I just spoke with customer service. My PDM was giving false blood sugar readings. I realized that it had a problem when it gave me readings of 280 twice when I was really approx. 160. Ten minutes after I entered the reading in my Dexcom, which was stable and showed 130, my Dexcom showed double arrow down. After that, I dug out a different meter for comparison when my BG didn't seen quite right. My PDM is off all of a sudden.
Customer Service said that Freestyle Lite test strips have never been approved (2 years on omnipod that is all I have ever used with it). She said that those strips give false lows. I should be using Freestyle (not lite). She said that many doctors don't realize....mine included.
Yeah, this topic has been discussed a lot here and on other forums like facebook. Some people claim to use the Lite strips all the time without issue, but I've specifically asked several different representatives of insulet (local sales rep, CDE trainer, customer service) and they've always maintained the same position: do NOT use the Lite strips. My understanding is that the Lite strips are designed differently, the chemistry in them is different. I don't know why some people insist on saying it's OK to use them. Are they cheaper or something?
I was told "unofficially" by both an Omnipod rep and an Abbott rep who were at tables across from each other at an un-named conference . . . that the strips come off the same manufacturing line into two differently labeled boxes and there is absolutely nothing different about them. I was also told that the only reason they still market both of them is so that they get more shelf space. Who knows if that's true but that's what they told me.
I've set my meter in my PDM to "17" even though the strip bottle shows "16" and get closer readings using other bradned readers in comparison. Still not quite, but much closer in my tests. Seems the higher the BG readings are the more higher off the PDM will read. YMMV of course. Just FYI, my PDM came with a stand alone Freestyle meter. Seems to me that Insulet knows of the problem and includes the free reader now just to be safe. *shrug*
Nevada if you get some new freestyle strips, take them out of the canister and see if you can spot any difference between those and the new freestyle lites. Both are coded to 16 (even though the lites are "made for meters that don't require a code"), both appear the same on the outside, have the same butterfly and markings, both use the zipwik tabs, and if you rip them open both have the same construction internally. When the new lite strips came out, they were originally touted as being 'backwards compatible' with freedoms and flashes (two types of meters from the company that originally took the 'original freestyle' strips, and one of which is the platform off which the PDM's meter is based), but now that info is nowhere to be found on their website.
Take this info (from Natasha, myself, and others who might suggest they're compatible) with a grain of salt b/c of course there's nothing in writing from either company stating this.
Ultimately, the company's position is that the lites should only be used with lite meters, and that the normal strips should only be used w/ the others. Here is Abbott's compatibility chart.
