I have a One Touch Ultra Smart. I used to only use Accu-Check but I think I was given a free One Touch meter in the hospital once and I have stuck with it since then.
I may have to check out this Freestyle Flash that everyone is talking about though - seems a lot of you all like that meter.
Just a little story-filler : When I was younger and first diagnosed, I had the old Accu-Check meter where you had to wipe the blood of the strip after one minute and then wait another minute to get a result. My mother used to cut the strips in 1/2 down the middle to save money on them.
Add me to the list of Freestyle Flash fans. It’s small, it’s quick, it’s backlit. The kit is small and fits easily into my purse. It requires only a small blood sample, you can do alternate site testing, and I find the lancing device doesn’t hurt as much as the One Touch Ultra. Plus, it’s the preferred product on my health insurance.
My daughter uses One Touch Ultra Smart. We have tried a few different meters, but always defauled to this one.
Pluses:
- You can get an average glucose readings for the past 7, 14, etc days, as well as a whole bunch of other semi-useful stats.
- You can add/track your carb and insuln right into the meter, so I have one less thing to do (keeping a separate log), it does have a back light option, which helps with reading the test, but not so much with getting the blood onto a test strip in the dark.
- You can download your charts into PC with a cable.
Minuses:
- Meter starts counting immediately on contact with blood and sometimes you don’t have enough blood, so you get an error and waste a strip.
- It is larger than most, but at the same time, that makes it harded for my six year old to misplace it
- This is preferred meter by my insurance company, so switching to another one would increase my strips’ co-pay significantly, so in a way, I feel like I am stuck with it.
Also, we do not use a lancet that came with it. Instead, we got an ACCU-CHECK Multiclix Lancet Device Kit, and LOVE it (http://www.accu-chek.com/us/rewrite/content/en_US/2.1.6.1:10/articl…). It has a drum with needles that hides inside the device, so there are no exposed needles at any time. The drum rotates with each test to a fresh needle. We got to the point where change the drum once a week. Also, school loved it because there was no risk of anyone getting pocked accidentally and it is easy to dispose of.
For a month now, I hav been using the “Sidekick” after finding out that my Freestyle Freedom was defective and was reding about 30 points off (I need to send it in to Abbout). I verified the Sidekick’s accuracy at my Endo’s office against two other meters (which is also how wer verified that the Freestyle was NOT working correctly - and yes it was CODED right - it was simply defective). I travel a LOT - and it Sidekick is so small - the meter is actually the top of the test strips - and there’s no coding - it’s very easy to use - and it’s cheap - $30 bucks for 50 strips with meter (no lancing device though). So, for now, I’m staying with the Sidekick - it’s just fine for my needs - I don’t need to store results (I keep a log) or upload data to my Mac (and most of those programs don’t work on Mac’s anyway) and I don’t miss the extra costs & hassle or the SIZE of the other ones - this little meter works just fine for me! You can check it out at http://www.homediagnostics.com/products-sidekick.asp It would also be great for a trip or vacation.
