener in controlling carbs. Some should be surprised with a better HbA1c than expected or have I got this all wrong?

No you are quite correct but for me for example keeping a fairly detailed record of blood sugars I"m going to have about 5 months of higher than usual numbers down to the strips being inaccurate.. which is a bit annoying and unnecessary...I'll have to note when I started and finished using this batch and as I just bought 500 strips as usual.......

 

[Smallbrit]

I am interested in this because I will need to order Codefree strips soon. However I think its better if the dodgy ones are measuring higher rather than lower. Surely that is more likely to keep us keener in controlling carbs. Some should be surprised with a better HbA1c than expected or have I got this all wrong?

I'm hoping you're right on the HBA1C, as I'm awaiting my results next week, and I've been using the strips in question for the last month or whenever I noticed. They are showing the same kind of readings that I had when I had a result of 48 at the beginning of the year, which is predominantly in the high 6s and 7s with the occasional astronomical blip on days I've been bad.

So I've got my fingers crossed that they are reading a little bit higher than normal, because there have been a lot more days of extremely low carb for me in the past three months than there were at the beginning of this year. And I had recently been having some readings in the high 5s on non-rogue strips.

 

[Pipp]

Your nurse has no right to refuse to give you your result. You are entitled to have a print out of the test results, which will also include your cholesterol and anything else included in the test. It is important you see these results in black and white. What is "fine" or "normal" to your nurse may not be as fine or normal as you would like to be. You could be teetering on the edge of not being fine, and you need to know. I suggest you contact the surgery and ask the receptionist for a print out. Knowledge is power!

I would add that if you register for Patient Access to your medical notes you will be able to view your test results online. A few months ago a new nurse told me my HbA1c of 52 was 'excellent control'. As it was 15 points higher than my usual average I disagreed. By being able to view my online record I no longer need to see a nurse for results. Though I would make an appointment if there was any cause for concern on the results. It frees me from patronising advice, and leaves an appointment slot for some other poor soul who may need it.


Edit: sorry for derail. I'll have a word with myself.