Freestyle vs Alphatrak, big difference in readings???

[Newpowers]

Hi, when he was first diagnosed we were using the Alphatrak 2 for a few months but the test strips are incredibly expensive here in Canada so we switched over to I believe the Freestyle Optium Neo? My mother already had it to monitor her ketones but we switched it to his glucometer.

We had tested them together for a few days, they seemed similar enough. Or at least the Freestyle was predictably slightly lower than the Alphatrak. We then went straight to using the Freestyle exclusively for the last few weeks. But he’s had one other day last week where he tested too low to shoot. I didn’t think of trying the Alphatrak that time, but today he tested 10.0mmol/L, too low to shoot according to our vets recommendation, so I tried the Alphatrak, and it was 22.7mmol/L. So trusting the vet approved meter, I shot him.

I will be keeping an eye on him today obviously to ensure he doesn’t get too low, etc. But this makes me feel paranoid now. He’s still not managed, he’s got pretty bad neuropathy, the vet doesn’t seem to care, he’s on 3.75 of glargine. He’s up and down and all over the place sometimes. It’s frustrating to deal with and now I can’t trust either meter.

Is this something that happens with Alphatrak vs Freestyle? I can’t afford the Alphatrak strips anymore. I don’t know what to think. I’m clueless. Any help is appreciated.

Also I just wanted to add he eats wet food at the same times every single day. So that is not a variable.

 

[Bama Kitty Mom (GA)]

When you get a "too low to shoot" number at a preshot test, one strategy is to wait 20 minutes, holding off on feeding, and test again to make sure the BG is trending higher. I'm with you on lack of trust for meter readings. I first started using the Freestyle Lite and compared its readings at my vet's office with their Alphatrak. Freestyle Lite was 9 points lower on a nadir number that was under 100. I'm told the discrepancy between the readings at low numbers is less than when the numbers are higher. Last week I switched over to Relion Micro because the strips are much cheaper than the Freestyle Lite. Tested a mid cycle reading and Relion Micro gave me 209 while the Freestyle Lite returned 221. Not a great deal of difference but still enough to cause me to question all results no matter which meter is used.

Like you said, just keep an eye on him. Grab some mid cycle numbers and keep the gravy food handy in case he heads south fast. Bama had a mild hypo event on Saturday that I steered with food and did not resort to using syrup. His only symptom was ravenous hunger. Still it was scary. I probably tested him 8 to 10 times that day. So much for saving money. Would have cost me so much more using either the Freestyle Lite or the AlphaTrak strips.