Question:
Can someone please advice me of a good Blood Glucose Meter that
is available in the US? I need to buy one for my Dad and have no clue
of what to buy. I am not sure what these strips are and how difficult it
is to monitor it yourself. What is the lifespan of these meters and so on.
Thanks in advance...
Answer:
Abbsolutely, all the meters are good. When you get bad results, the problem is
invariably user error, which means that different meters may be better for
different people. Like so many things about diabetes, this is a YMMV ("Your
Milage May Vary") situation.
I use a One Touch. A lot of people have trouble getting enough blood to get a
good result with One Touch. It uses a photocell to get results, so it is
somewhat vulnerable to changes in ambient light. I get consistant results if I
am careful, but I do NOT recommend it, because it took a lot of practice to get
results I was really happy with.
But all the meters seem to have good things and bad things said about them. It
would be best to go to the nearest drugstore and play with the meters when the
pharmacist isn't so busy, to see what your father is most comfortable with.
Most meters are fairly inexpensive (you'll spend more in a month on the strips
than on the meter itself) and if you have a meter to trade in, you usually can
trade for close to free, so if you want to switch brands later, it's no big
deal.
