I am a 54 year old female and was diagnosed with Type 2 last Spring after a Health MOT at the surgery. It was a massive shock but Iimmediately decided to do the 8 week blood sugar diet. I’d read the book already but had put off doing anything about it. I decided this was the wake-up call I needed. Within 3 months I’d shed about 20 pounds and felt much better. When I was re-tested after 3 months of the original diagnosis, my levels had come down to normal so I was very pleased. I have managed to maintain the weight loss and find the diet a good one to follow. I have completely lost my craving for crisps but still have cravings for chocolate so I try and eat dark chocolate with 85% cocoa content. I’ve never been a drinker so alcohol is not a problem and have never smoked. However, between Christmas and New Year I did fall off the wagon with chocolate and put on 5 pounds. I knew I would it was just too much of a temptation! I suppose I thought i could get away with it. However, within a week old symptoms of being very thirsty and going to the loo a lot returned. Have managed to lose the 5 pounds I gained within a week . I am due to have my blood tests again this month for my 6 month check. I have noticed I’m very thirsty so am worried about what my results are going to be. I really want to control this by diet alone. The surgery never gave me a glucose monitor so am thinking I need to measure levels myself. Any advice would be appreciated.

Sorry I cant help you on a brand of monitor as I live in France and mine is on prescription. However, there is another thread running on this subject and you will find it if you type blood sugar (or glucose) monitor in the search at the top of the page.

Hi joannesusan

Sorry for the late reply I’ve been away for a few days and am just catching up on things here.
I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes last August so understand and sympathise with the shock of your initial diagnosis – and yes, I’m exactly the same with alcohol (doesn’t bother me) and chocolate (still a weakness as I also discovered at Christmas). Your initial weight loss and return to normal blood sugar levels are great results!

I’ve used 2 blood glucose monitors which I posted about last week. I’ve copied parts of that post below for info. If you look under Resources above and then scroll down to Helpful Products there are a couple of BG monitors suggested on there. I also spent a lot of time on the diabetes.co.uk forum searching and checking out people’s views on various monitors. Lots of different opinions, I’m afraid. In the end I think you have to go with your best instincts about what will suit you.

Good luck
Marie

Post
I have 2 blood glucose monitors – an SD Codefree and an Accu-Chek Performa Nano. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes at the beginning of August and got the meters at the end of August so have been using them for between 4 & 5 months.

The SD Codefree is the one I use on a daily basis to test before and 2 hours after my meals (so 4 times a day right now). The SD Codefree was recommended by a lot of people on the forum at diabetes.co.uk. There is some general information about the SD Codefree here https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose-meters/sd-codefree-blood-glucose-meter.html .

One of the reasons people suggest it (probably the main one) is that the test strips are cheap compared to those for some of the other monitors. The starter pack, (which includes the monitor, the lancing device, a few lancets and test strips, is £15.50 (slightly cheaper if you are diabetic). On-going costs include the lancets (£5 per 100) and test strips (£9.23 – 50, £46 – 250). There is also a discount code which is in a number of posts in the diabetes.co.uk forum – easy to find – which will reduce cost of testing strips slightly.

I’ve also got an Accu-Chek Performa Nano which I bought just after the Codefree. I bought it because it was the bg monitor recommended to GP practices to provide for eligible patients in my area and I found it on offer (rare) in a local pharmacy! I’ve used this to record and show my data to clinicians, so e.g. I used it for 2 weeks before my last meeting with the practice nurse and used these numbers rather than the Codefree numbers. I’ve also used it at times to compare with Codefree readings. The Performa Nano starter pack is £24.95 from Boots, (more expensive on Amazon), the test strips are £20 for 50 (Boots, again – didn’t check Amazon).

There is a question about the accuracy of the monitors generally. In my experience, the Codefree readings are consistently higher than the readings from the Performa Nano, (I don’t know, of course, which is more accurate) and I get the odd anomalous reading, more than with the Performa Nano.
All things being equal, I’d prefer the Performa Nano. But the Codefree is much cheaper to run and it does a ‘good enough’ job for me. I’ve found it helpful in seeing the trend in my readings over time (downwards, yeah). It’s also been good at identifying any after meal spikes – equally as good at this as the Performa Nano….

Thank you for responding. Good to hear from someone else who has been diagnosed recently. I’m due my six-monthly check-up this month so will be interesting to see how the readings compare with those in July. Had the blood test on Monday so fingers crossed this diet is still working. I was supplementing some carbohydrate items with those in the book but am finding it is better the less of those things I have as it just makes me more hungry. Good luck to you too.

Thanks, Joannesusan – Like you I followed the BSD, lost weight (still got more to lose though) and my blood glucose levels are back in the normal range. I really hope the Hba1c results are positive for you – but if not, remember, you’ve done it once and you can do it again.

Do let us know how you get on. Take Care

Hi Joannesusan, you might just ask your GP for a blood test kit. It’s not the monitor, but the test strips which are expensive and mine certainly gave me one and prescribes the test strips too. Good luck with your blood test.

Hi Guys,

A little help requested if possible please.

I am using an Element Infopia Blood Sugar test meter obtained from my Docs.

The question is does anyone have any experience regarding readings levels when using this meter?
I ask as quite recently my levels have shown a steady rise which is stressing me out!

Just after Christmas my 3 monthly Hba1c check was fine.

Thanks very much,

Nigel.