Blood Sugar Readings for Diabetes
How To Manage Your Diabetes More Effectively
Discovering the proper use and purpose of diabetic control solution can make your life easier and less stressful when it comes to testing your blood sugar levels.
The importance of using control solution to help successfully manage diabetes is probably the best kept secret in the diabetic world. Its purpose is very valuable, as it can eliminate worry and needless testing.
What is control solution and why should you use it?
Sometimes the chemical that coats the strips can become less effective – and if you ever get a reading that seems wrong or an error message that you do not understand, instead of taking another test of your blood, which involves having to stick yourself again, try a control solution test first to see if there might be something wrong with the strip.
Control solution is basically sugar water. It is the small vial of colored liquid which comes included within new diabetic monitor packages. Some people think control solution is used to clean the meter. Please don’t. Since it is sugar water, it will damage the meter if you try to clean it with it. Others think it is calibration solution. This is also untrue. So, if you have a meter that does not require coding, such as the Ascensia Contour, you will still need the control solution.
When to Use Control Solution
Use control solution on newly opened or already opened strips. When you first open a bottle of strips, you should test the first strip out of every container with the solution. Why, you ask, as you have just opened the bottle? The strips are coated with a chemical that helps read the blood sugar level. Sometimes the chemical on the strip can go bad due to being exposed to heat or cold during shipping. And the only way to know you’re using good strips on yourself and getting accurate readings is to test the first strip with the solution.
Also, do a control solution test if the bottle of strips has been open for a while. The chemical on the strips may be compromised and give inaccurate readings once they have been exposed to air or moisture for too long.
How to Use Control Solution
Control solution is very easy to use. Basically, you do a control solution test exactly the same way you do your blood test:
- Put the strip in the meter.
- For meters that use capillary action to suck the blood up into the strip, put a drop of control solution on your finger (or if your hands sometimes shake, put a drop on a clean flat surface, such as a table) and touch the strip to the control solution and let it suck the solution up into it, in place of your blood. For meters that require that you drop blood onto the strip, then drop the control solution on to the strip in place of your blood.
- The meter will start counting down, just like when you are doing a blood test.
- After the count down, it will display a number reading, just like it does with your blood.
- Find the range of numbers, usually printed in black ink located on the back of the bottle of strips (occasionally on the bottle of solution). The range is usually something like 120-198 (Some meters have a high and lo range – which one you use does not matter as long as you read the high range for the high solution and the low range for the low solution).
- If the number reading the meter gives you after the control solution test is within the range of numbers on the back of the bottle, then you know your strips are still good. If the number is outside the range, then the strips might not be working properly. Be sure to contact the manufacturer and inform them and they will instruct you on how to proceed.
Unopened, the control solution has a one year shelf life and the expiration date is often printed in black lettering on the bottle. However, once you open your control solution, it only has a 90-day shelf life.
References:
Here is a great website If you wish to discuss your diabetes with others.
The Amerian Diabetes Website www.diabetes.org
American Diabetes Association Complete Guide to Diabetes - 4th Editioin
