Handheld Meters 101 for Your Diabetic Dog
Today we explore the world of handheld BG (Blood Glucose) meters. No matter what the brand, they all work the same way for the most part. So I will attempt to explain how they work.
Like many things, we take our meters for granted. When they are working perfectly, we don’t give them a second thought. When they aren’t working, after we get over our complete panic, we try to figure out why. Before we begin, I’m going to say that it is always a good idea to have a backup meter, always! I have seen cases where they have been dropped in the sink full of water, dropped on the floor and stepped on; you never know what can happen. Meters are not delicate little devices that will break like an egg, but everything has its tolerance for abuse.
If your meter turns on, it is working. If you get a wonky number, it likely is not the meter that is malfunctioning, it is either a strip issue or I’m sorry to say, it’s user error. The strip that you put in the meter is what “completes the circuit” to get a BG (Blood Glucose) reading.
Strips need to be treated with respect. It’s always a good idea to wash your hands before you handle the strips especially if you have been eating, working in the kitchen or just applied hand cream. It’s important to note that you don’t want to push the strip into the meter with your finger over the area where the strip takes the blood in. On the PetTest meter, you want to hold the sides of the strip to insert it into the meter. On the AlphaTrack, you want to push the strip into the meter from the end avoiding touching the sides where the blood is drawn into the strip. Any residue on your hands can influence your reading or prohibit the strip from drawing blood into the chamber.
For example, if you are making lunch for yourself or your kids and have any oils or worse, sugars on your fingers and you touch the “intake” spot on the strip while inserting it into the meter, you risk getting a wonky number.
Also, if your strips are exposed to moisture (humidity) from repeated opening of the vial and not closing it immediately, or from storing them in a moist environment, that will affect your reading also. You always want to close the container immediately after you’ve taken the strip you’re about to use out of the container. The PetTest strips are now individually wrapped to prevent this humidity issue from being a factor. The AlphaTrack strips still come loose in a vial and are more susceptible to humidity and degrading over time from repeated exposure, so be sure to close the vial as soon as you take the strip out.
If you are having trouble with your meter readings, it is likely that the error is coming from the strip. Let’s liken the meter and strip to a DVD player and a DVD. If your DVD player turns on, it is likely that it is functioning properly. If you put the DVD in the machine and it won’t play, chances are good that there is something wrong with the DVD and not the player. The same is true of your meter (DVD player) and strips (DVD). As with anything that is mass produced, it’s possible that there may be a bad strip here and there. I personally have dropped my whole vial of strips on the floor in the kitchen and as a result one or two of them may have picked up some foreign object along the way… oops!
The best thing to do in this case is to pull another strip out of the vial and see if that one works. If not, try another. I know that it feels like you are using a lot of strips to figure this out, but any reputable company will replace the product if there is indeed an issue with it. So do what you need to do to get to the bottom of the issue.
Test strips are the complex part of this equation, the meter is just “the reporting device”. I once watched a video of how these strips are made and let me say that they are very complex transmitters. The strip is what completes the circuit so that the meter can apply the algorithm and give you a correct readout of what BG (Blood Glucose) is.
If you are having trouble with any meter, it is most likely that something happened to the strips. It could be that they were exposed to extreme heat in the back of that UPS truck, or extreme cold in the winter months sitting in the mailbox or on the porch in the sun and those extremes have done something to cause the strips to malfunction. It could also be a cutting error during production. The contacts on the strip need to make a good connection with the meter to provide an accurate reading.
It’s similar to an incident that I had with insulin; there were floating chunks in it that wouldn’t dissolve. I called the company and they speculated that the insulin had frozen on its way to Walmart where I bought it. Like any good company, they replaced the insulin immediately. If you are having what appears to be “meter problems”, I will say that you probably are just having strip problems and a call to the company will remedy that in very short order.
This is just another reason to have backups of whatever will fit into your budget. Take advantage of the buy two, get one free deals that are available for strips, or always have a backup vial of strips in your supplies. Perhaps buy one of the vials of strips that have 25 or 35 strips (lower cost) in them for backup until the company can send you replacement strips. This is just one of the many things that are part of managing this disease, do your best, don’t panic and try to have backups of the important stuff. As always, it’s better to be prepared for anything than to be caught with nothing.
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Until next time…