I could offer an answer, but it may not be right…
I have read that alcohol swabs are actually not great for using before testing your blood sugar. Supposedly it will affect your reading. So maybe they use alcohol to sanitize, or whatever, and then wipe away the first drop so that they have an alcohol-free drop.
And now I’ll just wait until someone comes in and helps this answer by adding correct information.
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I thought contour took an amazingly small amount. This was compared to One Touch and ReliOn, which both take a liter.
Too late. 
Some days I can roll with it. Not surprisingly, those are usually already good days. A 129 not 118? That’s nothing to worry about. Even when it turns out to be a 150 rather than a 130… I can deal. But the days I really need a good number to try to get myself out of a slump… those are the days where this technology can be so unbelievably frustrating. Last night my sensor showed a 150 all night long. I had had some chips before bed and did bunches of insulin, so I was pretty pleased… woke up to a 263. And just now my sensor just showed me a 326 and three arrows up… I had a pretty bad crash not too long ago and knew I had overtreated, but a 326??? I panicked, smashed the bolus button, and exercised for 20 minutes. Picked up my Libre, and it said a 120… showing that “peak” at a 220… tested with meter, a 118… with 7.2 units on board.
And today has been a pretty good day. 
That’s the OneTouch I know so well… all day long. It’s almost like a sport trying to predict what it will come up with next.
I test that often as well… and still use the CGM. And Libre. I like to test with my OneTouch, too, just for a laugh. What ticks me off is that this last batch has been really spot on accurate… Everybody has their good moments though. I think my OneTouch is just having its moment.
I don’t do this… match my readings up against my a1c. You mean like you try to figure out your averages??
Nicky,
I personally track my BG readings, insulin dosages, and food intake in an app, which calcs an approximate A1C from the average of the BG readings, I think going back 3 months. It has been pretty close to my lab readings, especially when I test 6 or so times per day.
The app also tracks insulin on board (approximates), and that is especially important to me, since I’m on MDI, not a pump.
The app I use is this one:. Diabetes: M. It works for Android, but I don’t know about iPhones. That app should be a thread unto itself
That sounds awesome. I’m gonna go check up on it now to see if there’s something for iPhones…
Groan.
We used this app when we were aiming for better control and before life got too crazy for me. It was amazing! Really, really good and the support people were very helpful. Used on both iPhones with success.
Oh, we have had Wal-Mart since 1994 but they don’t necessarily sell the same products as the American stores. I don’t think generic insulin or test strips are a thing here since all the brand names sell for the same price and prices are regulated. One positive of this is insurance companies are agnostic as to which brand of meter or insulin you use as long as you have a prescription.
although my Contour doesnt have this feature (that i know of), the lousy One Touch Ultra does. it will show you your BG averages for 7 days, 14 days, and one months. i wish that my Contour had this feature, b/c it certainly makes things easier, but i log everything and calculate myself. the Contour is, from my mathmatical calculations, pretty darn spot on.
thank God for small favors 
Yes, but what good would that do? I might as well ask my 5 year old for my a1c. His assessment of my readings might be as accurate.
at least its not just me who has been experiencing this problem. now i know better; these meters stink. and their test strips do as well. (and, they are terribly expensive $$$ )
And this is completely off topic, but how is it being a diabetic in Canada?? We’ve talked and dreamed about living in Canada for a long time (even harder and more desperately since January 2017 
), but it’s always been a huge concern of what medical care would look like there. I remember talking to someone who said she would wait 6 months to see a general practitioner and then would need to do many things in order to see specialists…
They’re what i have a prescription for… that was the end of the road for me. I went to pick them up one day, and my prescription price had DOUBLED. And then you add in the fact that sometimes it would take 2-3 strips to get a potentially useful number… nope and no thank you. That’s how I found ReliOn and am now messing with Contour. I like them both… they just consistently give different numbers, but the pattern is clear. Which is how I came to be asking about meters… again. And again. And again.
This is the TRUTH! What does matter, if you use a CGM, is the slope and it’s intensity.
I have treated for a low at 80 because the momentum of the slope predicted a low in ten minutes. I have corrected a high at 125 because the momentum of the slope suggested a runaway high very shortly.
You shouldn’t take you Bg just to take your Bg. Use your CGM and the slope and save your fingers.
well, obviously, imho, it does NOTHING helpful. it just happens to be a feature that i like. when you can see your averages for the week, 2 weeks and the month, you can go on to the internet and click on Accucheck A1c Conversion from your averages, and it will calculate your approximate A1c % . its pretty close from my experiments.
last week eric bought an “at home” A1c calculator, and he feels, so far, that it is pretty accurate. i think he bought it from Walgreens or CVS (or some place like that). just ask him, b/c he’s the experimental expert on site.
This would actually be a fairly tight spread group for me with OneTouch taken at same time
That sounds cool. I was getting ready to buy a jumbo pack of home a1cs… I’m not sure why… but maybe I’ll look into the calculator. To buy a two pack a1c is $40. That’s very expensive. They have these packs of 20 tests or something that make it maybe $7 a test or something… But a calculator… it’s like teaching a man how to fish… 
I have never paid much attention to BG meter “averages”. Why? Because it can often just be a collection of your bad times.
If you are feeling good, and your CGM says 90, you probably won’t test. But you will test much more often when you are feeling high, or low, or when your CGM shows a crazy number.
Sure, you will sometimes test at a normal time. But most likely, you will be testing more at bad times.
Additionally, if you see a wacky high or low number, you might double test. If you see a 250 or 45, you might re-check. But how many times would you re-check a 90?
So the BG meter average can be much more heavily weighted on “bad” times, than “normal” times.
Anyway, that’s why I don’t pay attention to it.
I don’t pay attention to it because I was unaware of it. 
which is probably better for me at this point… but what’s this a1c calculator I hear of???