Unfortunately, one of the side effects that go along with having diabetes is having to check and monitor your blood sugar. You need to use a blood glucose meter to do this with. You can have one of the two different types of diabetes. There is type 1 or type 2. Most people with diabetes have type 2.
When you are diabetic, your pancreas may not produce any or enough insulin. If your pancreas does not make any insulin, you have type 1 diabetes. With type 2 diabetes, your pancreas may not make enough insulin or your cells will no longer respond to it by not absorbing the sugar in your blood.
The sugar in your blood comes from the food that you eat. The kind of food that you eat will also determine how much and how fast the sugar count goes up in your blood. Knowing what your blood glucose is through a test can help you choose what foods you can eat, or possibly if you need any medication. So home diagnostics are important when monitoring your blood sugar.
So what kind of blood glucose monitoring system to get? First you should disgust this with your doctor. He or she can point you to the proper type that you require. Your diabetes may be severe enough that you will have to be able to use only certain types of meters. This will require you to have a good blood glucose monitoring system.
However, knowing a little about them ahead of the time might help you ask the right questions for blood glucose meter comparison. It would be good to read some meter kit reviews to learn more. You will also need to know where you should take your blood sample from, along with how much blood will be needed. Most meters need at least 1 micro liter of blood. Nevertheless, there are new meters coming out that require less blood than a microliter.
Where you get your blood sample from too will need to be considered. It requires different meters to take blood samples from parts of your body other than your finger tips. Some meters will allow you to take your sample from your forearm or upper arm. Even your calf area can be used as an alternate site. But here again, you have to talk with your doctor to find out where you need to be getting your samples of blood.
Know the time some meters take to perform the test on your blood. Some can take as little time as 3 seconds and some meters need 15 seconds or more. How do you calibrate the meter? You can find some that use a test strip, and others will require you to use a solution with a known value to make sure that your meter is giving you the correct reading.
Find out the difference in test strip cost. This can be $.50 to over a dollar for each one. Some meters use individual strips and others use cartridges that have 10 tests per disc. Others will use a 17 test drum. This saves from having to get out a test strip each time that you need to test. Your meter will be loaded for 10 tests with each disc loaded.
One important part of testing you blood glucose value is keeping a record what the readings are. The less expensive meters will only give you your reading and some will keep a record of it so that you can down load it on to your computer.
Some more expensive meters can also download their memory through an infrared link to your PDA. This way you will have a record of your reading with a time stamp. Keeping a good record of what your test values are with what you ate before hand is a must
In the long run, you will even be able to get your meter free from some suppliers. The meter manufactures will make their money on the test strips that you have to use. So know the cost of them to really get a hand for what it can cost to test your blood with the best glucose meter.
