My best friend was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and you can imagine how overwhelmed she's feeling right now, she's got so much information swimming in her head now. She's shopping for a blood glucose meter and asked me which meter has the most features. She's a techie and loves gadgets; while I don't know anything about that sort of thing. My blood glucose meter just tests blood sugar, I doubt it does anything else, but then again, I never tried. I can't even set the time and date! All I can offer is which of the 3 meters I've had over the years is the most accurate, but she wants to be able to hook it up to her iPhone (and do what, I ask?). Anybody got any recommendations? Please let me know, she needs one like...yesterday! Thank you so much!
She's shopping for a blood glucose meter and asked me which meter has the most features. She's a techie and loves gadgets; while I don't know anything about that sort of thing.
If there are meters which add truly useful features which separate them from others on the market, I am not familiar with them. However, I haven't actually been looking either.
The features I've seen are mostly a large amount of room to store previous test results and having the meter calculate various averages of those BG results in different ways. I never really ever put those features on a meter to any good use, but perhaps they are valuable to others and/or your friend.
Before your friend buys a meter I suggest that it's important to know both what her insurance will cover and what her doctor(s) might recommend. The insurance because, as you realize, unless your friend is independently wealthy (enough) test strips can run into money. Her doctor because if the doctor has some "pet" system which he'd prefer to use then he'll probably just try to steer her in that direction later anyway. (That's how one accumulates obsolete BG meters in your "junk drawer".)
I'll be curious to see what others have to say. You should not spend a lot for a meter. By that I mean the manufacturers often will give the meter away for free to a person who tests "often enough". They expect to make the money back when the strips are purchased.
I've got 11 BG meters laying around the house counting duplicates. And that's after having thrown some away. I certainly did not pay for more than a few of them at most. And the prices of those I "bought" were also artifically low.
-iJohn
Unfortunately often people’s choices are very limited by which meters their insurance will cover. My insurance covers a very popular and high priced meter and strips— onetouch. Unfortunately I really don’t care for them so I buy the one I do like, “truetest” (a low priced generic) out of pocket…
People like different meters for different things… I really like the trueresult and true2go meters thst use the truetest strips-- they have very few features, but are simple, repeatably accurate, don’t require a lot of blood, and they’re reasonably priced…
Some people really like uploading their meters to the computer and graphing their results out, etc… I’ve never really gotten into that, but the meters I use don’t support it anyway I don’t think— many others do…
Freestyle and freestyle lite are consistently rated among the best on the market. My insurance doesn’t cover them, but I wish they did, they are too expensive for me to afford out of pocket but I’d love to use them if my insurance covered…
I told her about test strips and how expensive they can be; I think she still doesn't get it, though. She's new to this, she doesn't realize how much the "upkeep" on a blood glucose meter can be -- the test strips can send you to the poorhouse! I've only had 3 blood glucose meters in all the years I've been diabetic. I'm just happy when a meter is accurate, that's all it's really for! ;-)
I have a Freestyle Lite, my insurance paid for it in full. It's the only one they cover. But then again, I don't pay for insurance; I have Medicaid. I'm glad it covers the Freestyle Lite; of the 3 meters I've had in my lifetime, this one's my favorite. I don't know if it does anything fancy, but from what I can tell, there's a USB thingy off to the side, so I'm thinking it can be attached to an iPhone. When it comes to low blood sugar, the Freestyle Lite does a pretty good job, but when it comes to high blood sugar, it's off by a lot! Good thing I keep my blood sugar in range! ;-)
Oh, and about the TrueTrack...not one of my faves as far as blood sample goes. It required a large sample and I always had some kind of trouble with the strip -- it never sucked it up quickly enough and I always had to start another strip. Good thing my old insurance covered it, or I'd be out millions of dollars! ;-)
Same manufacturer but different strips… Truetest are way way better than true track
Oh well, there you go! LOL
if you are looking for a gadget: Dario just came out http://mydario.com
or iBGStar http://www.mystarsanofi.com/web/products/glucometers/ibgstar which you can both connect to your phone…
but, price tags seem to matter most. and after all, i dont think that a good meter for a newly dxd is different than a good meter for a diabetes veteran.
I have a one touch ultra link from meditronic. It has the bolus wizard feature I love and I’ve been using gen strip 50 test strips for a couple of years (Amazon) very cheap strips are the main reason I will not be upgrading my pump this year as I’d have to go to a bayer meter and increase my monthly out of pocket from less than 50 bucks a month to 250 - 300. You can have all the best features on a meter and not be able to use them when test strip prices cause you to limit testing.
The first thing is to find out what her insurance will cover, unfortunately! This can be a big limitation, since each and every test strip (and she will use an average of 6 each day) costs something like 75 cents apiece so you really need to get one that insurance covers. I have had the best luck with the One Touch and Contour Next. There may be a meter that links to her phone, but if she eventually gets a pump then the meter that links to that will send the results to the pump, which she can then download to analyze. Lots of companies are trying to get into the action with various linking technology, but no clear leader yet.
If you go on Abbott Laboratories website you can fill out the info for A Freestyle meter and co-Pay card. The meter is free I believe and the co-pay for the strips is 15-25 a month
if she wants 1 that can send the meters blood sugar threw the phone then I would recmend the accuck accu-chek connect meter its a very good meter I have a friend that has 1 and he loves it