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Best BG Monitor for home use?

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LucyLoo

LucyLoo

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Sorry if this has already been posted a thousand times before but I guess this information gets out of date quite quickly with new technology so here goes.......can anyone advise on the best testing kit for home monitoring?

My doctors have been pretty much useless since I was diagnosed with Type 2 in January this year but I will not let diabetes take over my life and I want to get on the right track whilst I am still young(ish) enough 🙄😉

I really want to test at home so that I can monitor closely and adjust my diet properly and am just looking for advice on which testing kits are recommended by you guys.....budget is VERY tight so please be kind 🙂
 
Hi LucyLoo, the meter we usually recommend is the SD Codefree Meter which has test strips at around £8 for 50. This is the cheapest we know of and is perfectly adequate for the task! All meters have to conform to minimum accuracy standards, so there's not really a lot to choose between them, other than maybe a few extra bells and whistles that you can happily do without. Strips for other meters can be as much as £25-£30 for 50 strips 😱 🙂 Read Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S for an explanation of how to test efficiently, so you don't waste any of those valuable strips! 🙂
 
I've seen the SD Codefree mentioned on here as being one of the cheapest ones to buy the test strips are around £8 ish for a tub of 50 , available from Amazon.
 
Very useful once again, thanks guys!! :D:D
 
And when you've read Test, Review, Adjust on the same Blog, Alan - who despite being Australian knows all about the vagaries of care in various parts of the globe, especially the UK - also wrote another piece entitled 'Testing on a Budget'.

Hope they help!
 
Coming at this from a slightly different angle. If you buy a meter and start buying strips right now then that gets you started but perhaps it might be a good idea not to let your doctor know that you have done so. That way you can test yourself as required but keep pressure on your GP to give you prescriptions for testing equipment. I think once they find out you are buying your own it's kind of like admitting that they have you on the back foot and then they possibly might not ever relent and provide you with the test strips which they really should be giving you. Not providing strips to diabetics is a pet hate of mine and the rest of us on the forum who appreciate the real value of monitoring. I still do not understand for the life of me how doctors can do this and keep a straight face and a clear conscience. Good luck with which ever meter you buy.
 
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Diabeticliberty said:
Coming at this from a slightly different angle. If you buy a meter and start buying strips right now then that gets you started but perhaps it might be a good idea not to let your doctor know that you have done so. That way you can test yourself as required but keep pressure on your GP to give you prescriptions for testing equipment. I think once they find out you are buying your own it's kind of like admitting that they have you on the back foot and then they possibly might not ever relent and provide you with the test strips which they really should be giving you. Not providing strips to diabetics is a pet hate of mine and the rest of us on the forum who appreciate the real value of monitoring. I still do not understand for the life of me how doctors can do this and keep a straight face and a clear conscience. Good luck with which ever meter you buy.
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On the other hand, sometimes showing your doctor how testing has helped you to bring your levels under control can persuade them that you know what you are doing and wouldn't be wasteful, so they might prescribe some - a few of our members have found this to be the case. I suppose you need to decide how your GP might react 🙂
 
Northerner said:
On the other hand, sometimes showing your doctor how testing has helped you to bring your levels under control can persuade them that you know what you are doing and wouldn't be wasteful, so they might prescribe some - a few of our members have found this to be the case. I suppose you need to decide how your GP might react 🙂
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I had not even considered this. It is of course a very relevant point 🙄 oh bugger
 
Thankyou again 🙂 Regarding the "to tell or not to tell" issue......my plan was leaning towards a combination of both your suggestions.....to keep quiet for now and keep the pressure on my GP (as liberty advises), but monitor myself over maybe a couple of months and if my numbers improve, then at that point I will fess up to the GP (as northerner suggests) and then I have the proof that it works and can push even harder! 🙂 I'm not sure if it will work but worth a try.......best laid plans and all that 🙄😱
 
Oh sorry people, just thought of something else after pressing submit 😳 Is there a template meal planner and levels recorder anywhere online that someone could point me towards please? 🙂
 
The other option that could work (although I'm not sure you would want to try it) is to get your good results with regular testing, not tell the doctor, then stop testing so your control goes to hell in a handbasket, and then when you show up the next time around and the doctor asks what's changed to result in your A1C getting much worse, you can then tell them "I stopped buying my own test strips because I couldn't afford them."

If you're feeling really cheeky, you could even throw in "Not buying test strips probably saved me £100. That's a lot of money for a person. It's probably not that much for a doctor's surgery. How many thousands of pounds do you reckon you'll end up spending on treatments for complications if you don't help me get my A1C back to where it was?"
 
DeusXM said:
The other option that could work (although I'm not sure you would want to try it) is to get your good results with regular testing, not tell the doctor, then stop testing so your control goes to hell in a handbasket, and then when you show up the next time around and the doctor asks what's changed to result in your A1C getting much worse, you can then tell them "I stopped buying my own test strips because I couldn't afford them."

If you're feeling really cheeky, you could even throw in "Not buying test strips probably saved me £100. That's a lot of money for a person. It's probably not that much for a doctor's surgery. How many thousands of pounds do you reckon you'll end up spending on treatments for complications if you don't help me get my A1C back to where it was?"
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To be honest I really don't mind being a bit cheeky......I'm a northern gal after all lol 🙂 I think it's crazy that these things aren't supplied as standard to be honest.....I mean they supply nicotine patches on the NHS for smokers!! How the heck are people supposed to help themselves if they aren't given the tools to do it? Thanks for that, it's a tactic I might well try 😎🙄
 
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