And he has a new shiny thing!

Beware you unsuspecting readers. I have a shiny new piece of diabetes gadgetry. It's a Bayer Contour USB blood glucose meter. I was given one by my DSN to trial things for them, my DSN who is also diabetic is going to give one a go too. Here's an interim review of the first day. This will have included a basal test aswell. Here's hoping.

Well, where do I begin. I suppose I'd best start with appearances. When you look at it there is a stonking great screen with three little buttons to the right of it. Then there is the cap that covers the USB point which you thump into the computer. The top is glossy black and the rest is a rather dull by comparison matt black. I'd be happier if it was blue though seeing as I got hold of it without paying a penny I'll shut up about that one now. That's the appearance dealt with.
I suppose the next thing to look at is the actual methodology of doing a test with it. It's pretty standard for a BG meter. Shove in test strip, apply blood and wait. However, after the apply blood step you can select if you want to mark the test in a certain way such as with a pre or post meal marker. Nice that. Then the result pops up onto the COLOUR screen after five seconds have elapsed. You then get further options for markers which vary from exercise through to illness and stress. Handy that when your memory is as crappy as mine is.
Then there is the computer related stuff. The charge time is two hours. I know that's a fair while but according to a friend this lasts her two months. After that which is a little of a let down there is the software which comes with it. For this sort of thing I am of the mindset that follows the KISS principle, no not the blood spewing, face painted glam rockers but that of Keep It Simple Stupid. Plain reasoning really as the less there is to be fiddled with or inadvertently changed the less there is to go wrong. It's quite something the Glucofacts software from Bayer. It's easy to use and fires up as soon as you plug in the meter. It's also bloody easy to navigate around and there are options that are simple to change and there is also the option to print the log book out which is lovely. Saves the somewhat lazy me from writing things out on paper or in Excel. This should work rather well with the Carelink software which I use in conjunction with my Medtronic Veo pump. Hopefully I will be able to save things as a PDF file or something similar to send them to my DSN when the mood takes me.
Now for the ancillaries. That would be the finger pricker. To me this comes across as cheap and nasty. In my opinion it's no way near as good as my Accu Chek Multiclix which I use at the moment. It only carries one lancet as opposed to the six carried by the Multiclix. It's a rather loud thing which isn't hard to make ready for use. Then there is the fact that as these things go it's rather painful to use. Much more so than the Multiclix again. Generally a pretty poor finger pricker. Next the test strips. They are rather tiny compaired to what I have previously used. There are pros and cons to this. The con is that they are a little hard to handle when you're trying to put one into the strip housing to test. That said, the fact that they are bloody tiny is the pro as well as the con.
A small word about the screen. It's in colour and rather large which is nice. However, if you are planning on testing outside on a sunny day as I did today be prepared to squint and create shade with your hands for it. Hands which aren't already occupied with lancet and meter. I think we all need to grow third arms for that.

Right, that's it as far as the interim review goes. I have just tested and got a lovel 6.4 mmol/L.