Shoot Up or Put Up

Well chaps, after nearly 18 months of thinking about it I’ve finally gone and done a video blog. It’s a review of Bayer’s Contour USB meter and it’s almost unbearably  brilliant. In my view.

Anyway, watch and enjoy; and do let me know if you like the video blog format and I’ll do some more – we actually rather enjoyed doing it! Huzzah!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was getting some new software for recording my diabetic data to replace my old Accu-Chek Compass software.  Compass was created in Microsoft Access and was not so much outdated as positively prehistoric!  As I’m in the lucky position of using one of the biggest, blackest, butchest and best BG meters in existence, the excellent Accu-Chek Compact Plus from Roche Diagnostics (pfft, hardly – Tim], it’s pretty obvious the software was from the same source to allow PC and meter to communicate.  As always, there is no communications standard to allow any meter to access any software, manufacturers are far too proprietorial for that!

The software comes with a new USB cable to replace the old one that hooked into the serial port.  Shaped a little like a cloverleaf it has an electric blue flashing light designed to induce seizures in anyone unfortunate enough to be epileptic as well as diabetic.  I’ve not yet found a way to switch this light off; if I do I’ll let you know.  What this light signifies though is that by placing your meter with its infra-red port pointing towards it, switching the meter to communication mode will automatically start the download.  The downside is that this pops up a window requiring input from the user, but it pops up in the background rather than on top of all other open windows, so unless you know about it you’re left wondering what’s going on.  Apart from that, the communication between meter and PC is easy and quick.

Once you’ve downloaded some data, the differences in the software quickly become apparent.  Installing it and setting it up is frightfully easy, especially if you’ve been using Compass as you can port all your data across into 360°, making the transition pretty much seamless.  The Main Menu page is still a little on the clunky side, but attractive enough and easily navigable.  Where this software really scores over its predecessor though, is the amount of data that can be stored and the additional information that can be input by the user.  As well as all the downloaded data from the meter it’s possible to input insulin doses, events, and comments on the diary entries, as well as recording a wealth of other information such as HbA1c, blood pressure, three types of cholesterol, height, weight and a list of medications amongst other things.  Almost everything can be printed out, emailed, or faxed directly from the current screen with relative ease.

Reporting from the system is also pretty comprehensive, though the reports are only customisable to a certain extent and there doesn’t appear to be any way to create new custom reports.  Having said that though, data is exportable to Excel or Open Office with little bother, so custom reports are available for the geekier geeks.

Over and above the reports available such as the log book and diary, the standard graphical reports are perfectly adequate and make communication with diabetes professionals pretty straight forward.  Personally I use the Trend Graph more than any other, though the Target Chart is quite useful too.  In all cases a raft of statistics are also available to keep track of your lifestyle.  The program now offers three reports for pump users as well; though not being a pumper I was unable to try these with live data, so I have absolutely no idea of how useful they are.

In conclusion then; Accu-Chek 360° is easy to set up, easy to use and provides all the information you could wish for in a clear and reportable format.  The ability to add data to diary/log book entries makes it eminently suitable for both T1 and T2 diabetics (Roche must have read all those emails I sent them!)  The whole package is easy to use, though not perfect of course, but generally head and shoulders above its predecessor.  The biggest drawback of course, is that it’s tied solely to Accu-Chek meters, a minor point I know, but a more open system would be so much better.

Like all of us I’m slowly advancing towards my twilight years and the inevitability of a cold, unforgiving grave; the rictus grin of Death himself the only certainty. Life is but a mere spark of light between two endless eternities of darkness.

But, hey, it’s not all misery and despond. Through age comes wisdom and I can now more closely empathise with the elderly – soon I will be an elderly myself, after all. So I think I’ve come to know what old people like and don’t like.

On the “like” list comes beige overcoats, tea cakes and pretending to be deaf. While high entries on the “don’t like” list include disrespectful teenagers, harsh winters and Dr. Harold Shipman.

Also on this list of likes must surely come Abbott’s FreeStyle Freedom Lite. Essentially this meter is the brother of my current favourite meter – the Freestyle Lite. It’s perhaps the slightly more backward, ugly, socially shunned brother, but a brother all the same.

Your first impression of the Freedom is that it’s much bigger than the standard Lite and features only two buttons instead of the three. The screen is about twice the size of the Lite and so the readings can be read from the other side of the room –ideal for those with crappy eyesight.

The Freedom uses Abbott’s newish test strips, with their slightly odd “ZipWik” nodules, which are easily the best and slurpiest on the market at the minute. They don’t require coding, use a nice small 0.3µL sample and take 5 seconds to spit out a result. For our outside-UK readers, I’ve no idea how much they cost per packet; given they’re free on the NHS they could cost more than unicorn’s blood for all I care. Anyway, they’re wonderful little test strips which allow you to top up the sample if you don’t put enough on first time round – absolutely great if you’re trying desperately to get blood out of freezing cold hands.

Alert readers will have noted that I mentioned above the Freedom has one fewer button than the standard Lite. I’m afraid to say that this button relates to the wonderful LED which lights up the strip on the Lite which appears to have been abandoned. Speaking of lights, the Freedom doesn’t even have a backlight for Heaven’s sake. The test strip light was easily the best feature of the Lite, so quite why Abbott haven’t included it on this meter I’m not sure. As a result the Freedom fails the 4am test miserably. Bah!

The meter can store 400 results, has 7, 14 and 30 day averages and has four reminder alarms. In terms of sexiness, the Freedom isn’t as petite as the standard Lite but it’s still a good looking meter. It’s slim and sleek but still has a massively huge display which is great. The test result beeps can be turned off or, indeed, turned up so they are deafeningly loud, which is ideal if you like to annoy people at the theatre.

So, in summary, the FreeStyle Freedom Lite is quite a good meter and is ideal for those of us with poor sight. Quite why Abbott didn’t give it a light is anyone’s guess and it drops points for this idiotic oversight.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the review, I’m off – there’s some guy with scythe hanging around behind me…

Sample size > 4/5
0.3µL – fine.

Test time > 3/5
Five seconds – we can live with it

Test strip calibration > 5/5
No calibration required – huzzah!

Test strip slurpiness > 5/5
Excellent – the best strips out there.

Memory > 3/5
Fine, nothing to get too thrilling about

Sexiness > 3/5
Big but sexy

Beeping > 5/5
Can be turned off or turned up to irritate the neighbours

4am test > 0/5
No light! No light? What were they thinking?

Grand total: 28/40

Have a look at all our meter reviews here.

Think back to the wonderful day you were diagnosed with Type One. Ah, what lovely memories. The smell of hospital detergent, the sinking feeling in your belly as you realised with a dread chill that your life would never be the same; the moderately caring but slightly detached consultant; wondering what the hell diabetes was and how long you had to live. Such happy days.

After the initial shock you would – hopefully – be given a crash-course to teach you how to stand in for your pancreas, now that the stupid bloody thing had decided to conk out on you.

Weighted down with leaflets about driving with diabetes, drinking with diabetes, eating with diabetes and booklets detailing the thrills and spills of peripheral neuropathy you would have probably be issued with one of these little beauties, the almost completely ubiquitous Optium Xceed.

The Optium Xceed is the AK47 assault rifle of the blood-glucose meter world. Simple to use, easily available, known all the world round and standard issue to the newly-diagnosed. While quite a lot of us gadget-obsessed geeks have moved on to something slightly more sophisticated, I bet pretty much all of us have one of these in a bottom-drawer somewhere if they’re not in actual active use.

The main reason for the Xceed still hanging around is that it’s one of the very few meters that can check for ketones. I’m probably a negligent diabetic but I never, ever, ever, ever check my ketones. I know I’m diabetic (obviously), I know sometimes my blood glucose goes high (obviously) and I know that, as sure as day follows breakfast, that I will sometimes produce ketones when I’m high. I don’t really need a meter to tell me something so strikingly obvious aside the occasional exceptional emergency.

Though saying that, I do own an Oregon weather station that tells me it’s raining outside (it does a lot of that in Scotland) when I could simply look out of the window. I didn’t need that meter to tell me that but I still have it. So maybe, the whole ketone measuring thing does have a place after all. Or maybe they’re just pandering to the lunatics who adhere to the late, lamentable Atkins’ diet; who calculate the diet isn’t working unless they’re producing ketones. Nutters.

Anyway, getting down to blood glucose measuring itself, the meter needs to be calibrated with each new set of test strips, which is a bit of pain. The test strips themselves come individually foil-wrapped, which I’m sure is great for something but the extra unwrapping just annoyingly adds another step to the tedium of testing. Also your bag also soon fills up with a tonne more crap compared to other meters.

The strips themselves are relatively slurpy, require quite a small sample of 0.3µL and tests take 5 seconds. All in all not world class, but acceptable. Just. Moving on down the specifications list, it has a 450-test memory and 7, 14 and 30 day averaging. You can also download your results to your computer, should you choose too.

So, if it wasn’t for the ketone measuring thing, this meter would be consigned to the bin. But because of the ketone-thing and the fact I once saw this model on an episode of BBC’s Casualty when they had some poor bloke falling into a diabetic coma, or something, on an episode – I nudged my wife excitedly, “I’ve got one of them!” So for that reason alone it deserves to remain in the drawer with some out of date test strips for emergency use.

So to summarise:

Sample size > 5/5
0.3µL

Test time > 2/5
5 seconds

Test strip calibration > 2/5
Yes, each batch needs calibrating

Test strip slurpiness > 2/5
Perhaps slightly waterproof compared to other strips

Memory > 2/5
450 tests

Sexiness > 2/5
Too ubiquitous to be sexy – a victim of it’s own success

Beeping > 5/5
Yes, can be turned off

4am test > 3/5
Comes complete with backlight and is relatively straightforward to use

Grand total: 23/40

Read our other meter reviews

It’s fast approaching the end of 2009 and every form of media is crammed with lazy, poorly composed “end of the year” reviews. And, of course, your soaraway Shoot Up is no exception.

But forget those boring articles, TV clip shows or back-slapping awards ceremonies you see on the television. Who cares about comedy awards, or Baftas or even the Oscars, when you have Shoot Up’s soaraway Blood Glucose Meter of the Year award? Yes, I’ve poured myself into my dinner suit to write this article live from the glitzy surroundings of our kitchen table! Woo!

2009 has been a controversial year for blood glucose meters (actually, it hasn’t; I’m just trying – without much success – to add a tiny degree of dramatic tension to the proceedings…) with a whole range of new meters coming on the market, some of which I’ve bothered to test.

Anyway, the first that must have a mention (if only a dishonourable one) is of course Menarini’s GlucoMen LX, which was almost universally despised by anyone who’s had the misfortune to use one. Nasty, tacky and cheap, the GlucoMen LX inspired nothing but revolted disdain in this reviewer. Hopefully Menarini will try harder next time and I hope they forgive me for getting my horrible review to be the second result in Google’s search results for their product.

Moving swiftly on, the Accu-Chek Aviva Nano is certainly worthy of mention for its sexy, sleek looks and useful functions. However, it was badly let down by Accu-Chek’s crappy looking test strip that just makes the whole lot look ugly. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a perfectly good test strip – but it needs a serious redesign to sex it up.

But, in my view, this year’s winner is the pretty wonderful Abbott Freestyle Lite. It looks pretty sexy, has some of the best test strips on the market and two great features. The first is the ability to add more blood to a sample if you don’t squeeze out enough first time around, which saves wasting a strip. And also stops the utter, utter misery having to repeat a test after you’ve spent 5 minutes trying to get blood out of freezing cold fingers. The second worthy feature is a little LED that lights up the test strip when you’re testing in the dark. A simple addition – but one that’s bloody marvellous.

So there we have it – congratulations to Abbott and their joyful Freestyle Lite. Here’s to 2010 – cheers!

You can see all our blood glucose meter reviews here.

While ancient diabetics like Alison and me (Alison is especially ancient) are at least moderately clued up about diabetes, teenage diabetics are often thought of as a neglected demographic with little decent information aimed at them.

Attempting to redress this balance, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals have recently recorded and made a whole load of podcasts for young diabetics available for download from their website.

They must be good as diabetic god Sir Steve Redgrave says they’re wonderful  on the hospital’s press release.  However, being a Redgrave atheist, I downloaded them for myself and had a listen.

I was half-expecting them to be somewhat patronising, but was pleased to hear that they’re not (however, saying that, I am in my thirties and what I think isn’t patronising might differ wildly from what a teenager might think is patronising, but I digress).

I started off with the wildly depressing podcast “Diabetes, Sex and So On”, which details the nightmarish and sorry tale of a diabetic who didn’t control their glucose levels during their pregnancy and so gives birth to a crippled baby who then promptly dies. Cheerful stuff.

However things looked up from there, with the “Nights Out” podcast being an entertaining and somewhat sordid story of a bunch of lads getting seriously boozed up on beer, vodka and Red Bull and going out clubbing. Inevitably the diabetic in the party has a hypo and starts getting aggressive and mouthy with a bouncer; everything gets fractious and they all get arrested, receive a mild beating from the local constabulary and spend a night in the cells. All good wholesome stuff!

This particular podcast did however contain my favourite practical (and somewhat earthy) diabetes tip. If you’re out clubbing, try and pull so you’ve got someone to take back to your room. Said pullee (if there is such a word) can then make sure you’re okay if you have a hypo. If only I used that line back when I was single…

Anyway, the podcasts continue with a range of useful experiences and tips in a very accessible format. Diabetes information can generally be a bit dry but, aside from a safe-sex message that was shoehorned into one podcast, I thought they were a good attempt by Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals to put across useful information in a non-patronising way. Good for them!

I was having a look at the Accu-Chek Compact Plus recently as part of a forthcoming review (hurrah! I hear all you blood-glucose-meter-review fans cry!) and my attention was drawn to the finger pricker, lancet delivery device or whatever you want to call it.

Normally when I review a meter I don’t usually bother with the finger prickers, as they’re all pretty much of a muchness. If you’re interested (which I assume you’re not) I use a pricker that came with the Wavesense Jazz as it’s teeny-tiny and stupidly simple to use. Anyway, the inescapable fact of it is that to get a blood sample to test your blood glucose, you have to shove a sharp bit of metal in your finger, causing it to bleed out a bit of your precious gooey life force onto a test strip. There’s simply no avoiding the whole metal-in-finger thing.

However the finger pricker which came with the Compact Plus claimed to be considerably less painful than other finger prickers. Being quite simple, I was blinded by Accu-Chek’s science but essentially it seems it uses an air-driven pump to shove the lancet into your finger rather than the conventional spring. Apparently this means the lancet wiggles around less as it carves its way through your flesh and is thus less painful.

Intrigued, I gave it go.

“Ow!” I said as the lancet thrust its way into my bloodied little finger.

Yup, you’ve guessed it – I noticed absolutely no discernible difference between the Accu-Chek, it hurts just as much as a normal device. Oh well.

I know that finger pricking doesn’t really hurt all that much (unless, of course, you’re a complete wimp) but after doing it a zillion times a day, day-in day-out, it does get somewhat tiresome. So any improvement on the whole pain thing is good in my book – so ten out of ten for Accu Chek for effort; one out of ten for effectiveness.

Lifescan’s OneTouch Ultra2 is my current meter of choice and I don’t really know why.

Like a long-term relationship between partners who don’t love each any more, yet can’t be bothered to go to the effort of breaking up, I’m almost completely ambivalent about it. My Ultra2 isn’t really too bad, certainly isn’t abusive and hasn’t been sleeping around with other meters, so I just trundle along with it every day. There’s just no need to get another meter.

On paper at least the Ultra2 is perfectly fine, at 5ul the sample size is okay, but not exactly market-leading. The test time of five seconds is bearable but, again, nothing spectacular. It has a back-light, the colour of which – through lots of association – I instantly associate with night-time hypos (very odd that – a colour being associated with a physiological action; I guess it’s like ersatz synesthesia . Possibly.)

Anyhoo, it’s quite nice to look at, is relatively small and is pretty simple to use. The infernal beeping can be turned off and it does pass the 4am hypo test pretty well. It’s got a pretty big memory for your readings and can be hooked up to the obligatory PC software for further analysis, which is nice, but something even I (as a dedicated computer geek) can never, ever be bothered to do.

So there we have it – the Ultra2 is a perfectly fine meter, it’ll never set the world alight but it does what it’s supposed to.

However, having written this review, I’ve realised it’s a relationship I no longer want to be in, so as soon as I’ve updated my prescription I’m leaving the Ultra2 forever and running off with the sexy, young thing that is the Abott Freestyle Lite – wish me luck!

Sample size – 3/5
0.5μL – fine, I guess.

Test time – 2/5
5 seconds – meh.

Test strip calibration – 0/5
Nope, no automatic calibration

Test strip slurpiness – 5/5
Equal with the best on the market

Memory – 4/5
500 readings – not too shabby

Sexiness – 3/5
A little plain-Jane but bearable

Beeping – 5/5
Can be turned off

4am test – 3/5
No worse than any other meter without a test strip light

Total – 30/40

Check out the manufacturer’s web site or read about our reviews.

Forget this summer’s latest CGI-laden action-adventure, bloody zombie gore-fest or the latest chick flick featuring four women who can’t get a boyfriend and then moan about the poor unfortunate saps when they do finally get one. No, forget all that – because this summer’s massive blockbuster is undoubtedly Sugar Drop – the first part of screenwriter Tom Craig’s Bitter Sweet Trilogy.

Since the invention of celluloid the world has been waiting for a mash up of the horror and diabetic genres and, finally, Tom has delivered to a grateful world with the beautifully filmed story of a hypoglycaemic man trapped in a lift without access to Lucozade, Fruit Pastilles or even Mar Bars. As his hypo gets gradually worse are his hallucinations the result of low blood glucose or are they something more sinister?

Tom Craig is a member of Type One club (Yay – lucky him!) and wrote the trilogy’s screenplays based on personal experience (though I suspect he doesn’t have hallucinations about mysterious blond women and scowling kids in red frocks – would be cool if he did though).

As hinted at the by the whole “Trilogy” thing, Tom is planning two more films. The second, as yet untitled, film is about a man going blind who decides to spend his remaining sighted time destroying the beauty of the world around him. While the third will be loosely based on the story of American Edwarda O’Bara, who has spent the past 39 years in a diabetic coma.

So plenty of cheerful knockabout japes to come! Anyway, here at your soaraway Shoot Up we love things that are a) diabetic; b) British; c) very, very cool, so have a look at the trailer yourself at http://www.sugardropmovie.co.uk/ and see what you think.

• http://www.sugardropmovie.co.uk/
• University of Derby press office

Much like a Russian bride I once tried to buy via the Intermaweb, on paper the Menarini GlucoMen LX looks great. But also much like Irena (the aforementioned Russian bride) the reality is just not like the description.

Shortly after Irena arrived in the United Kingdom I noticed that unlike her cheerful smiling pictures I saw on the seedy web site on which I found her, she wasn’t in fact very smiley in person at all. Rather sullen in fact. With a penchant for hitting the vodka. Before breakfast.

Although I tried my best, sadly I had to end things with Irena after I took her to meet my parents. She spent the whole of Sunday lunch swearing, trying to kick the dog (referring to our elderly King Charles Spaniel as “that bloddy Siberian devil”) and – finally – puking a foul-smelling vodka and chicken mix into mum’s pot-porri. Last time I heard Irena had returned to Moscow, where she eventually married a local Mafia boss and was happily settling into the life of a gangster’s moll. Good luck to her!

And it was much the same with the GlucoMen LX (no, really). On paper it does look good. A small sample size, test strips which didn’t need to be calibrated and a fairly good 400 test memory. However, it just looks and feels utterly horrible. Encased in semi-see-through plastic (much like Irena when she was feeling “cекси”, as she put it) the GlucoMen looks tacky and just feels like it will fall apart the minute you breathe on it a little too heavily.

Such poor looks would be forgiveable if the meter had a range of mind-bogglingly useful features. But, perhaps needless to say, it doesn’t. It has the usual range of average results analysis and so on but while the layout and navigation is pretty straightforward it just doesn’t feel particularly intuitive or particularly nice to use.

When there are a multitude of sexier meters out there (in fact, every other glucose meter, ever) there is absolutely no reason to saddle yourself with this vile piece of design. However, if forced upon you by a particularly cruel diabetic clinic or evil insurance company it’ll just about do.

So, top tip for the day – never expect things to be as good as described on the web. Especially if you’re checking out Russian brides.

Sample size – 4/5
0.3μL per sample – pretty good

Test time – 3/5
4 seconds – quick, but not the quickest

Test strip calibration – 5/5
No need to calibrate. Yay!

Test strip slurpiness – 3/5
Averagely fine.

Memory – 3/5
400 records – not bad, not bad.

Sexiness – -5/5
Scores minus points for its utter hideousness

Beeping – 5/5
Can be turned off.

4am test – 2/5
Not great, but not entirely a disaster either.

Grand total – 20/40

Check out our other blood glucose meter reviews or go to the manufacturer’s site