Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the end of January 2012. I got this meter from my pharmacist who highly recommended it. Despite cutting my carbs/sugar to 20 grams or less per day, my blood glucose readings were all over the place so I thought my meter was a dud. The Metformin medication I was prescribed caused gastric distress so my physician put me on a clear liquid diet to clear it up. During the clear liquid diet which consisted of water, fat free, msg free chicken broth and sugar free jello, I had to go back in for an additional lab. I had been on the clear liquid diet for over a day and a half and yet my blood glucose readings would frequently shoot up to almost 200! When I went to the lab to have the test done, I asked them if they could test my blood glucose as well and at the same time, I would use my meter to test. I honestly thought the result would be that my meter was a lemon. I tested on my Bayer Contour using the same blood sample as the lab used. My meter reading said 183 and the lab test was 186. The head of the lab said that is very accurate for a home meter. It ended up my blood glucose was so high because of a substance called "Maltodextrin" which was in the sugar free jello I was ingesting. Once I cut out all products with maltodextrin in them from my diet, my blood glucose quickly normalized and has been in the normal range ever since. Things you should know about using this meter: 1. Wash your hands prior to handling your strips - using alcohol on the finger you will be poking to do your test is not enough. Natural oils and any other substance that may be on your hands can skew your results and it's very hard to handle a strip without actually touching the area where the blood goes and the area that fits into the meter. 2. Do not handle the alcohol wipe until after you've handled your testing strip and inserted it into the meter. Once I use the alcohol wipe on my finger, I wave my hand around for a few seconds until the alcohol has dried. If you don't do this prior to pricking your finger, your results could be off due to the wet alcohol mixing with your blood sample. 3. As one other reviewer noted, do not "milk" your finger to get the blood out. Prick your finger and then apply a gentle pressure to either side of the spot you pricked until you get a small drop of blood. 4. When applying the end of the strip to your drop of blood, DO NOT dip it into the blood. Barely touch the edge of the strip to the blood sample and it will "sip" it up into the strip. Absolutely do not dip the strip so far into the sample that you actually touch it to your finger or your results will be skewed. When I follow the above procedures, my results are accurate. I can test several times within seconds of a prior test and it is always within a point or two of the previous test. One last thing: I always test on the same finger. I'm left handed so I test in my right index finger. I set my lancet to the very shallowest setting that makes it so I can get a viable blood sample. There's no need for you to jam the lancet deeply into your finger. All that does is make the area sore and takes longer to heal. I generally test twice a day and within a few hours of a test, I can barely feel it in my index finger. My original blood glucose average was a whopping 289. With my meter, cutting out maltodextrin products, exercise and cutting carbs back to no more than 20 grams per day, within a month my blood glucose readings are generally somewhere between 80 and 105. I take 1 dose of Metformin a day. It's Metformin ER (extended release) 500mg. An accurate meter is a must because you can't "fix" what you don't know. As soon as I can, I'm going to buy another Bayer Contour meter then and will update my review with whether or not the new meter is reading the same as the one I already have.