I’m curious if anyone here uses the Free Style meter? I was on the One Touch Ultra for 3 years with near perfect blood sugar until my insurance company made a switch. Now I’m all over the place.
Funny thing is, sometimes I find that my Free Style meter is wrong! . At one point I got a read of 400 from the Free Style and when I checked my sugar with the One Touch, it popped out 250.
Anyone ever experience this??
I switched from Accu Chek to Freestyle (and though my insurance didn’t automatically cover it, it wasn’t hard to get them to cover the strips, it just took a phone call, so if you really miss your One Touch, it’s probably worth a try). I’ve been generally happy with it, but if I ever get a result that seems odd, I wash my hands well and retest.
When above 250, expect that comparing results between meters will be impossible. Compare results when you are in the 90-130 zone. Then see what they do.
Same thing holds down in the 40-60 range.
I’ve been using a Freestyle since 2003, I’m on my third meter (third because the company sent me a new one after I did their survey on what meter I was using, was using their older model so they upgraded me for free including a month supply of strips and lancets plus an extra battery) - never had an issue with any of mine to date.
I’m using the Freestyle meter in my PDM, and i’ve noticed that i get odd results sometimes too…
Like the other day, i was 340, and it said i was 460… just got an alcohol swab and cleaned off the site and tried again and it came out a lot more reasonable. It seems to be a bit more sensitive to food that might be on the site.
My daughter has just switched to the Free Style meter which is part of her OmniPod. She had a very strange reading today. This afternoon she had a reading of 320 on the FreeStyle. The reading didn’t make any sense and she retook the reading on the PDM and on her One Touch and both read 180. I did test the Free Style with control solution and it was fine. This was the first time that she had experienced a wacky reading.
I have used the Freestyle meter for a long time…I think almost 9 years. On a few occasions I have gotten wacky readings that didn’t seem to make sense, that those times were few and far between. I called the company and complained when it did happen. If you have a model that uses coding, if the code is wrong that can sometimes cause problems. Now that I have the CGM, I do think it lines up pretty well. I have tried other models over the years, but really like lots of features of the freestyle and keep going back to it.
I’m a Free Style Meter user. I like the manufacturer’s 24/7 customer service. I haven’t experienced any problems other than I can’t down load info from my meter 'cause I’m a Mac computer user. Most important, the test stripts are affordable under my medical plan: One month supply of 150 for $15.
I am also now on the omnipod. I have had 3 stange readings. When I immediately retested it was as follows: Sleep time - 399 - retested 73. Had I just bolused for this and gone back to sleep this could have turned into an emergency. Another time post dinner said 184, my dex was much lower, I retested and it was 138. The last time it was sleep time 385, retested 157.
I have called Insulet and they recommended that I take out one battery for 30 seconds and reinsert it. She said that “resets the meter”. I did this. If I continue to have issues I can call back for a replacement PDM. The problem with that is I will have to reinsert all of my custom bg tags, custom carbs, etc.
I called Freestyle and told them I did not have another meter to check the test against, and they sent me a freestyle freedom to keep at the cabin.
Always retest if you are unsure regarding the reading. {I had to do this with the one touch meters on occasion as well}.
I used a Freestyle, then Freestyle Lite for a awhile. CVS doesn’t cover Freestyle strips so I switched to the Accucheck Aviva. With the Freestyle, I really had to make sure my testing sites were clean, or not obviously dirty at least. It seemed to be particulary sensitive to things like that. I checked the Freestyle against lab numbers, with blood from the needle and a finger stick and all the numbers seemed to be within 5 - 10% of each other. I checked my Aviva against my Freestyle and a finger stick at the same time I had my labs run and those numbers seemed to be withn 5 - 20% of each other. I didn’t notice any obvious trends in the small number of comparisons I did.
Same thing happened to me. My insurance covered One Touch. The One Touch meter is, as Bret Michaels says, about the size of a brick. I went back to Freestyle Flash. Strips cost a little more in the co-pay, but worth it. (Of course this was before I got the Freestyle Navigator CGM, which has a receiver about the size of the One Touch. It’s a game of give-and-take.)