Well, it's official: I have "pre-diabetes." I'm pretty determined to ward off the real thing by using diet and exercise, and am thinking about buying a blood glucose monitor to help me do this.

Any advice on choosing a monitor? I've also seen a few different lancets and am wondering if anyone has a preference (taking into consideration that I'm pretty pain-averse, ) I do know that one of the tricks in choosing a monitor is to look at the cost of the supplies, rather than the monitor itself.

Thanks in advance for all help!

Aderyn

I use the accu-check active monitor, Aderyn. It's a very basic system. As long as the strips continue to be available, I'll stick with it. That's because I had been through a few monitors and found this to be the most reliably accurate.

I've had it a few years, now. Since then there are a number of monitor systems out there with various new features.

I've found that, as long as I keep my lancet sharp - by changing it out regularly - I don't feel anything.

You're right about the strips being the real expense. Half the time you can get a monitor for free or practically for free. A common offer is selling the monitor packed with a couple of containers of strips. When you break it down, you're really just paying for the supplies.

The other thing is variation in the price of the strips. If you go to your local pharmacy and browse around on line, you'll see there's some variation in the price of the exact same strip.

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Thanks, Maggie! By the way, in the job I do we work for many, many different hospitals, and the Accu-Chek monitor is by far the one used most by the hospitals for point of contact monitoring (e.g., bedside quick checks). While that kind of thing usually reflects a nice manufacturer's discount to the hospital (even free, sometimes) for product placement, it's also certain that medical staff would not use it even for free if they did not think it did a good job. In fact, "accucheck" has almost entered the medical lexicon for "on-the-spot blood glucose test," as in "Patient was encouraged to accucheck before meals." Thanks for the advice on the lancets and strips, as well.

I went to a nutritionist for diabetic diet advice, but she was living in the last century (it was all about maximizing complex carbs and minimizing fats). I decided I could probably work out my own, better version of a diet just by following my usual LC and doing glucose monitoring to see how various choices affect me.

Thanks again!
Aderyn

First choose a meter that uses a small amt of blood, Second see how expensive the strips are compared to other brands, Third if you have insurance that will pay for strips (call and ask under your prescription plan-they often do pay for them) make sure your doctors write for more than once a day, this gives you some extra strips for those sick times of feeling low or high. My insurance charged me more for one box of strips than I would have paid at the pharmacy and when I called basically told me the price was a one size fits all, that if the doc had ordered for enough strips for 4 times a day it would have costs the same-- so check and if so SPEAK UP to your doctor. He doesn't know unless you tell him.

I use one from wal mart. I chose it because the test strips are less costly than any of the other ones they have in stock. The meter is inexpensive too. I was not going for any of the fancy bells and whistles meters. Just something that works and is inexpensive. They have a small box of 20 test strip for only nine dollars for those pinching pennies times. It is Relion Ultima.

P.S. Hi everyone, I am new here

Waving hello,
randysgrandma