Wednesday, March 18, 2015
The day I made control solution for my meter
Last month I bought a meter from Walmart (relion prime) and I really wasn't sure if it was working properly and it didn't come with a control solution... So after some trial and error, including using brown sugar at first #fail (and help from my husband the physicist and another fellow biologist from twitter it worked!) I learned that (I already knew this) science is collaborative and (that which can I did not know already) for this particular meter I can use glucose tabs (dextrose) dissolved in water. Even though I didn't do a great job to get it dissolved 100% (no magnetic stir bar and plate at home :) I got a great result (see below!) the calculated concentration should've been 100 mg/dl so maybe a little higher but within error margin ;) should I go ahead and change my blog name to "sciency diabetic" or something?! :) I was so happy when it finally worked - thanks again to fellow t1 and biologist @randommagic who thoughtfully suggested I go for the dextrose glc tabs (instead of mainly sucrose?(molasses) in the brown sugar which read "lo" each time in case you are wondering)!!! :D
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That's cool, Maria! How much water and how many glucose tabs? And did you break them up first? Thanks! : )
ReplyDelete1 glucose tab (4 grams dextrose) in 400 milliliters (~13.5 fluid ounces) of water :) I'm guessing it will vary spending of exactly what and how the specific meter measures (like whether it measures whole blood or plasma for instance). So it may not work for others. I always find the best control solution to be my husband but I hate to always ask for a blood sample :) ps. In retrospect I would've ground up the tab prior to dissolving. In my case I ised clean hands to grind it while in the water
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