Whole Blood vs Plasma?
[Time for a rant]
Who the heck decided that measuring whole blood was a good thing?!? Especially without a reference chart! I'm not sure if they think you're actually supposed to treat these the same as plasma numbers, but they're not! I don't even know the brand of meter I've been using, but it's the medtronic sponsored one that communicates with my pump. When I first tested the meter, I noticed that my sugars were always about 2 mmol over ALL my other meters (3 of the 4 were super close, but not this one). I went through the customer support and they verified that my meter was working and that whole blood is usually higher than the previous type of testing. Long story short, I was told to just use the meter and trust what it said because they're results are more accurate than any other meter I've ever used.
The only time that meter has read under 7mmol this last week or 2 has been when I was sitting on my new kitchen floor right before chugging back a glass of orange juice, in a cold sweat and fumbling with the strips. My glucose at that moment was 4.4 (before juice). YA RIGHT!
The only reason I've been using the strips is because, moving across the country, I can't afford to waste the strips. I've been assuming that I should just add 2 to every number I get and that seems to work fine.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this?!?
Totally not cool...
Now that I'm running out, I'm back to the old school meters.
Is it also possible that over 20 years, my body has been used to having higher sugars, so I experience lows at a higher rate? I know the answer is no, but I'm trying to justify this poopy meters poopiness...
Who the heck decided that measuring whole blood was a good thing?!? Especially without a reference chart! I'm not sure if they think you're actually supposed to treat these the same as plasma numbers, but they're not! I don't even know the brand of meter I've been using, but it's the medtronic sponsored one that communicates with my pump. When I first tested the meter, I noticed that my sugars were always about 2 mmol over ALL my other meters (3 of the 4 were super close, but not this one). I went through the customer support and they verified that my meter was working and that whole blood is usually higher than the previous type of testing. Long story short, I was told to just use the meter and trust what it said because they're results are more accurate than any other meter I've ever used.
The only time that meter has read under 7mmol this last week or 2 has been when I was sitting on my new kitchen floor right before chugging back a glass of orange juice, in a cold sweat and fumbling with the strips. My glucose at that moment was 4.4 (before juice). YA RIGHT!
The only reason I've been using the strips is because, moving across the country, I can't afford to waste the strips. I've been assuming that I should just add 2 to every number I get and that seems to work fine.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this?!?
Totally not cool...
Now that I'm running out, I'm back to the old school meters.
Is it also possible that over 20 years, my body has been used to having higher sugars, so I experience lows at a higher rate? I know the answer is no, but I'm trying to justify this poopy meters poopiness...
-
Comment by Sarah on September 1, 2009 at 9:02am -
Yikes.. whoever told you that was dead wrong.. whole blood calibrated meters read LOWER than plasma calibrated meters!
That was a big thing when everyone switched about 7-8 years ago, suddenly everyone saw numbers on their meters that were approximately 12% higher... no one was happy about that.
I do find it *quite* difficult to believe that you don't know what brand your meter is though. It's right there ON the front of the meter? Medtronic has only been through 3... the BD Link, the One Touch Link, and the Contour Link. Not to mention that the brand is on the strips...
-
Comment by Michael Park on September 1, 2009 at 11:51am -
Ya, it's the contour link - I didn't have the meter with me. I've had about 20 meters over my diabetes life, so unless it's one of my favs, I don't keep track of names.
My rant was more about the technology of how the meters measure the glucose, not about this brand or that.
So, when you use whole-blood meters, do you just shift your target range up by 12%?
Anyway, thanks for your feedback. It's good to know that this is not just a problem with my particular meter.
-
Comment by Theodore Quick on September 1, 2009 at 1:37pm -
In any case you shouldn't just add a given number to the reading since it's proportional. You need to multiply by a factor. It varies somewhat from 1 meter to another, but as was said, if you assume a 12% difference then you either multiply or divide the reading by 1.12.
It's possible that your body is used to somewhat higher readings so when you go down to what should be a safe enough lower number your body doesn't appreciate it, so the hypo symptoms start. The other possibility that can happen to any diabetic is that your level dropped too fast, which kicks off the alarms at whatever level. The body doesn't understand bg numbers, but it reacts to rates of change in most situations.
Comment
Advertisement
REsources
Groups
From the Diabetes Hands Foundation blog...
Congratulations Diabetes Advocates Scholarship Recipients!
The Diabetes Hands Foundation and Diabetes Advocates Program is proud to announce and congratulate the members of DA who were granted scholarships to attend diabetes conferences in 2013! Thanks to a generous grant from Novo Nordisk, in 2013 we were …Continue Reading
La Familia de EsTuDiabetes Sigue Creciendo
El Centro Nacional de Prevención de Enfermedades Crónicas y Promoción de la Salud en el Estados Unidos encontró que a partir de 2002-2009, el 11,8% de los hispanos mayores de 20 años, que viven en los EU, viven con diabetes …Continue Reading
TuDiabetes Team
DHF STAFF
 Manny Hernandez(Co-Founder, Editor, has LADA)
|
DHF VOLUNTEERS
Lead Administrator
 Bradford (has type 1) |
Administrators
 Lorraine (mother of type 1) |
 Marie B (has type 1) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
LIKE us on Facebook
Spread the word
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.
© 2013 A community of people touched by diabetes, run by the Diabetes Hands Foundation.
You need to be a member of Diabetes community by Diabetes Hands Foundation: TuDiabetes to add comments!
Join Diabetes community by Diabetes Hands Foundation: TuDiabetes