I noticed that too with regards to getting strips. I get them from American Wholesale Diabetes (Very good and reliable)and you can also buy them on Amazon - many vendors sell them through Amazon and Amazon also sells some directly. Free shipping if they ship direct from Amazon - but they are out more frequently because they are trusted more than a couple of those vendors…
You should not assume anything regarding the accuracy of your meter. The next time you go to the doctor and have labs run, have them do a comparison between your meter and the lab result.
I like ADW as well. I did end up originally purchasing the meter elsewhere because it was free with the purchase of 100 strips. At this point I need to come up with some cash to get another 50-100 Keynote strips (and 50 Presto) to be able to compare the two meters heads-up.
I actually did a blog series on my meter tests a couple of months ago. The only things I didn’t get to were a set of cold-finger tests and a set of contaminant tests…
I would LOVE to have one of these meters. I’m having a problem getting my CGM calibrated accurately, because I can’t find a meter that’s accurate enough.
Everything is so expensive and my student health insurance won’t cover this.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate how little health insurance can cover. Luckily, they were able to sell the strips at an affordable price.
I’ll get in touch with you on how I can get you some samples. I’ll be curious to hear what your CGM experience with the WaveSense Presto will be like!
Hey tmana, could you please share the link with us? We’d LOVE to check it out. (I might have already!)
I sure am glad I found this site! Thanks for the information, I went and did the comparison and it was very accurate. My doctor has yet to refer me to a specialist, should I be concerned about that, or do family physicians handle diabetes too?
Hi Chris -
The Accucheck Aviva is a very accurate meter.
How is your A1c and are you having any particular issues like going very high after meals or high fasting blood sugars? My experience with diabetes and going to support groups is that many family doctors don’t understand diabetes and to be fair to them, they have to know a lot about many aspects of health care.
A diabetologist, endocrinologist (especially good), or a Nurse Practitioner who specializes in diabetes will be a better choice. They are up on the latest drugs, meters, etc.
What part of the country do you live in?
I think a lot depends on the individual doctor(s) and CDE (Certified Diabetes Educators)… not all of them are as up-to-date on diabetes care as we would hope, and not all of them are sensitive to the many different medical issues lumped into the category “diabetes” (and the different ways each needs to be treated). A lot more depends on how much research you are willing to do, and how active an advocate you are willing to be regarding your own health. Hooking into communities such as TuDiabetes, and subscribing to some of the main diabetes-related news feeds, are good ways to learn the hot topics, consider how they may (or may not) apply to you, and discuss the applicable topics with your health care team.
The last post in the series was Meter Review – Some Questions on Accuracy , posted October 11, 2008. In the comments, I have links to the previous posts in that series.
I was honestly hopiing you would tell me it was reading high for me. I am very high after a meal and my fasting blood sugars are high too, around 140 in the mornings. This is all new to me, and I hhate to admit this, but I am sometimes ashamed and afraid to ask questions. I feel like this is all my fault, being a big man who has made some poor eating and lifestyle choices. I’ve never been a smoker or a drinker, but I have been big all my life and have an eating disorder. I am happy to be able to ask questions here before going to the doctor, I am somewhat intimidated my medical professionals. My doctor is great, but he’s very by the book and very upity. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
First… none of us has been perfect all our lives. Even so, there are people on this board who have Type 2 diabetes and have never been overweight in their lives.
Second… those of us who have done best with our long-term management have used diabetes to improve our diets and lifestyles… it’s taken each of us time to figure out what works best for each of us. (There’s no one universal “best” approach.)
Third… I think there is a relationship between eating orders and Type 2 diabetes. Especially if you started disordered eating in your teens or earlier. This is separate from any genetic or ethnic risks you may have.
Fourth… changes to one’s numbers do not happen overnight. Even if you have been given medications to take, it can take a couple of months of both diet and medication before you see much change. Remember that our numbers are diagnostic, not punitive. I’m one of the stricter T2s here in that I do see a high (for me) number as diagnostic of “having screwed up on that meal/whatever”… but most folk here (especially the T1s) have spot blood glucose numbers that can change drastically without warning, and not always related to what one has eaten.
Fifth… we are here to support each other. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Also, see if you can find a Certified Diabetes Educator or a local diabetes support group. CDEs are usually nutritionists or nurses who have specialized training in treating diabetes. They can’t prescribe medications, but they can advise you on dietary and lifestyle changes, nutritional supplements, and other questions of self-care.
I have found huge variations in the FreeStyle Lite versus the One Touch Mini. I was given the FreeStyle by my endo, but later learned my insurance wouldn’t cover the strips. I like the FreeStyle better because it uses less blood and is easier to manage–I get a lot of ‘error 5’ messages with the One Touch because if you don’t fill up the blood strip on the first try, you have to throw it away and start again.
But I’ve also noticed that the One Touch is consistently LOWER than the FreeStyle: for example, 91 with OneTouch, 101 with FreeStyle; usually anywhere from 6-10 points different, but once it was actually 77 with OneTouch and106 with FreeStyle! So now I wonder how accurate ANY of these results really are. Has anyone heard anything about the accuracy of the OneTouch and/or FreeStyle as compared to laboratory testing?
I should be getting my lab results back in the next few days (doc ran all of the various antibody tests), so I can give you one piece of anecdotal evidence then in re: Freestyle Lite. Personally, I think it’ll be higher, but that’s just because sometimes I want to take a hammer to the silly thing!
My Freestyle Lite also runs higher than my Freestyle Flash and my One Touch monitors. It does not run as high as the Keynote, though. I’ll have another set of data points in about a week, when I get lab results back from tomorrow’s doctor’s appointment.
Freestyle was 136, actual was 126.
I too would like to try the Presto…
You can contact me at paul.r.andre at gmail.com
Dear Dov.
8% error not that good. I had an Ascentia 10 years ago that was always 5% below the lab. Good job keep on reporting. If you can do 3 tests with the meter at the same time as the blood sample is drawn. Prick finger 3 times to avoid blood drying which may affect the results.
Dear Holger. I have read the accucheck aviva strips instruction and the said they were calibrated to the blood plasma glucose concentration to make them similar to the lab results. I think the real problem is the idiotically short measurement time of 5 seconds. The device has to start at the right time and integrate the DC current generated by the electrochemical reaction between the enzymes and the glucose. They use an AC current to tell the meter when to start counting. If the device makes a 1/2 second error this mucks things by 10%. This was not a problem when the measurement time was 60 seconds. The Bayer Ascentia 60 seconds one I had ten years ago, if you took the average of 3 readings at the same time as the blood sample was always 5 % below the lab result. Also the precision was much better as readings taken at the same time where within a few percent.