i have recently changed meters to a One Touch Verio. i have been finding that the readings are consistently high. so, i tested my BG on the more old fashioned One Touch Ultra 2. this meter gave me on the low end BG results. i spoke with my endo and his response was to take both BGs and use a middle ground #. i am on the pump and use a dexcom cgm. the lower numbers are sometimes on point w/ my cgm, but sometimes the higher #s are closer. someone on TuD suggested i buy the Freestyle Lite, claiming that she has never had much success w/ the One Touch meters, but has found consistently good results w/ her Freestyle.
i know that meters can be off by about 20% so it makes sense that i would experience this problem. i also know that the cgm can also be off by 20%. last night, my cgm showed 89; when i tested on the One Touch, it showed that i was BG of 59. i didnāt feel low at all. so i re-tested on the Verio, and my BGs were 122ā¦which definitely felt more accurate.
my concern is this: i donāt want to over-insulinate myself, or likewise, under insulate myself.
any suggestions. i think that it is ridiculous to be using two meters and using their medium to āguessā my BG.
This is just my opinion as a Type 1 since 1993 (and A1c of 6.3) but to me it sounds like you are testing too often and frequently and comparing all the numbers. I may get a lot of hate from that statement but I feel if you try to get all those devices to sync up you are losing focus of the bigger picture. The machines will not sync up so just take it as is. Use one device for CGM and calibrate that only twice a day. The trends are the important pieces to take from all of this, not whether its 89 or 99 or 109. Yes, if its low or high then the numbers count of course! but in between they donāt really matter.
So, take a deep breath, step back and keep your trends in line, not your individual finger sticksā¦
As I told you on another thread, I use Freestyle Lite. I have found it to be much more reliable than the Verio and other One Touch meters.
There are a couple of ways to evaluate meters. First is of course absolute āaccuracyā compared to a lab value. For me as long as my meter results match up longterm with my A1c, I give it a pass in that area. Some people do a meter test whenever they get their blood drawn at the doctor, but I donāt bother with that.
Second is repeatability and in my day-to-day life, that is very important. As we have discussed before, those of us using Dexcom do our initial calibration with two BG tests. I donāt expect them to be identical, but it they are often 10-20% different, that is a problem for me. When I do two side by side tests with Freestyle, they are close the vast majority of the time. For me much more consistent than the Verio. IMO the more consistent your meter is, the better your CGM performs.
Thanks so much. i just last night went back to my trusted old meter, which, despite my complaints, showed complete accuracy compared with my CGM. the Verio was so far off the mark, i thought it could be a number of things. (i.e. insulin, pump siteā¦) but i am going to give this one a try. my endo gave it to me last week and its an upgrade from what i used to use. iāll give it a week and see how i feel. will let you know.
Unfortunately my bcbs insurance has eliminated all choice and require that I use the OneTouch meters. On the positive side I have no copay for test strips.
i am on medicare and pay $0 for test strips (10/day) and my endo gives me whichever meter i choose. (but i do think most of his meters are made by one touch anyway.)
contour next is very accurate. hate that I canāt see the screen in sunlight, however. Iāve used so many meters over the years I couldnāt list them all.
how have you determined its accuracy? does it just jibe with your cgm? does yours have a backlight for when its dark outside? and does it show you your BG averages over the month?
Obviously every BCBS plan is different. With my plan in Minnesota, if I buy strips at the pharmacy, I am limited as to brand. If I buy them through Edgepark, I can get whatever brand I want.
what functions does your meter have that you like it so much? back light? daily/weekly/monthly averages? easy to read #s battery or charger? high/low alert?
very curious. i like having all the functions possible; the more the better (but of course, the accuracy will always come first) and, how have you determined that it is accurate? do you use a cgm?
i know its a lot to answer, but any info would be appreciated.
thanks, Daisy Mae
After many years of having used meters itās pretty easy to tell the meters that are inconsistent, and also those that may give good results from 40 to 140 but then start going too high, the higher the actual bg. The Next is both super-consistent, it matches how I feel, it does well with the CGM, the numbers from 4 Contour Nexts are nearly always identical within a few points, and more importantly, it doesnāt show falsely high bgās when my actual bg goes above roughly 150. The worst offender for false high reading in the 200ās in my experience has been the Accucheck Compact & Accucheck Compact Plus. They are decently accurate up to about 140-ish. After that, they are āeagerā to report overly high numbers, which when bolused for, indicate that they are showing numbers far too high and when I check those meters against at least 3 other brands of meters, they are always too high above about 150 (roughly). Because Iām not shy about bolusing, I canāt rely on meters that report bgās far above my actual bg, for obvious reasons.
I used Lifescan meters for many years and found them to not be as consistent as the Next.
Thanks for all the info. i will definitely check this out. i have not yet seen it in my CVS pharmacy, but i will certainly ask my endo if he has one to give me, and if not, i can always order one on line. could you be more specific about the other functions that your meter offers? i know about the trouble w/ seeing anything in the sunlight, but perhaps there are other advantages above and beyond the wonderful accuracy you would care to share with me.
if you go to the contour next page, you can read the tech specs. it works with the MM pumps to send bg readings via radio, which means 2 things, right off the bat: simpler way to calibrate Enlite, and doctors have access online to all of our bg readings as well as all other pump data. I just discovered the latter at my last endo appt. I had no idea they had access to all of the data that is sent to medtronic from our pumps, via the Contour Next, through a PC/Mac, to Medtronic serversā¦(Carelink)
That means no more need to hand over my meter to someone at the endoās office, for them to download.
I use the Contour USB Next and have a Contour Next that I use as backup. Due to my visual impairment, my main criteria is whether I can read the screen (I canāt read screens that are those grey and black LCD screens with dim or no backlights, nor screens that have a glaring white background, and fonts have to be large as well). But Iāve found the meter to be very accurate.
The version which can send a BG reading to a Medtronic pump is actually the Contour Next Link. Itās apparently a version of the regular Contour Next which I am guessing Bayer customized under some arrangement with Medtronic.
Anyone who doesnāt have or expect to ever get a Medtronic pump would want to look at just the Contour Next.
I donāt know if it still works, but 5 or more years ago I could call a meter makerās help line and let them know I test a bazillion times a day and they would happily send me a meter gratis because the profit comes from selling people the test strips.
But as I said, I havenāt tried that recently so I donāt know whether they will still do that or not.
