Re: Meters and control solution

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 1/19/2004 4:12:45 PM Eastern Standard Time,

sokokl@... writes:

My mom's meter can't be calibrated like you are saying.

Hi Kristy,

What kind of meter does your mom use? I thought they all came with the

control solution.

Eunice

[Guest guest]

In diabetes , Kristy Sokoloski <sokokl@y...> wrote:

> Maybe there are different models within that Accu Check

> Advantage?

Kristy --

I also use an Accu Check Advantage (and prior to that used an Accu

Check Complete and prior to THAT, a Lifescan One Touch Profile), and

I think that the " calibration " on the Accu Check monitors is the

process of changing the code key with each new vial of strips. It

accomplishes the same thing that changing the " number " accomplishes

on the Lifescan monitors -- properly calibrates the meter to the

strips and vice versa, for accurate readings. Your mother should

have received the control solution (with the Accu Check, I believe it

would be two bottles) when she purchased the monitor; you will

probably be able to call the manufacturer's customer service line and

request that the solution be sent to you. To be honest, I rarely, if

ever, use (or used) it. I immediately change the code key as soon as

I open a new box of strips. I did it more often when using the One

Touch Profile, since the calibration process is different for that

monitor.

Speaking of monitors, I just received a brand-new monitor, free, when

I was shipped my new insulin pump. It's a One Touch Ultra Smart. I

haven't used it yet (a vial of ten strips came with the monitor), but

I plan on using it (at the very least to compare it reading-wise with

the Accu Check, which I've found to be EXTREMELY accurate -- I've

often taken two successive readings if I'm uncertain about the

accuracy of a test, and in every instance, my second reading is

within five points of the first) and if I like it, make that my

primary monitor. I'd first need to have my strip prescription re-

written for the Ultra Smart strips instead of the Accu Check, but I'm

still sitting on three boxes of 100 from the last refill, and I want

to be certain to use those first. The Ultra Smart looks very

promising, particularly in terms of the amount and type of

information it stores, including pump basals and boluses.

[Guest guest]

> ,

>

> My mom changes a code each time she uses a new bottle of strips

> so you might be right.

>

> But no she has never gotten any kind of fluid from them for the

> monitor.

Hi Kristy,

I have to order the control solution at the same time I order my

strips and lancets.

It doesn't last very long and I think (my own opinion) that it is a

waste of money. I do change the code each time. Usually, the code

is the same for all the strips I receive at one time.

Since I now have 2 of the Ultra meters, if I think one of them is

wrong, I can always test using the other one.

Lifescan did send me 2 bottles of solution when they sent the new

meter last year. I did use those a couple of times. I used the

solution more when I first started testing and it was always in range.

Eunice

[Guest guest]

> our bottle states that the solution is only good for three months

after opening.

>

I found I was throwing away a lot of the bottles (to me, that is

money down the drain). That is one reason I stopped doing the

control test.

Eunice