It's a bigger box than I expected. It's got a shit-load of bits of paper inside too. Too much reading! I don't want bits of paper! Who needs a manual? Gimme the nice new BG meter! AH, there it is.
Dammit, it's all very pretty but I don't know how to use it... give me that reading material again. *sigh*
The obvious first thing to do is try it out, right? So I double test - same drop of blood, both meters. Here's what I think:
The good news:
- It IS fast. I put blood on the strip, reach out to grab my old meter, and it's already done before I start with the old one. Wow. I like it :)
- It does need only a tiny drop of blood. This is not just a marketing ploy. It was really a tiny drop!
- The multi-clix really is nicer to use! That really, genuinely, absolutely, actually was almost pain free. IMPRESSED! (of course, that's after one use, who knows what I'll think in a week?)
The bad news:
It's only a silly little thing, but the new meter case doesn't have an outside pocket. No biggie... but I keep a spare needle for my insulin pens in the outside pocket of my old meter case. Its job is not to save me when I'm in a desperate need, but mark the difference between my case and my friend's identical one. The little lump in the side means it's mine. Nothing serious, but I'll miss that pocket!
The badder news:
Notice the difference in those readings? The exact same drop of blood from the exact same finger at almost the exact same moment in time. (P.S: Americans, 7.6 = 137 and 6.2 = 112). A difference of 1.4 (25). Enough for me to make a bad decision and get in trouble. Don't like that.
I know that meters aren't perfect, and that we have to expect a bit of variation in our readings (I hate that BTW... I want perfection. I'm trying to save my own life here, y'know? Can you just make the meters 100% reliable, please? I wish it was possible.)
OK, so it could be the typical variation of meters. Maybe one is high by .6 and the other is low by .8? No biggie really... (I'm trying to convince myself here!) But I suspect the problem is in my old meter. It's in need of a visit to the chemist for calibration (and a print out of my results over time - I'd have done this a LONG time ago if I'd known that it was free - I'm a bit of a tight-arse I guess...). It also explains (maybe) why I didn't feel as bad as I'd expected when I had my 1.1 reading a while back. Perhaps it was really 2.5? Still low, but not horrifying.
Come to think of it, I've been feeling pretty horrible with highs lately... I mean, a reading of 8.4 shouldn't be the end of the world, but I'm particularly sensitive to non-high highs. Perhaps 8.4 is really 9.8.... ugh... Oh I wish I'd had the old meter checked out last month when I had originally planned to!
WELL, the next step is to drop the old meter into the chemist for a good check up. And to call my doctor, I'll need a script for lots of test strips for the Performa. I wonder if this means battling my doctor yet again about the amount of strips I use? *sigh*
CONCLUSION: The new meter is kinda cute. It's not as small as I'd imagined, but that's a GOOD thing in my mind. Seen the latest cell phones? Too small to hold, too fiddly to use... nah, gimme a good handful, especially for something as important as my BG meter.
I'll need confirmation before I trust either of my meters to be reliable again, but at least I can say it's fast (very) and easy to use. Geez, don't even have to be careful of where we touch the strips! MUCH less fiddly!
I think I like it. And I DO like having two meters. I feel safer with a back-up :)
1 comment:
Green with envy whilst I wait for mine to turn up.
That is a worrying variation though. Inaccuracy to that degree could put you at significant risk of hypos.
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