Monitoring

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Yes definitely.. you don't drive without looking at the speedo why wouldn't you want to monitor your blood glucose and what happens when you eat certain things then you know what to avoid eating in future.
 
bulkbiker said:
Yes definitely.. you don't drive without looking at the speedo why wouldn't you want to monitor your blood glucose and what happens when you eat certain things then you know what to avoid eating in future.
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Thank you again for your help and reply I am grateful
 
stpn said:
Thank you again for your help and reply I am grateful
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Hello @stpn,

welcome to the forum. Do you know what your HbA1c was when diagnosed? if a little bit over the threshold, some GP's may recommend exercising and changing your diet. Some would recommend getting a monitor. I would say your best bet would be to speak to your health care team if you should purchase a monitor for finger prick testing.
 
I would say it is worth doing finger prick tests if you have a strategy of what to do with the results.
If you are taking the test once a day and writing it in a book, I would say there is no point.
If you are using it to judge what impact different foods make on your levels are adapting your diet accordingly, than I would say there is huge value.
But finger pricking for the sake of it is like looking at a speedo but staying in first gear whatever your speed.
 
stpn said:
Hi all
Is it worthwhile doing a finger prick test with type 2 diabetes
Cheers
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Yes. It is really the only way to work out what foods are ok to eat and more importantly what foods cause a problem. My GP told me not to test. Four years down this road I am so glad I ignored her.
 
I think some GPs go down the route of “there is no point in testing if you can’t affect it immediately/ directly by the medication you are on”, however I really do feel there is a benefit for anyone to test as you will be able to discover what effect different foods have on your BG and it can help you to tailor your diet to improve overall HbA1c. So a test before a meal and then one 1.5 to 2 hours afterwards will give you some idea of how your body handled the carbs and may help you adjust your diet to achieve lower BG results.

If your GP doesn’t prescribe a monitor and test strips for you then there are relatively cheap options to self fund. The main cost are the test strips which do vary a lot in price. This has come up on the forum before and there are a couple of meters that fit the bill - I believe a few people use the Contour Blue meter which has cheap strips (£8.74 for 50) - these are available in the DUK shop here :

https://shop.diabetes.org.uk/collections/meters-and-test-strips
 
It is quite easy to do a finger prick for the blood glucose test and here is a video about how it works.
ivd-medical.com

VIDEO - IVD Medical

These videos are the instructions about how to use Blood Glucose Meter, Hemoglobin Analysis Meter,Blood Lipid Meter, Renal Function Meter and etc.
ivd-medical.com ivd-medical.com
 
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I’m type 2 and my monitor has been invaluable to me. My monitor came from my GP practice and the testing strips are on prescription for now but I will buy them if that changes.

I’m generally only testing now first thing in the morning (because that’s always quite high) and if I introduce a new food. Last night it was spinach!! Happy to report it had no effect on my BG.
 
I tested religiously for the first few weeks, to work out what foods affected me. Now I just test for new foods.
 
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