A Meter for the Road

One more meter for the road is a lot better than another drink. Home Diagnostics in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, just came out with the smallest blood glucose meter ever. People with diabetes now have at least three tiny meters to take along in the car, on the trail, or anywhere we go.

If you are old enough to remember Frank Sinatra’s moving rendition of “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” you will catch my comparison between meters and alcohol for the road. The new meter for anyone who travels is the True2go.

This unbelievably small meter is little bigger than a stack of a dozen quarters. But it weighs a lot less — 0.7 ounces, while the 12 quarters weigh 2.4 ounces.

Small Enough?

Not only that but the True2go has all the basic stats that we look for. It delivers its result in just four second using only 0.5 microliters of our precious blood. And jumping on the bandwagon, it doesn’t need for us to code it.

The two comparable tiny meters are LifeScan’s OneTouch Ultra Mini, which I reviewed for Diabetes Health Professional and Diabetes Health magazines in their December 2006/January 2007 issues, and the Home Diagnostics Sidekick meter, which I reviewed for Diabetes Health magazine in December 2005. The True2go looks a lot like the Sidekick, but takes half as long to return a result and needs less than half as much blood.

Home Diagnostics tells me that the True2go meter lists for $14.99. A vial of 50 test strips goes for $35, and a vial of 100 is $70. The meters are currently available at Walgreens, and they are also going to be sold at Rite-Aid and CVS.

In the interest of completeness I need to add that this is not the only new Home Diagnostics meter. The company came out with theTrueResult meter at the same time. It has the same excellent stats as the True2go. But the TrueResult meter is a standard size meter that doesn’t excite me half as much as the True2go does.

The TrueResult meter lists for $39.99. It has the same availability has the True2go meter.

Both meters use strips that have “GoldSensor Laser Accuracy,” which, according to Home Diagnostics, provide “enhanced precision and accuracy of test results.”

I compared test results that I got from the two new meters. A one point difference is good enough for me.

True2Go Result of 82 mg/dl

TrueResult result of 81 mg/dl

While the True2go’s tiny size excites me, I can’t understand why Home Diagnostics has us mount it on a big round vial of test strips. When I showed it to the guys in my diabetes support group for local men on Saturday, one of them wondered why the meter manufacturers don’t offer tiny flat vials too.

However, we can use the True2go without attaching the vial. When I take this meter on the road with me, I know that I’ll carry a few test strips wrapped up in a baggie or something similar.

This article is based on an earlier version of my article published by HealthCentral.