Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Misty on August 22, 2008 at 6:59am

It's the only monitor I have used so far because my doctor gave it to me for free. My insurance doesn't cover the strips though so I have a OneTouch on the way. I wish someone would get the bright idea to make generic strips because the strips are so expensive.

Permalink Reply by tmana on August 22, 2008 at 9:11am

Get in touch with the folk at Freestyle Promise 1-866-246-2683 and sign up. One of the bennies is subsidy up to $50/month for strips.

OTOH, if insurance covers OneTouch completely... go for it! (I'm about to buy a third One Touch to add to my under-review set -- CVS has the Ultra Smart on sale for $26.99... I also have to call CVS to start the process for my next refill of Freestyle strips.)

Permalink Reply by Dana on September 5, 2008 at 1:24pm

Thanks for the info.... I called Freestyle Promise and our co-pay went from $50 mo to $15 ....

Process was quick and painless ...they expect the program to continue for quite sometime and even gave me the numbers to have my pharmacy key in for an immediate fill with the $15 price...

This is a blessing for our family .... If you need financial help with strips...I would definitely sign up for this program ---

Permalink Reply by Lisa on August 23, 2008 at 11:17pm

My freestyle lite is fairly new, and I don't know much about whether or not it offers any advanced features. For instance, is there something I can push/do to get an 'average' reading for a week? A month?

Permalink Reply by tmana on August 24, 2008 at 5:22am

It certainly does.
Without a strip, press the "m" key to turn on the meter. Your 7-day average shows up; "n" is the number of readings on which that average is based. Press the "c" key once toget a 14-day average, again to get a 30-day average, and again to get your most recent reading. Pressing the "c" key each additional time will get you each previous reading. To go back, press the "m" key. (If you press the "m" key when you are on the 7-day average, you'll get the first of the up to 400 tests in its memory; each additional "m" press moves further forward in time.) To turn off the meter in this mode, press and hold the "m" key for about 2 seconds.

For further analysis, if you are on a Windows PC, purchase the connection cable (the serial cable is available directly from Abbott; if you prefer the USB cable, you will need to purchase it from Mini Pharmacy -- it's about $30) and register on the Abbott site for the free Co-Pilot software. It's reports include a logbook, "Glucose Modal Day" (scatter chart of readings based on time of day), "Glucose Line" (scatter chart of how your readings progress over time), "Glucose Average" (two bar charts, based on time of day and day of week), "Glucose Histogram" (bar chart of readings well below, below, within, above, and well above your target ranges), "Glucose Pie" (pie chart versions of the "Glucose Histogram" chart for overall and for each time slice of day over that period), as well as others. The log book makes meals and medical tests a bit tedious to enter manually, but can be used to log both of those sets of data.

Permalink Reply by Dana on September 3, 2008 at 12:06pm

My daughter who is 7 and was dx'd about 3 yrs ago has always used Freestle monitors - we tried others but could not get enough blood and found ourselves throwing away tons of strips because we didn't get enough blood for a valid reading -- We are currently using the Freestyle Lite... Mom loves it because I can check BG in the middle of the night without having to turm on a light in the room --

Works out great for us !!!

Permalink Reply by kevin lajoie on November 6, 2008 at 4:07am

I started using the original Freestyle in 2002. I switched to the Freedom Lite this February.

Permalink Reply by Sarah M on March 22, 2009 at 5:44am

i ve been using the original Freestyle since i was diagnosed 7 yrs ago
Freestyle r the best coz they take a tiny blood sample.

Permalink Reply by tmana on April 5, 2009 at 8:35pm

I looked at the One Touch Ultra2, UltraMini, and UltraSmart alongside the Freestyle Flash and Freedom in the meter review I did last year (check my TuD blog for the various posts in the series). The short and long is: One Touch is a much larger sample and you have to get it in all at once (inside 5 seconds) or you get a wasted strip. The software is nice, and the UltraSmart has a lot of nice logging bells and whistles. The Ping meter is the form factor of the UltraSmart but with only the meter smarts of the Ultra2 because they needed room to put all the Ping controller stuff.

Permalink Reply by Emmy on April 29, 2009 at 9:03pm

The Freestyle uses the tiniest blood sample out there. Love it!

The One Touch requires a HUGE blood sample and I ended up throwing away a LOT of wasted test strips. My husband has no trouble getting enough blood for the vampires though, LOL!

Permalink Reply by Emmy on April 16, 2009 at 11:52am

I started using a Freestyle back in 2006.

When I started looking at all the meters offered at the pharmacy it was very confusing. I wasn't familiar with testing at all, and they all seemed to offer different features. I went home and did some research and found out that the Freestyle had the smallest sample requirements, and also allows testing on your arm or leg. That had me sold. I started testing in 2006.

I have tried a lot of different brands and always end up coming back to the Freestyle. The only other meter that I really like is the One Touch Ultra Smart and the One Touch Ultra 2, both of which allow diary entries, so you can tell if the reading was before or after a meal. I wish my Freestyle offered this feature, or that the One Touch would use a smaller sample. Since I have nerve damage its very hard for me to get a blood sample at all, so I'll stick with the Freestyle for now.

The newest model of the Freestyle, both the larger and smaller versions both allow you to reapply blood, for up to one minute, which saves test strips. They also do not require coding, which is great.

I have the software for both brands and use it for taking a report to my doctor, endo and nurse.

Permalink Reply by Nyxks on April 28, 2009 at 10:34pm

I started with the Freestyle Mini December 2003

Got my new Freestyle Lite 4 months ago, like the no need to code deal, but prefer my mini still

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