Salty and Sweet

On Tuesday I started using a new blood glucose meter. I have been using a FreeStyle Flash for several years and absolutely loved it (quite ticked to hear they are no longer making the Flash). In fact a few weeks ago I found a new feature on it that made me fall deeper in love *sigh* with it. But I decided to try the OneTouch UltraLink since it works with the Minimed insulin pump.

To get ya all non-diabetics up to speed, a blood glucose meter tests the amount of glucose floating around in your blood at the point of the test and quantifies it for comparison. This differs from the continuous blood glucose monitor system (CGMS) that I have been trying for many months to get my insurance to pay for (still to no avail). Simply, a meter is like a still frame photograph, a monitor is more like a movie.

The UltraLink has one super-awesome feature when used with a Minimed insulin pump (I guess the most current models only), it magically beams my test result right over to the pump, which allows me to skip the step of sitting there and scrolling to the right number allowing me to dive in to my awaiting food faster. It happens in the blink of an eye. Very slick.

My biggest issue with the UltraLink is the amount of blood it takes to test. OneTouch UL requires 1microL of blood (a fairly large drop) and the FreeStyle uses 0.3microL. It is very difficult to get a whole 1microL in one splunk of my lancet. It’s hard to judge if I got enough blood before the little vampire-like test strip starts sucking my blood into the meter. I can add more blood to the FreeStyle if I didn’t get enough, but I can not to the OneTouch… Kind of like the name, I have One chance or I waste a strip and have to do it all over again. Just now I attempted to test three times before I was successful. Just ridiculous!

While chatting with other diabetics it seems quite a few have issues getting FreeStyle test strips (the disposable strips that suck the blood into the meter), because OneTouch seems to be preferred by insurance companies due to cost. Now… In my past several years (probably 5 years) of using the FreeStyle meter I bet I can count the number of wasted test strips on one hand. Today so far, I have already wasted four. I am already on my second container of four, for my entire month’s allotment, and I am only three days in to my monthly order. I really doubt that FreeStyle strips cost ten times the amount of OneTouch strips (the rate I am going through them). Now how is that for cost savings?!

The Flash… I could go on and on. Aside from my major compliant above, the Flash has a backlight, so I can see my results in dim light (restaurants, dusk outside, at 3am). Also what made me fall even more in love was what I am calling a ’stick light’. I accidentially discovered this fancy little feature not long ago and it quickly became a much desired feature in a meter for me. What it does is send a little beam of light down the test strip (just above it to be precise) so I can see where my speck of blood is and the location on the strip that I need to aim for. This was unbelievably handy when I didn’t want to leave the theater in the middle of Iron Man just to do a post-meal test.

The UltraLink is a very basic meter. It tests and sends my results to the insulin pump. That’s it. No bells, no whistles, no nuttin. No backlight, no stick light, no ability to add extra blood. And it is huuuuuuuuuge. Shoot, I used to carry entire purses as large (tiny?) as the meter case!

I definitely have more freedom with the FreeStyle. I think I will switch back as soon as I finish with my few boxes of test strips…. which since I waste so many, will be very soon!