Saturday, 20 August 2011

Optium 'Xceed' Glucose Meter

Yes, here we have yet another Glucose meter...
However, as Ed said before, these devices are quite literally life savers when it comes to diabetes management. Being a Type 1 Diabetic myself, I've become quite attached to my little Xceed, and I must say, over the past 8 years it's been quite interesting observing how the design of these little machines has changed over the years. When I was fist diagnosed, glucose meters were almost twice the size they are today, and while they were very reliable, they were kinda 'average' to look at. These devices weren't designed to be aesthetically pleasing, but merely to keep people healthy. 

These days however, greater care seems to have been taken into making the devices a more small and discreet. This is great, because they're now much easier to carry around and much more subtle in situations where you want to test your sugars without attracting attention! The interface is very simple, with only 3 main buttons (an extra button on the side for a backlight). The device is light, and you only need to replace the battery once every 10-12 months which is a plus, as there are already too many things the average diabetic needs to remember to replace!

My only real problem with these devices over the years, is the difficulty is takes to take a blood test in a dark room. While the back light does indeed light up the screen, it doesn't help in the slightest when it comes to inserting the disposable 'test strips' into the machine and putting your blood onto it. In situations where you don't want to turn on all the lights in a room and wake other people up, it's quite annoying.

Otherwise though it's a fantastic little device, and I'm very thankful for the work that has gone into it.

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