Re: Re: Bioscanner?blood ketones etc

February 19, 2004

We can't get blood ketone strips covered here in NZ, only the glucose, and

I had to push and push and push for even those to be included, so know the

one Sandi - the ketone strips are damned expensive.

I actually thought the bioscanner was a fancy schmancy gadget that not

only tested glucose and ketones, but also lipids, triglycerides etc. Some

outrageous price for the latter test strips to be included though. I

remember looking at this on the web a while back trying to see what other

machines were on the market apart from the Medisense one.

We def have more trouble getting the blood ketones strips to work than the

glucose ones on the Medisense kit - glucose ones are a breeze, but the

ketone ones see us discarding strip after strip till we get a figure that

agrees with the previous tests. Example from one morning a while ago - test

once - blood ketones 4.9 - hmm we think, that's high for this early in the

morning - test again straight away - 3.1 - that's more like it - test again

just to make sure we are in the right range - hello - a result of 4.7 or

something again. Throw kit across room.......

It's all to do with the way the blood droplet is 'positioned' on the strip

says the Medisense rep. Uh huh. But in the meantime, may we have a

complimentary pack of test strips please - this experimenting just cost us

like $15 within 10 mins....

Further advice from the rep - the fingers have to be very warm to allow a

decent dollop of blood to 'fall' onto the ketone strip rather than using the

strip to kind of draw it in (much more so than with the glucose testing).

Either soak hand in warm water or encourage excercising of fingers, arms etc

prior to testing. No squeezing allowed to get enough blood out - has to be a

'free fall'. Sigh. So, we had given up testing lately, and our 3 yr old has

kindly lost our kit for us anyhow, but it is on my list of things to do -

buy a new one and start another series of blood glucose and ketone tesing -

need some baselines while is doing well seizure wise.

Mebbe a new kit will see some more accurate results

PS - Had an interesting experience overnight, had to go to the

toilet around midnight. That isn't the interesting part tho... He doesn't

usually need to go overnight when he has gone just before bed - and if he

has done in the past, it has been from being incontinent courtesy of a nasty

night seizure. So this is one of the first times we have had a 'sample' to

test, and then with a 'clear' bladder in the morning. He was '16+' just

before bed, the one at midnight was about '14' ish, and the first one of the

morning today was about a '6'.

When he holds onto a full bladder overnight usually, his awakening ketones

have been 8-10 without fail. So - the mornings last yr when he used to be a

piddly '4' on awakening, and that was including the 'high' ketones mixed in

from when he to bed, definitely tell me that the higher mix of evening

ketones were throwing that morn result way out - he probably would have been

lucky to have scraped by actually being in ketosis as far as urine testing

goes by the time morn came. A long PS - but just for those starting out, or

those experiencing early am seizures - don't always rely on the first sample

of the day or assume that morning urine ketone reading means the kiddie is

still in adequate ketosis. If the bladder is emptied half way thru the

night, the next sample in the morn will be a much more accurate reflection

of actual ketone levels for the latter part of sleep, or early an, when so

many kiddies are so prone to seizure activity.

----- Original Message -----

> The Bio-Scanner is a name brand

> It is a different monitor than the Precision-Medisense

> My lovely insurance won't pay for any strips for ketones and only

covered the

> glucose monitor

> Sandi

February 20, 2004

Are you putting the drop of blood on the " purple-oval " --and wait while it

" sucks " it up

Do not place the blood on the end of the strip

Sandi

February 20, 2004

Thanks, called the company today

Just wanted to ask my question but when I said I was having problem with

ketone stix he immediately wanted to walk me though the whole thing,

calibrate the package and all that. When we got to the good part, I told

him my problem. He said, as you did, the blood goes on the oval. I

pointed out that the term " target area " was defined for the glucose stix

but not the ketone stix and the picture showed someone putting their

finger on the end of the stick. He agreed that was pretty stupid. He

also told he you could squeeze the finger if you want, or rub the finger

over oval, didn't matter, as long as machine started working, result

would be accurate. I told him they might want to change the book or they

might be getting a lot more calls. He said they have already gotten a

lot of calls.

Thanks for your help - after talking to him, I checked Jess and it came

up 4.3, not too bad of a result I thought

SJVC5@... wrote:

> Are you putting the drop of blood on the " purple-oval " --and wait

> while it

> " sucks " it up

> Do not place the blood on the end of the strip

> Sandi

>

February 20, 2004