I’m getting my Dexcom 7+Plus system this week. And currently I’m using the OneTouch Ultra for my BS readings. Currently I check about 6 to 7 times a day. I’m wondering what Meters everyone is using for the Dexcom calibrations. What meters seem to give more accurate info and ones that seem to be far off from what you’re getting on the Dex.
Jimmy, when the meter disagrees with Dexcom-- the METER is right, and the Dexcom is wrong. Unless you’re doing your fingersticks improperly.
Always wash your hands and scrub hard first, eliminating dirt, germs, and any possible “sugary” contaminants. Dry with a fresh towel, or a fresh corner of a partly used towel. Again, scrubbing hard. Alcohol is not necessary if you’re in a place where you can scrub properly; but in the car, scrubbing the finger with an foil-packaged alcohol pad is an OK alternative. Let it dry before doing your poke.
Multiple finger-sticks should nearly always be within just a couple of points of each other; if they’re not, or if the number you’re getting disagrees with how you feel, try an alternate meter and a DIFFERENT bottle of strips to check it.
The J&J One-Touch Ultra line is very accurate, it’s among the very best. It also supports one of the very widest ranges of testing tmperature (all the way up to 11 degrees F; many other brands stop at 105, and here in the desert, that’s a MAJOR problem.)
If you’re strips are not covered by insurance, then you might want to switch-- they’re also among the very most expensive of strips (at retail price.) But my strips are covered, and I use OneTouch Ultras too. (Usually ultra-mini, my wife thinks it looks more “sophisticated, kinda sexy”, and it IS smaller than the old ones.)
Do NOT upload meter readings via the cable. (The cable only works with the original Ultra, not the Ultra-2 or the Ultra-mini.) Even if you’ve got an ORIGINAL Ultra, and I’ve got 4 or 5 of them lying around, you should always use the Receiver menu and scroll buttons to enter bG values. Dexcom, even the 7-plus, tries to re-use too many of the old readings when you use the cable (which BTW, uploads the entire memory of the meter). Don’t confuse it with old data-- just give it the one brand new value.
The cable was 4 feet long, inconvenient to carry around and prone to loss anyway. I say, “Just throw it away.”
I also own Abbott “Precision Xtra”, but the strips don’t suck blood as good as the Ultra strips do. The main reason I have it around is for emergency Ketone testing. I also have a Freestyle Flash, but the very small blood samples don’t seem to result in the same consistency (against itself, from the same blood drop) as I get with the OneTouch meters.
I use the One Touch Ultra Link (the one that works with Minimed’s Paradigm insulin pump). I haven’t used any of my other One Touch glucometers to calibrate Dex. (My family calls me the queen of glucometers… LOL! I have many different One Touch glucometers and thankfully they all use the same blood strips.)
Have fun with Dex! He’s been a huge help for me and spotted a lot of lows I never knew I was having before. I also have been able to do some strenuous exercise since getting Dex (which is something I have NEVER done before as I was immediately banned from running in gym class after being diagnosed at age 9 in 1980 and was taught to fear many MANY forms of exercise).
I saw your comment just now…
If you’re getting Dex via Fed Ex, make sure you have someone at home to sign for it!!! I believe I had to sign for Dex but the sensors that are delivered FedEx don’t need signature release.
Congrats on your new baby, Dex!
My Wife works from home so she’ll be there to get it. I’m also wanting to see what lows I might be missing in the night. I’ve had several 2 - 3am lows in the high 40’s. Luckily it’s been when I was home. But since I travel 90% of the time I’m worried what will happen on the road. I’ve only been diagnosed since Jan 09. I think I’m in my Honeymoon phase as well. But I’m wanting to get back to working out and want to watch my BS for that as well. Thanks for the info.
I use the Freestyle Meter thats built into the OPod the seems to work well together to keep me were I need to be!
I’m using the OneTouch Ultralink which syncs with my Minimed Pump.
I don’t know how long you’ve been using CGM, but avoid falling into the endless cycle of chasing your meter readings and trying to reach the Holy Grail of perfect synchronization. it will only lead to heartache, frustration and lots of used test strips and lots of useless recalibrations.
It took me nearly a year to get comfortable with the fact that the CGM is not useful for giving me an absolute number, but it extremely useful for telling me what is happening and how my blood is reacting. Two questions it answers: 1) what direction is my BG heading? and 2) how fast? That is all. That is enough. When I take a finger stick and calculate a bolus I know how to fine tune it based on up, down, steady and fast or slow.
I am praying, praying, praying that when the new iPhone upgrade arrives, OneTouch will come up with an app that links my meter to my iPhone as they demonstrated last March.
Please, please, please, please, please, oh, please, oh, please . . .
Terry
Well I just got the Dexcom 7+ from Fed Ex yesterday. I got the Transmitter on this morning. So I’ve had a couple of hours now of readings. Don’t really feel it much. Almost forget it’s there. I’ve go the Receiver on a clip for my belt loop.
I’ll have to see now how I trend. And I’m really interested in any Hypo’s at night.
I’ve got a ton of meters but I use the OneTouch UltraLink that works with my MM Insulin pump…I love the OneTouch Minis in all the different colors but Im way to lazy to enter readings into my pump if I don’t have to. LOL
Do be careful, as other posters have said, not to rely on your Dex readings over your meter readings…The meter is always more accurate, its just that getting BG from Blood is better than trying to figure it out using what Dex uses, intersititial fluid.
I think you’ll love you Dex, I definitely do! 
One thing I learned is that you cant over-calibrate Dex so I put in a number just about every time I prick my finger (unless there is a Y or ??? on Dex’s screen) and Dex seems to be really accurate for me!
I use the Animas Ping meter
hmmm. Although the raw signal from Dexcom’s Sensors is pretty “flat”, and doesn’t drop off precipitously in situations of low bG, I still treat it like a Minimed in calibration: You don’t EVER want to calibrate a Minimed when the ISIG (raw signal level) is low, because calibrating against an undependable Sensor reading screws up the whole curve.
Percentage-wise, the accuracy of all 3 products goes to heck at extremely low bGs. You’re nearly always better off waiting for STABLE bG above 80 mg/dL, never entering any meter readings at lower levels. The winning play, nearly always, is to let Dexcom use simple math to “extend the calibration curve” whenever it’s being called upon to calculate low bG estimates. Go ahead and give it every number you’ve got, but only using numbers with numbers in the range of 80-200 mg/dL. (I hardly ever see a 200; most of my fingerstick-qualified calibrations are between 80 and 140). NEVER, EVER enter fingerstick data during a period of rising bG, and try to give it a “spread” of values to set a high-quality curve. If it’s only working from an “87” and a “94” and a “92” and an “89”, it doesn’t really have enough data to work with-- try and get a STABLE number at least 25-30 points away from the furthest number at the other end, every day. (Even if this means that you have to do a tiny bit of intentional “bG abuse” to create it.)
I alternate between calibrating with a Wavesense Jazz and a OneTouch Ultra Smart.
How do you like the Wavesense Jazz? Is it the one that can send data via Bluetooth? I’m on a MacBook Pro and understand their software is only PC compliant as well.
Wish these companies would understand that there are more than just PC users out there. And that most young people are using Macs as well.