On 7 Mar 2006 07:05:33 -0800, "JJ Jones"
<jamesjonathanjones@yahoo.com> Huffed and Puffed the following into
the madness of usenet:

what the hell is "mild diabetes"?  are you actually type 1 or type 2.

the relion meter is fine.  The meters vary in cost because of some of
the features they have like graphing, downloading to your PC etc.

the relion test strips and the walgreens meter test strips are
probably the cheapest on the market off the shelf.  You have to use
the correct test strips for the meter you have.

As to whether they hurt less or not, that depends on the lancet and
lancing device not the meter.  My personal choice is the softclix
lancets and device.

if you want a reliable comparison on meter features versus cost etc go
to rick mendosa's site at mendosa.com and go to his meter review
section.

Folks here have reported satisfactory results using Relion meters.  The
most important advantage is that the strips (the big expense) are much
cheaper than those for other meters.

FYI, diabetes isn't mild; use your meter purchase to keep yours under
good control and keep it from causing you a host of problems.

Susan

A better deal is to call for a FREE meter from one of the market
leaders.  I've gotten so many free meters for my wife and I, that I've
lost count, but I can tell you I've gotten 3 free Accucheck Compacts
recently, and 2 Free freestyle Flashes.  That beats paying $10 for some
off brand, doesn't it?

Dave

Sorry you had to join the club.  :(

It works. Define good. What features are you looking for or know you need.
You may want to place your mouse pointer over Meters at http://www.mendosa.com/
The whole site is a good read, not to mention links found on the site.

Stop in at Walmart and check. Use Google.com
I bought mine about 3 weeks ago. They had a shelf of meters and a
shelf of test strips. Pretty easy to compare prices. Find the venor
web site and make a meter featue list to make your final buy.

The ReliOn meter does not hurt one bit. Now the lancet which makes the
hole can hurt depending on where you use it and depth setting.  :)

I forgot to change the depth setting from 5 to 2 on the first try,
on my little finger, and that smarted.

I find I can set it on two, wash hands in hot water to soffen skin,
and barely feel the pin prick, depending on finger and location.
Measurements will vary depending on location, finger, palm, forearm,
temperature of sample,...

Do take time to build your feature list to get a feel for what you
have to have.

Some have cables you can buy, later, and connect to your computer and
get fancy programs to model the data.

Or you can enter the data yourself in a spreadsheet like me.
It has recall so you can read values to enter into database at end of day.
Also has a weekly average, for last 4 weeks.

More expensive meter may be more accurate.
Big deal.
I measured a cool finger with a warm finger reading, difference was 12 higher.
I measured a strip between two different boxes, difference was 6 lower
on the new box of strips. Expired date on both was year and a half away.
I measured the difference in warm/cool strip, warm strip was 23 higher.

I'll suggest, buy the the $10 meter and ~$43 for a hundred test strip box.
Now you can:
o   play with getting a feel for your numbers,
o   play with finding out which foods do what to your levels, half, 1 hour,
   2 hour after eating.  see http://www.mendosa.com/GI_GL_Carb_data.zip
o   after exercising, how fast/much exercise raises/lowers your levels.

You can take a reading just after they take your blood sample at the
doctor's office to compare meter against lab results.

Do your own glucose test. When you want.
http://www.rajeun.net/gtt.html#Diabetes%20and%20Hypoglycemia

Once you have a good feel for what is going on when, then you can
decide on what meter you might want to buy.

Savings on strips alone, will have paid for wasting $10 on the meter,
more than once; if you trash it and get a different one.
Better yet, pass it on to a family/friend or doctor who can give to
a needy person.

I have just finished my first 100 strip box, and have not started testing
each food.

Sorry you had to join our growing club, JJ, but we welcome you and are glad
you found your way here.

As you have noticed, the phrase "mild diabetes" has sparked a sharp
reaction. You may find other terms that elicit cantankerous retorts, but
please don't stop posting, because you can learn a lot here. You may have to
simply develop a philosophy about sharp retorts...like..."The info is good
so I'll just ignore the rough edges and learn as much as I can."

Assuming you have type II diabetes, the deal is that this disease is
progressive and tends to get worse if you don't take good care to keep your
numbers as normal as possible. The high numbers not only erode your own
insulin making ability, but they damage other vital body parts.

Thinking of the disease as "mild" is risky as it tends to make you think you
just have a slight case and you'll probably be OK if you give up candy or
something. The trouble is...candy is not the only problem. Bread, pasta,
potatoes, fruit, cereal, milk and rice all turn to sugar in your body.

The truth is you need to be vigilent, test often, and preserve your health
through diet, exercise, and medication to keep your glucose numbers as
normal as possible.

The other truth is...that if you take good care of things, you can live a
long, healthy, happy life.

Keep learning.  Don't stop posting here.  Join a support group and learn all
you can about carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

I bought a ReliOn meter from Wal Mart for my son. The meter was less than
$10 and the test strips were about $21 for 50 strips. It works very well and
I checked it against my other 2 meters, a One Touch and I have 2 Flash
meters. You can get meters very cheap and sometimes free at any Pharmacy, my
last Flash was free ($9.99 with a $10 rebate), however, IF you have to pay
for strips, the Reli On meter is cheaper to use. Test strips for my other
machines run from $50-$80, more than twice as much as the Reli On. My son
didn't have insurance when I bought this set for him although I offered him
one of my tiny meters. The Reli On is easy to use, comes with a case and has
easy to read numbers. There is yet another meter just out that has a round
vial of strips with a built in meter for about $30. It's called SideKick and
you dispose of the whole thing when it's out of strips. The meters are often
either free or cheap if you shop right, it's the strips that cost so much.

 I recently switched to the ReliOn because it has the cheapest
strips, which is my first criterion.

It also is fast, and uses very little blood which means less
pain when sticking.

The lance that comes with the meter is a pos, but other than
that - go for it.

Hi JJ

And you thought you just asked a simple question:-)

First - welcome. You've come to the right place - including
both groups - even though you would have preferred not to
qualify.

Second - ignore the little spats that go on here. Some
people forget that newbies don't know us and our
idiosyncrasies. As a side note to some of the type 1's on
mhd I'd appreciate discretion here with this testing advice
to a newby type 2.

I'll let the USAians tell you about meters - the Mendosa
site is great - but you asked "Do any hurt less?"

It's not the meter that may hurt - it's the lancet you use
to get a blood sample. Properly used, it shouldn't hurt
either. I strongly recommend that you test quite a lot in
the early stages, because this link will advise you on how
to use those tests to gain control of your diabetes (not
your "mild" diabetes, your diabetes:
http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/NewlyDiagnosed.htm

So, to minimise any pain with those tests, I'll offer some
standard advice on painless testing.

Painless Pricks

Wash your hands in warm water first, and shake them to get
the circulation going. Check your lancet - it should be
adjustable. Mine is Soft-clix, made by Roche and is usually
painless. I get an occasional tiny sting, and it lets me
know if it's getting blunt sometimes, but I've tested over
to 4500 times in the past 4 years without any trauma. That's
from a guy who was, and is, needle-phobic.

Start with the second lowest setting (1 or 1.5), hold it
firmly against your skin on the side of a finger near the
tip. Don't flinch when you release the button. The button
releases a spring-loaded tiny needle which makes a tiny hole
in your skin and instantly retracts. Incidentally, using the
sides has two advantages - there are less nerve-ends than on
the pads, and it doubles the number of test-points so you
can rotate through the positions.

Massage gently (milking a cow) until a drop of blood forms
sufficient to put on the test strip. If this setting doesn't
provide an adequate quantity, move the lancet setting up one
notch for the next one. If you got a large sample and it
hurt a little, go to the lower setting.

And that's all there is to it. Sometimes it helps to shake
your hands a little more, or warm them up if it's cold. The
manufacturers advise changing the lancet needle every time;
I change mine when I remember or if it gets a bit blunt -
that's about once a month or every 150 tests :-) You do what
you are comfortable with.

Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
d&e, metformin 2x500mg

 I use a Relion.

 I think my main reason for preferring this brand is that they simply
don't play the bizarre games that other manufacturers play.

 Most brands have prices starting in the $70-$80 range for the meter,
which is far more than it's actually worth.  They then have all sorts of
crazy trade-ins and rebates and other such games, so that you end up
getting the meter for free; in some cases, they end up paying you to
accept the meter.  So you think you're getting a really great deal, a
$70+ item for free.

 Every manufacturer wants you to use their meter, because if you do,
then you have to buy their strips.  That's where they make their money.

 Relion sells their meter through Wal*Mart for $8.88.  There are no
rebates or trade-ins or other crazy games to make you think you're
getting a better deal than you really are.   The meter is worth $8.88,
and that's what you pay for it.

 And the test strips cost about $42 or $43 for a hundred--about half
what strips cost for other brands.

Thanks a lot to everyone for their advice!  I went and bought a reli-on
meter last night and took a few readings.  The lance didn't hurt much
at all.  I just cried for a couple seconds.

Right now I'm basically "borderline", so that's a little comforting.
But I recognize that if I'm not careful that can get much worse.  So
don't worry:  I am afraid.  Very afraid.  I am not complacent.

A couple other questions.  Is it really necessary to change the lance
after every single use?  That's what they say on the package, but it
sounds like BS.

Assuming that I get the BG under control, is there anything else that I
need to test for (aside from watching out for complications)?

Thanks again.

Do you think that the Reli-on meter is totally trustable?  Or should I
get some control strips to be sure that the meter is accurate?  I
assume that they have control strips at Wal-mart and they don't cost 10
jillion dollars.

I, personally, had a bad experience with a Reli-on meter bought at a
Walmart.  I chose to get rid of it when IT was saying I was running a
high of about 170 when, in reality, I was closer to 400.  It worked
fine at first and I am not saying I could not have errored in
calibration when using new strips, but the fact that it would have
been so easy to error is not a small thing.

Test strips vary greatly in price, so do some comparisons.
Furthermore, I was just shocked yesterday when I went to the diabetes
education center in town and was told that my insurance would cover
strips at different rates and that, perhaps, what I had to pay out of
pocket could be lowered.  So I am researching again.  The center will
give me a free meter of my choosing when I figure out what will be
best for me cost-wise.

As far as pain when pricking your finger?  You will build up a
tolerance over time.  It is best to alternate fingers as well as sides
of fingers to minimize soreness.  Let me assure you, however, that the
pricking of the finger is not nearly as painful as what can happen
with uncontrolled diabetes.
Beverly

Do the various meters maintain any specific accuracy standards?  It
seems to me that increased "accuracy" should be a major factor in the
price structure of glucose meters.  But yet, so far as I can tell,
there does not seem to be any "accuracy" standard score associated with
each specific model of meter.  Am I wrong?

It seems to me that it would be pretty easy to have some standard tests
for accuracy, and to have those results printed on the packages of both
meters and strips.  That would be an important marketing tool for the
better meters.

Maybe this already exists and I missed it.

Walgreens had a Freestyle monitor on sale for $10, so I bought one of
them.  Now I'm parallel-testing the Freestyle against the Reli-on.  The
Freestyle is giving approximately the same numbers as the Reli-on, so
it appears that the Reli-on is relatively accurate.