Blog about diabetes

Hi Kate. I was the one who asked if you had a blood glucose monitor. I had a Free Style, but when my husband went to a diabetic specialist and my primary care doctor turned me over to the same specialist, he recommended the OneTouch-Ultra. I personally liked either one, but our insurance will pay for the OneTouch-Ultra and it’s supplies (test strips and lancets). Both of them test either on your finger or arm. Arm is much less painful. (and the specialist said actually the blood from the veins there is more accurate for testing, but didn’t explain why) Last time I was in Walgreen’s they had the OneTouch-Ultra (there are different kinds of OneTouch) on sale for $49 with a $30 mail in rebate (through OneTouch not Walgreen’s) so it brought the actual cost down to $19 for the monitor. However the real cost is in the supplies, as you have to buy the exact supplies for that monitor. They are not interchangeable. Free Style uses only Free Style lancets and Free Style test strips,
and so on. You might check with your insurance company and see if they will buy your monitor and your supplies. Some will only buy certain ones. As I said, our insurance will only buy the OneTouch brands. Each insurance company is different. But you really do need to have one to keep track of your daily blood glucose.

Also your readings can fluctuate from day to day even if you eat the exact same thing each day. There are several things that can cause your blood glucose to change. Stress can make it go up, illness can make it go up, some medications can make it go up, etc. So even if you eat a total complete true no doubt diabetic meal program for a long period of time, there are still thins that will be out of your control that can make it go up. Or down. You also need to check to see if it goes too low. Once you start eating a totally correct program and exercising and taking your meds, after a while it may go down too much and you will need to call your doctor to let him know so he can see if your medication needs adjusting.

In my case one of the medications I am one can make it suddenly drop too low and put me in the danger zone and I need to know right away if I get any symptoms or such what my bg (blood glucose) is and if I need to take something to raise it. Or get to hospital.

Another thing about a monitor. Keeping a log of your daily readings (and take them at different times of the day so you and your doctor will know what is going on with your bg at different times of the day) and taking that log to your doctor appointments for your diabetes helps your doctor know what and how your bg has been doing. In conjunction with an a1c test, if he does one for that visit.

Hope some of this helps,

best wishes,

Sue