Which blood glucose meter are you using?

[HSSS]

Another t2 using an accuchek mobile. Love the all in one unit, no strips to mess with and no individual lancets. Only ever used a multiclix and was shocked the first time I saw an actual lancet. No thank you very much.

 

[Antje77]

I don't change my lancet each time so rapidly building up boxes of spare lancets that I don't know what to do with.

Tell them you don't need the prescription anymore? I did, as the first box I got almost 3 years ago is probably enough for the rest of my life.

 

[Deleted member 308541]

Only ever used a multiclix and was shocked the first time I saw an actual lancet. No thank you very much.

I agree that the individual lancets are scary looking, look like something you would use in a nail gun...

 

[KK123]

T2 here - I think

I am using a Glucomen Areo is it was on prescription. (Am guessing its cheap and cheerful).

It is! I had a freestyle optimum but the Drs changed it to the Glucomen. I was annoyed at first but to be honest it does the job well enough and they give me plenty of strips for it.

 

[Ryhia]

Tell them you don't need the prescription anymore? I did, as the first box I got almost 3 years ago is probably enough for the rest of my life.

Not on prescription -self funded. I purchase strips and lancets in multi packs which are 200 strips for £32.99. I haven't seen any multi packs of just strips, it looks like I could only purchase a container of 25 strips @ £7.99. So its cheaper for me to purchase with lancets.

 

[Abigail18]

I’m type 1 and for a little while I had an Aviva expert but I also had a glucomen areo as I tested so many times a day and they were cheap. For a while now I had the expert taken off my prescription. I was given the expert for the carb counting as it helped to try and gain control of my up and down sugars but now have a little meter with limited amount of test strips. Luckily seeing a new DN she took the time to help and has now booked me to have a Libre fitted soon for 2 weeks then try and get it on my prescription

 

[Marie 2]

I went ahead and got a Contour Next One last year as it's supposed to be the most accurate and everyone raves about that. Although I have tested it off and on with my favorite Verio One Touch and they are always within a few points. but I also have the libre from when I wore their CGM, sorry guys but the libre strips want way to much blood just like the older one touch ones so I hardly ever used it. The Contour Next only requires a very small amount and you have 60 seconds to add more blood to it if needed. That part makes it wonderful!

https://www.diabetestechnology.org/surveillance.shtml

 

[Diabeticmumof2]

Using the Aviva expert. I like the carb counting and bolus advice other than that it does what any other meter does. Would much rather a CGM. How does a libre work for everyone? I'm hearing about these attachments to get constant readings as well? I would love to know a bit more

Currently working on getting better control. I have very up and down readings and trying to find a way of keeping on top of it.

You wouldn't think I had been diabetic for 18 years... still being shocked and amazed by my own body

 

[becca59]

I agree @Marie 2 that Libre strips require too much blood. My Verio Uses very little and is so quick.

 

[MeiChanski]

Using the Aviva expert. I like the carb counting and bolus advice other than that it does what any other meter does. Would much rather a CGM. How does a libre work for everyone? I'm hearing about these attachments to get constant readings as well? I would love to know a bit more

Currently working on getting better control. I have very up and down readings and trying to find a way of keeping on top of it.

You wouldn't think I had been diabetic for 18 years... still being shocked and amazed by my own body

Libre and CGMs test interstitial fluid and not blood, so sometimes it is inaccurate so you need to do a finger prick reading to confirm it. Also technology has room to fail or not work so it doesn’t eradicate finger pricking, we still have to double check if readings are out of range and unfortunately some people have had an allergic reaction to the glue. Also they are not the same, libre is a FGM - you have to scan it to get a reading, whereas CGM gives a continuous reading every 5 mins. Some have purchased a miaomiao to attach their libre to give it a more CGM function. Moreover libre 2 is coming out soon, apparently that will be more like a CGM.
However libre has helped many of us adjust our insulins like basal tweaking and lower our hba1cs. The extra data like a graph is always nice to see how food, stress etc affects your levels.

 

[MeiChanski]

I can confirm that the freestyle optium test strips taking a good blob of blood. I did enjoy using the contour next one when I got mine through the post.

 

[Diabeticmumof2]

I have had a look at costs. I think over all it will be worth the money... you can't put a price on health. The miao miao also would be beneficial to me too. I'd like to know what's going on in the night especially!

Has anyone self funded to have it switched over on prescription in the UK?

I'll look in to ordering a starter pack. It will be nice having some much needed extra data to show my DSN and consultant. It looks rather fancy

 

[MeiChanski]

I have had a look at costs. I think over all it will be worth the money... you can't put a price on health. The miao miao also would be beneficial to me too. I'd like to know what's going on in the night especially!

Has anyone self funded to have it switched over on prescription in the UK?

I'll look in to ordering a starter pack. It will be nice having some much needed extra data to show my DSN and consultant. It looks rather fancy

You can ask your consultant about it and see if you fit the criteria for it to get it on the NHS. There are a number of us that are self funding and some have it on the NHS. I was self funding for 1.5 years before getting it on my prescription. I don't know if Abbott are selling to new customers, they were having issues with supplying them but it is cheaper to buy from pharmacies. You have to call around and ask your local pharmacies for it and prices. If you have a phone with NFC, you don't need the reader to activate it.

 

[Scott-C]

Would much rather a CGM. How does a libre work for everyone? I'm hearing about these attachments to get constant readings as well? I would love to know a bit more

Go for it - it's worked very well for me. I've been using libre (now on script) with transmitters, first the blucon, then miaomiao, and an android cgm app xDrip+, for three years now.

It's no exaggeration to say it's been a genuine life-changer.

Because you can see how bg is moving, it's much easier to step in and treat with small interventions like a single dextrotab or 1u to tail off a decline or rise long before it gets out of range.

After a few months of use, you'll have seen so many traces that it just becomes easier to make more accurate bolusing decisions because you just sort of subconsciously file away past experiences from previous traces.

And, T1 being T1, when it does go wrong, you've got the alerts to warn you before things get too unpleasant.

Strips alone give such limited insight that it was far too often a case of reacting to hypos and hypers after the event, whereas cgm gives a much fuller picture, to the extent that you can gently "steer" levels. That sense of being in control has huge psychological benefits. It's given me peace of mind.

Put it this way, I can't recall the last time I had a really bad hypo.

MM is here:

https://miaomiao.cool/


xDrip+ is here, if you've got an android phone, it's easy enough to download and poke a few buttons to get an idea of it:
https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/releases

https://jamorham.github.io/


There's a slight issue at the moment, MM1 is no longer being sold, as they've brought out a second version MM2, and xDrip+ currently doesn't work with it, but that's expected to be resolved within the next few weeks, in fact, this post suggests it's been done:


https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/pull/992

 

[Bluetit1802]

@Diabeticmumof2 The Libre also reads every 15 minutes whether you scan or not (as long as you scan once every 8 hours) You can see all the graphs and a full log can be downloaded, so you can see exactly what is happening overnight and in between scans.

 

[Sapien]

I went ahead and got a Contour Next One last year as it's supposed to be the most accurate and everyone raves about that. Although I have tested it off and on with my favorite Verio One Touch and they are always within a few points. but I also have the libre from when I wore their CGM, sorry guys but the libre strips want way to much blood just like the older one touch ones so I hardly ever used it. The Contour Next only requires a very small amount and you have 60 seconds to add more blood to it if needed. That part makes it wonderful!

https://www.diabetestechnology.org/surveillance.shtml

Interesting that the Contour Next shows a slight negative bias in the tests. I went for labs and made a finger stick test on my Contour One One and a Contour Next at the same time. Both meters were within 1 md/dL of each other but about 5 mg/dL over the lab result. That was of course just one test.

The Freestyle lite which Dr Bernstein recommends seems to show an even more negative bias. I imagine a Type 1 would prefer a slight negative bias to catch hypos and a type 2 should prefer a slight positive bias.

I would like to see the results of a more recent trial, but this is also the most recent one I could find.

 

[Evie-D]

I use a contour next one which I bought just after diagnosis of T2. I find it a great meter and easy to use.

 

[Chris Bowsher]

My surgery just changed me over to GlucoRX Q meter. So far it seems pretty good.

 

[porl69]

Contour Next Link as it sends BGs to my pump and also the Libre

 

[Blanchoid]

I use a Glucomen Areo 2k, got it when I was diagnosed, it does ketones as well.

The manufacturer is great they will send you spare batteries, log books, finger pricked (my first one broke).

They also sent me a USB cable to plug it into my PC, and a Bluetooth adapter for my phone, though it has NFC as well.

I also have a Contour Next One (got it sent to me by Contour themselves) which I have not used yet, keeping it as a spare, just in case!