Sugar Turned On Me

I’m a big fan of paraphernalia. Not just the word, even though it’s fun to say, but the whole of accessories that go with any hobby or lifestyle. In the case of being diabetic, that’s my blood sugar monitor.

I only have experience with two blood sugar monitors. Were it not for an insurance snafu, I’d have experience with only one. The good thing is I’m not unhappy with the one I use now. It’s called the One Touch Ultra Mini from Lifescan.

The name makes it sound like a brand of tampons, but that aside, it’s worth a look.

First off, the price is right at under $20.00. The basic package includes the monitor, their lancet device, lancets, a spiffy carrying case, some fluid for testing strips and little booklet that discusses how to live as a diabetic. No actual strips though.

One of it’s selling points is that it’s small, about four inches long. With or without the case, it’s convenient to carry. Between this and the price, it makes a good backup monitor for travel. It even comes in four colors, which depending on your opinion of accessorizing medical equipment, could be either a plus or a minus.

It stores your past 50 results. It’s got no other tracking features, but that’s the trade for it’s cost and size. It’s error messages are pretty straight forward. It and the lancet device are also set up for alternate site testing (I’ve only done that once, but the results were satisfactory).

The strips The Ultra strips come for about a dollar a strip before insurance, which seems about typical. The drop of blood required isn’t large, the usual pin head size. They’re coded strips which I’m less fond of, but more on that later.

The Lancet device, pictured above here, is pretty good. Adjusting it for a deeper or shallower poke is easy and the cocking mechanism is straight forward. I use it with bargain lancets and have never had a problem.

I’ve not done any in depth accuracy testing with it, like testing against other monitors, but I’ve been satisfied… mostly. Once, I had a batch of strips that returned a consistently 10-15 point higher result than I was expecting. The batch of strips tested normal, so it could have been coincidence but my readings went back to normal when I bought the next batch. The only other time I’ve gotten a questionable result was when I gave it an almost too small sample and it was 40 points different than when I tested again with a new strip and proper blood dot.

While I use it as my main monitor, I’d recommend it to others as a backup without reservation and a main with only a couple of caveats.

When I started this blog, I had visions of medical companies sending me samples of their wares and reviews like this being a regular thing. Until then, I’m happy with my little informative vampire. But I’m staying away from the lime green version.

I mean… seriously? Lime green?