Blood Glucose Meters

I have been diabetic for several years now, and taking insulin for the last few months.  At times, when I was adjusting medication, in particular when I was working on getting the dosage of the long-acting insulin I am taking adjusted, a blood-glucose meter and test strips was important, and I was testing half a dozen times a day. Now that things are pretty much under control, I test much less frequently, just to make sure that things are staying under control.

At no time, even when I was testing almost obsessively, was a glucose meter my “lifeline” as one of the ads would have it.  Nor does it much matter which brand of meter I use.  I certainly don’t care whether it is “customisable” with different colored plastic panels.  No meter is going to give me any more freedom than any other meter, and all of them require a blood sample, so the line about “no more pricking your fingers” is just short of an outright lie.  You have to prick yourself somewhere, and I have always found my fingers to be the most practical.  I could choose somewhere else, but that is equally true for all meters.

And that, of course, is the manufacturers’ real problem.  All the meters are essentially the same.  The adult diabetic market is huge, and growing, and they each want their piece of it, but they can’t give us any real reason to choose their meter over the other guy’s.

I have news for you, folks.  Insulting my intelligence with silly ads will not win me over.