- Messages
- 1,888
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
- Dislikes
- Diabetes, not having Jaffa Cake
There are not many benefits to being diabetic, but one benefit is that you can get to play with a few gadgets, and if you like gadgets like I do then glucose meters are a good place to start.
If like me you are on insulin, and have to test frequently then most companies will send you a free glucose meter and some test strips.. the hope here is that you will ask your doctor to prescribe their test strips, and this is where these companies make their money!
Whilst browsing around a few forums I started to see pictures of the Mendor Discreet, the pictures look really good showing a meter available in either white or black.. and they look somewhat like an older apple ipod.
So I vistited the Mendor website to take a closer look and the writeup was quite impressive:
Mendor Discreet™ is a revolutionary integrated blood glucose meter. It combines a lancing needle, test strip cassette and a blood glucose meter within a single compact device with no need for a separate carrying case. Mendor Discreet™ is also silent so it can be used discretely anywhere you go.
No more hassle with measurement.
No more carrying cases
No more embarrassing situations when measuring in public places
Total measurement time takes less than 20 seconds.
Blood glucose measurement has never been this easy and discreet.
The downside is they don’t offer free meters, the starter set costs £59 this includes the meter, 25 test strips, lancets, software and usb cable. Not a massive amount of money for something so revolutionary.
I did a bit of browsing to see if I could see reference to the test strips being available on prescription in the UK, as the cost of the strips on the Mendor site is £30 for 50 strips, this is quite expensive.. in the end I emailed Mendor and asked a few questions about the meter and if the strips were available on prescription, the answer is that at the moment they are NOT available on prescription, but Mendor is trying to get the NHS to put them on prescription.
So this made the Mendor a No-go meter for the moment as 50 strips only last me about 10 days.
I got home from work one evening and it was with great joy that I saw a package with the name Mendor on it, I pulled the box open and found a letter, I had won the Mendor Discreet in a competition that Desang had in one of their monthly news letters
I quickly opened the box with the meter in it, and this is where the joy pretty much ended!
The meter is BIG as the sliding acrylic covers take up a lot of space, it is also very fiddly to setup and use, to set the meter up you need to remove the acrylic covers this is done by moving some sping loaded sliders on the back of the meter they are not the easiest of things to operate.
here is a picture of the discreet next to the wavsense jazz and the bayer contour usb
Once you remove the acrylic covers and have just the meter in your hand it feels poor quality, the plastic is cheap and thin, I have doubts that the lugs that hold the test strip door closed will last for long, and the general finish just isn’t very good.
I opened the test silver foil around the test strip cartridge, and inserted the cartridge in the meter, which was all quite easy.
Then it was time to setup the lancet, and this is where some of the technical problems start, you realise that the meter only holds 1 lancet at a time, so while you don’t have to insert test strips you still have to fiddle putting in a lancet for each test, the lancets are TINY and the holder thet sit in seems quite poor in quality, I don’t see it lasting long, extraction of the TINY lancet is a bit of a fiddle and I don’t have fat fingers and have full use of my hands!
Anyway, clip the meter back together, and time to do a test, slide the acrylic covers open, test strip pops out just below the lancet, people with fatter fingers may struggle using the lancet without the test strip being in the way.. anyway I lancet my finger and squeeze a little drop of blood, this is where you realise the clumsy position of the test strip between the acrylic covers, projecting only a little way from the meter, it feels awkward to use.
A few seconds after applying the blood the results appear on the old style LCD screen that is not backlit, and the results while readable are quite small but adequate.
This is where you notice the next problem, where only a small amount of test strip projects from the meter its difficult to remove it without grabbing hold of the bloody end of it!
The following day I did 2 more tests and all appeared ok, UNTILL I came to do my 4th test.. the strip only came out a little way, so I pulled it out and started again, the next strip came out, but the meter did not recognise it, so pulled that one out and tried again, still the meter does not see the strip, so a £15 cartridge has managed to perform 3 successful tests and that is it!
So in conclusion, im really glad that I did not pay for this meter or I would be quite angry.. its certainly not discreet and I certainly will not use it, and defiantly would not recommend this meter to anyone
It’s a shame, it could have been so good if it lived up to the description on the website
If like me you are on insulin, and have to test frequently then most companies will send you a free glucose meter and some test strips.. the hope here is that you will ask your doctor to prescribe their test strips, and this is where these companies make their money!
Whilst browsing around a few forums I started to see pictures of the Mendor Discreet, the pictures look really good showing a meter available in either white or black.. and they look somewhat like an older apple ipod.
So I vistited the Mendor website to take a closer look and the writeup was quite impressive:
Mendor Discreet™ is a revolutionary integrated blood glucose meter. It combines a lancing needle, test strip cassette and a blood glucose meter within a single compact device with no need for a separate carrying case. Mendor Discreet™ is also silent so it can be used discretely anywhere you go.
No more hassle with measurement.
No more carrying cases
No more embarrassing situations when measuring in public places
Total measurement time takes less than 20 seconds.
Blood glucose measurement has never been this easy and discreet.
The downside is they don’t offer free meters, the starter set costs £59 this includes the meter, 25 test strips, lancets, software and usb cable. Not a massive amount of money for something so revolutionary.
I did a bit of browsing to see if I could see reference to the test strips being available on prescription in the UK, as the cost of the strips on the Mendor site is £30 for 50 strips, this is quite expensive.. in the end I emailed Mendor and asked a few questions about the meter and if the strips were available on prescription, the answer is that at the moment they are NOT available on prescription, but Mendor is trying to get the NHS to put them on prescription.
So this made the Mendor a No-go meter for the moment as 50 strips only last me about 10 days.
I got home from work one evening and it was with great joy that I saw a package with the name Mendor on it, I pulled the box open and found a letter, I had won the Mendor Discreet in a competition that Desang had in one of their monthly news letters
I quickly opened the box with the meter in it, and this is where the joy pretty much ended!
The meter is BIG as the sliding acrylic covers take up a lot of space, it is also very fiddly to setup and use, to set the meter up you need to remove the acrylic covers this is done by moving some sping loaded sliders on the back of the meter they are not the easiest of things to operate.
here is a picture of the discreet next to the wavsense jazz and the bayer contour usb
Once you remove the acrylic covers and have just the meter in your hand it feels poor quality, the plastic is cheap and thin, I have doubts that the lugs that hold the test strip door closed will last for long, and the general finish just isn’t very good.
I opened the test silver foil around the test strip cartridge, and inserted the cartridge in the meter, which was all quite easy.
Then it was time to setup the lancet, and this is where some of the technical problems start, you realise that the meter only holds 1 lancet at a time, so while you don’t have to insert test strips you still have to fiddle putting in a lancet for each test, the lancets are TINY and the holder thet sit in seems quite poor in quality, I don’t see it lasting long, extraction of the TINY lancet is a bit of a fiddle and I don’t have fat fingers and have full use of my hands!
Anyway, clip the meter back together, and time to do a test, slide the acrylic covers open, test strip pops out just below the lancet, people with fatter fingers may struggle using the lancet without the test strip being in the way.. anyway I lancet my finger and squeeze a little drop of blood, this is where you realise the clumsy position of the test strip between the acrylic covers, projecting only a little way from the meter, it feels awkward to use.
A few seconds after applying the blood the results appear on the old style LCD screen that is not backlit, and the results while readable are quite small but adequate.
This is where you notice the next problem, where only a small amount of test strip projects from the meter its difficult to remove it without grabbing hold of the bloody end of it!
The following day I did 2 more tests and all appeared ok, UNTILL I came to do my 4th test.. the strip only came out a little way, so I pulled it out and started again, the next strip came out, but the meter did not recognise it, so pulled that one out and tried again, still the meter does not see the strip, so a £15 cartridge has managed to perform 3 successful tests and that is it!
So in conclusion, im really glad that I did not pay for this meter or I would be quite angry.. its certainly not discreet and I certainly will not use it, and defiantly would not recommend this meter to anyone
It’s a shame, it could have been so good if it lived up to the description on the website
