So last night after returning from work My pump gave a "no delivery" alarm. I tested on my one touch mini and it said my sugar was at 546. When I checked my pump I noticed I needed to change the res. and site anyways so I injected with 6 units of insulin which should have brought me significantly closer to my ideal sugar lvl. I showered and changed my pump. I then re-tested on my back up tester, Contour Next (I was out of strips for the Mini). It said that my level was over 600. This was nearly an hour after the 546 reading and injecting the meds. Before giving myself more insulin, I found my box of test strips for the mini and tested again. With the mini it said my sugar was at 242. So I checked on the Contour again and it still said it was over 600. The contour is a brand new meter (got it from the docs office 5 days ago.)
Not sure how much I trust the Contour since I have used One Touch machines for the last 13 years and have loved them, but my insurance no longer covers One Touch strips and for some reason they seem to be the most expensive.
1. Were any of the vials of strips expired? 2. Did you test any of the meters with the control solution?
3. Were your hands clean? (After a shower doesn't count--even when I'm fresh out of the shower, my BG is always a little higher than it should be because my shampoo apparently stays on my fingertips.)
Personally, I've had very bad luck with the OneTouch meters and much better luck with the Accu-Chek nano. I've never tried the Contour meters. But YDMV, and I know people who've had exactly the opposite experience.
I ended up testing with a 3rd meter. My one touch Ultra. It was within 5mg/dl from the Mini. I then tested with an Accu-check which was within 15 mg/dl from my Onetouch mini. I tested with the control on the Contour and it is still way off. Like 65-100mg/dl
Do you take your meters to the lab with you? My Freestyle Lite is always 3 - 4% higher than the lab value. So I know I can trust it. The next time you have labs drawn take the meters with you and test and then compare.
Sorry, I know this doesn't help you now, but for the future, you will know which one to trust.
Personally for me, if I was super high from a lack of insulin delivery, I would be freaking out if my blood sugar dropped by 300 mg/dl in an hour. That is a HUGE drop. Had you really dropped that much in such a short time?
I find when I go a few hours without insulin it takes forever (many hours) for my blood sugar to come back down, even with an injection.
If you think your Contour meter is off, and especially if the control solution is not within the range on the bottle, you should probably call the company and get it exchanged for a new meter.
It usually only takes me 20 minutes to drop 100 mg/dl. With my body type and metabolism, it doesn't take much. When i was in poor control, I would test before my doctors appointments and inject medication so that when they tested me I would be in an ok range, Usually less than an hour my meter would read "High" and by the time the doc would test me it was under 200. I spoke to the customer service and they said they are going to replace the meter.
Woah! Talk about confusing! I don't use a pump and don't think I have had quite the same experience although I did have some bad luck with the Nano. Opposite to "guitarnut", I went through 3 Nanos that kept spitting out errors like E1, or E4 and all three would do that like 6 times in a row which caused me to waste 6 test strips. Then my coverage wasn't going to cover the Accu-Check stuff anymore so I switched to One Touch Ultra2 and so far, no issues at all. My coverage also covers 300 a month now so I can test 8 to 10 a day without concern. In the past, super high BGs (like 300 range) does take some time for it to come down. Never used the Contour or mini and in the past, if I ran into super high BG it was due to something like the expiration dates on insulin or strips. There is always a possibility of a bad bottle (contaminated or something maybe).
