Hi
kolyur;n870555 said:
...
Went back home and tried the Coaguchek again... 4.8 this time! Any ideas on why there would be such a discrepancy? I was expecting a few tenths but sheesh, a whole 1.5 points??? I can't imagine what I could be doing wrong. I'm using Accu Chek Softclix lancets now, although I had used the provided Coaguchek lancets for the first test.
In both cases I washed my hands with warm water and used pellicle's rubber band trick to ensure a hanging drop of blood.
firstly, the code chip is like plugging in a thing ... it either works perfectly with the strips or the machine gives you an error of invalid code.
ok ... next, a couple of detail questions (cos that's where the devil always is).
did you observe the 15 second rule? (from the manual) This rule is to ensure that from lance moment to application moment there is no more than 15 seconds passes. The reason for this rule is that coagulation begins once the blood
knows that coagulation is needed. Changing the time between when that starts and when the machine thinks it starts can be a significant issue.
how long did you apply the band for before lancing? Again, in seconds or in a longer time? When you watch the video note that the entire video is 45 seconds long. Time is a strange thing, when you're doing something you've never done before what seems like an age can be seconds ... or (because you're distracted) an age.
how different was the environment when you measured? Like was one place hot and the other cold? This shouldn't make so much difference but it may.
I don't know why but when I started out my measurements were off ... after a few times I then got much tighter.
The key ingredient is consistency. My wife tried baking stuff that her Grandmother used to bake. Her Grandmothers words were " well you just throw in a bit of htis and a bit of that and put it in the oven" ... needless to say that was a complete balls-up leading to much angst. She then bought a highly accurate scale and went nuts on accuracy. The result was that time after time she made the best cinnamon rolls on the planet.
http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2012/02/cardamom.html
So now that you've done it and know what is happening, watch my video again and compare what you see to what you're doing. Its always difficult watching a training video in what you've never done before. So watch it again and see.
A good idea is to set up the phone and record your self ... that way you actually can see (when you play it back) exactly the time measurements and exactly what you did (not what you thought you did).
I understood (like a year after I started) that in Australia Roche was supposed to send someone to train me ... huh ... like that happened. Anyway, they sent me a packet of 12 strips to "say sorry" and compensate me.
The key to getting consistent and accurate results is to be consistent and accurate in what you do.
Lastly, I'll mention that it may just be that when you measure your wife that you don't get 1 .. the INR is an International Normalised Ratio ... the key word there is Normalised. This means an average of the clotting times of un-anticoagulated folks. There is of course natural variations in that.
Let us know how you go
