Diabetes Gear

Curse of the One Touch Verio IQ

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I first received a One Touch Verio IQ glucose meter when I started on my insulin pump in May 2016. As most diabetes sales reps do, I received a rave review about how it was one of the most accurate blood glucose meters on the market.

I was using the FreeStyle Insulinx at the time, which I absolutely loved for it’s ‘Lite’ test strips that only required a tiny sample of blood and weren’t wrapped in that annoying foil. Although I had no intention of switching from the Insulinx, I decided to place this meter in my travel case and use it as my spare.

To give it credit, the Verio is actually quite an attractive meter. It has a colour screen and a backlight that automatically comes on when inserting a test strip. The meter is a refreshing white colour, rather than the dull greys and blacks that I’m accustomed to. By far, my favourite thing about this meter was the plastic shell that holds the meter, test strips and lancing device, which makes it super easy to carry.

Unlike any other meter I’ve used, its also rechargeable. This is good in the sense that you don’t need to keep on buying batteries (which are expensive, mind you!), but also not so good in the sense that you need to remember to keep your meter charged up before leaving the house. As a travel meter, the battery life held up well and would typically last me a month.

Testing with this meter was tricky to get my head around. Unlike FreeStyle and AccuChek meters, the test strip port was situated at the top of the meter. Additionally, blood had to be placed on the side of the strip, rather than at the bottom.

My pet hate was getting strip fill errors if I didn’t get sufficient blood on the strip in one go. I had a lot of these in the beginning as I was getting used to placing blood on the side of the strip. This was extremely wasteful compared to FreeStyle meters, which would give me ample time to apply additional blood.

I also didn’t like the fact that the capped test strip vials only stored 25 strips rather than 50, and that boxes came with 50 strips instead of the usual 100. This was an unnecessary waste of packaging materials, and meant that I needed to buy double the number of boxes to get the same amount of test strips. Although the price was comparable to other brands, Pharmacies didn’t necessarily stock more boxes of Verio strips on their shelves.

However, the biggest dealbreaker for me was the accuracy of this meter. I have consistently found that the Verio reads 0.5 to 1mmol higher than each of my other blood glucose meters.

Of course when I raised this issue with Aussie distributor AMSL diabetes at the ADS-ADEA conference last year, I was basically told that it was the other meters that were wrong. The accuracy of this meter fell within the acceptable Mean Average Relative Distance (MARD) from laboratory glucose readings. It had also been recommended for calibrating readings with Dexcom, which is the golden child of Continuous Glucose Monitoring.

I’ve done a little experiment with some of my leftover test strips, comparing the Verio with my FreeStyle Insulinx, Accu Chek Guide and FreeStyle Libre. I washed and dried my hands prior to each test, as I’m well aware that any moisture or dirt on my hands can impact glucose readings.

To be fair, all meter readings are only accurate to the nearest 1mmol of a laboratory result. Two simultaneous blood glucose readings will likely produce different results. So how do I know which of these readings I can trust?

I’ve found myself feeling hypo on several occasions, only to test with the Verio and receive a reading in the 4s. Patterns as exhibited above are a regular occurrence.

I’m exercising my own judgement here, in saying that I simply cannot trust this meter.

Embracing Minimalism.

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My bedroom, which doubles as my workspace, is one of the more poorly lit rooms in the house.

A few years ago, I painted the white, dishevelled walls with a refreshing coat of sky blue. The great creaky brown wardrobe was replaced in favour of a more built in style with great white sliding mirror doors. Last year I purchased an attractive white floor lamp which now overlooks my desk and does a super job at flooding the room with some much needed warm light.

Despite all of these changes, it still hasn’t felt like a place where I might feel focussed. If I have any hope of achieving my resolution of ‘less is more’ this year, than I damn well need my focus. As I was searching the interwebs for ideas to make a room look brighter, I came across a suggestion of embracing a more minimalist style.

As I began to clear the many surfaces, shelves and walls in my room, I realised just how many visible signs of diabetes there are scattered everywhere.

The dry blood stains left on my desktop, from every used test strip that I’ve lazily discarded there.

The empty vials of glucose tabs scattered across my bedhead at the most inconvenient of times, that I’ve been simply too lazy to throw away.

The open packets of infusion sets that I leave on my chest of drawers after a site change, just in case I’ve chosen a bad site and require the needle to re-apply it.

The silver box of Nurofen Zavance capsules, that I take on the occasionally bad days where diabetes makes dealing with the normal person stuff a lot harder.

The pencil case full of my diabetes travel gear, that I lazily fling atop my chest of drawers the moment I walk in the door.

The meter, test strips and lancing device that sit within easy reach of my bedside at night, but are nothing more than a hindrance to my work vibes during the day.

The notepad on my desktop, filled with some of the most undecipherable diabetes scribble.

The handful of meter batteries on the corner of my bedhead, that I haven’t yet found the time to sort into piles of ones that work and ones that don’t.

The USB wall chargers and bright yellow cables used to charge up diabetes devices, that are then left creeping across the floor for several days to come.

The sight of my hoard of diabetes supplies in my wardrobe, because I’m often too lazy to slide the door back across.

As I look around staring at more wall space, surface space and shelf space, my room suddenly feels so much brighter.

I realise just how suffocating all of those small but visible signs of diabetes made me feel, and I’m vowing to make more of an effort to keep them behind closed doors.

Review: Myabetic ‘Banting’ Diabetes Wallet

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I’m feeling a bit unsure about the new Myabetic bag that I received for Christmas.

After years of having to decide what to bring with me every time I left the house and walking around with bulky pockets and slipping pants, travelling with a pencil case to house my diabetes gear was a huge relief.

Everything fits in there quite nicely. Meter, test strips, lancing device, spare lancets, spare batteries, insulin, spare needles, an infusion site, spare insulin cartridge, spare pump cap, spare battery cap and my Animas coin to open up my pump. Plus, it looks nice and roomy in there if I need to reach in and grab something.

I carried my pencil case with me everywhere. My only desire was to find something a bit more compact and impact resistant. Which brought me to Myabetic.

When I first opened the parcel containing my new ‘Banting’ Diabetes Wallet, named after the creator of insulin himself, my initial impression was that it looked a lot bigger in real life than it did on the website.

As I began trying to squeeze all of the gear from my pencil case into the little zips, pockets and compartments of the Myabetic, I immediately felt very restricted with what I could carry.

The large velcro envelope housed my meter and test strips. The loop adjacent to the meter pouch was intended for test strip tubes, however the wider oval shape of my Accu Chek guide test strips rendered it unusable. I did manage to squeeze my glucose tabs there, but not without a great deal of effort.

There were two loops equipped to carry insulin pens, and I opted to use the spare loop to carry my lancing device.

There was a removable waste pouch which cleverly housed used test strips and needles. I opted to use it to house my spare (unpackaged) pump site and infusion set. The final mesh pouch was just enough to fit spare needles, lancets and batteries.

I genuinely did like that compared to my pencil case, the Myabetic was a lot more compact and easier to carry around. Not to mention impact resistant. But unfortunately, it was also just a bit too flashy for my liking, even when I carried it with me to a wedding earlier this month. Perhaps in this regard it would be more suited to the girls.

Having to open all of the little zippers and compartments to get to my stuff also felt like a lot of effort when I already have a needy chronic condition to manage. I’m also carrying pump gear on me, so perhaps things would be simpler if I were just on Multiple Daily Injections.

I’ve no doubt that the Myabetic is a clever creation and has won itself legions of fans all over the world. For the time being, though, I think I’ll just keep mine in the spare drawer until a special occasion calls.

The Myabetic collection of diabetes bags can be found here. For those of you in Australia, they are also distributed through Rockadex and One and 2.