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New Blood Glucose Meter

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kashmir_812

Newbie
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1
Hi there,

I am a Type 1 diabetic and have been looking into getting a new Blood Glucose Meter as my old one is getting a bit, well, old. So I was just wondering what the procedure is for doing this.

Do I have to go to the GP to get my prescription changed for testing strips (is this OK to do?), am I able to just buy any machine I like and get the prescription changed?

I noticed another thread on different glucose meters. What are people's opinions on the best one? I have been looking at the one that can be linked to an iPhone but not sure if its that great as the reviews all say that the results can be a bit off.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Graeme
 
Hi
I am also type 1. The first thing you have to do is pick a meter that you like. You can either buy this yourself, online or from a chemist or your DSN may give you one. Some meter companies will also send you a free meter of your choice. Then you will need to go to your GP to get your prescription for test strips changed.

My favourite meter is the Abbott Freestyle Lite. I like it because it takes the smallest blood sample available(0.3 microliters) from a variey of test sites eg hands, fingers,upper arms, forearms,calves and thighs. It also has a 60 second top up period, so if you fail to get enough blood on the strip the first time you have a whole minute to apply more. In addiction to this the strips suck blood from either side. The other nice feature it has is that it has a light on the strip port so if you are testing in the dark you can see both where to put the strip and the blood and then when it has sucked enough blood it switches on the back lit display so that you can read the result. Abbott will send you any of their meters for free and they usually come very quickly(mine came within 48 hours of ordering it).
The only things that I don't like about it is the software that it comes with to upload your results to the computer and the fact that it has no tagging option.

Hope this helps.
 
At present I'm using the Bayer Contour USB meter which is a great little meter that plugs straight into your PC and you can view your results in minutes, before that I was using the Accu-Chek Nano which again is a great little meter and has a big bright display and is very small and compact.

Apart from my very first meter I've never had to pay for one, the diabetes clinics get the meters free off the traveling reps who work for the meter companies, the money these firms make is in the test strips so they are more than happy to give them away in the hope that a patient uses their meter and orders test strips on repeat prescription.
 
Not sure if Iyd same in all areas but just got letter frm gp saying they are chanhin my meter as prescriptin costs too hi for mu machine.
Not happy about this at all
 
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