Hey all,

We finally purchased an AlphaTrak blood glucose meter for the shelter.
We LOVE having our own meter for the kids. It takes such a tiny bubble
of blood to get a quick reading so we can do it quite often if we have
a kid who needs to be closely monitored or who we have questions about.

However, it started giving us frequent Error 3 & Error 1 messages. It
was very frustrating. After searching the net & the company's site, I
finally called Abbott Labs and talked w/ Dr Evans. He knew exactly what
the problem was & helped me solve it quickly & easily. YEA! It's caused
by some kind of contamination inside where the strip contacts the
electrodes. Maybe some of you are having the same problem so here's 
the procedure he had me use:
-get a new strip
-insert into meter and withdraw 20 times
-flip it end on end and insert the butterfly end into the meter and
 withdraw 20 times
-tap bottom of meter lightly on table/counter
-throw away strip

Voila!!!!! It works!!!!!!!

Since we wasted many, many strips (figuring it was user error), he also
sent me a new vile of them. Dr. Evans told me to call back if I still
had problems. No need but good to know. Great Customer Service!

[Posted in FML 7384]