We have one Precision Xtra meter and we love it for night-time testing of ketones at home. In contrast, whenever ketones need to be tested at school I go to the school and use either my meter from home or the ketostix. What I would like is to get a second meter to keep at school. So I called Abbott Diabetes Care and (thought) I was told that they had another program that would offer a meter. It turns out that the other program was a discount program and they would not provide a complimentary meter. Are Precision Xtra meters still available for free anywhere?
How often does your DD have to check Ketones at school? We use the Precision meter at home as well, but have only had to use it a few times. We just use the ketostix at school for our DD, she has never had to test ketones at school.
Our endo gave us a spare. Otherwise, Walgreens usually has the best sale price on them, and they do go on sale fairly frequently.
Alan, I would ask your endocrinilogist or HMO if they have some spare meters. If you have a local Abbot rep I would see if they have some. Or if there is diabetes expo going on soon I would go and see what "goodies" they are handing out. Just some ideas. Jen
Just curious, what is your criteria for checking for ketones? In the almost 6 years of doing this I don't think she has ever checked for ketones at school.
we get extras from the endo, we keep one at school and also get sample glucose strips from the endo and have it as a backup meter. At our school they will test any single bg over 300, not like at home and only test after 2 BG's over 300 and after a correction.
I just received the free meter 2 days ago. Last week I called Abbot and told them I would like to try the blood ketone meter and asked if they could send me one. They did...
Thank you all for your responses - I will check with the endo. My daugter is always high between breakfast and am snack even though we dose very aggressively at breakfast. If she is over 350 and going out for recess or gym and also maybe fighting a bug then we check. I know many others check more often but our experience is that she rarely gets ketones - she just is not prone to them. It may just be me but I feel awkward asking the aid (not even a nurse) at school to handle urine. This year I will be felling less awkward since there is now a private bathroom right in the room where first aid and such is offered. But last year they were using the public restrooms.
Our endo gave us 2 at Dx of everything so we had supplies at home and school. We also learned that insurance will pay for meters with an Rx. But have so ar gotten free ones from the clinic who have gotten them from reps to give out
