TheraSense FreeStyle Flash Blood Glucose Meter

Pros: Easy to use, easy to read, accurate and portable
Cons: None I can think of

When dealing with a medical device designed to poke a hole in your skin, you want two things: accuracy and ease of use. The Freestyle Flash by TheraSense provides just that. Multiple medical personnel have told me that it was one of the ...

Pros: Small blood drop, lights, fast time, free cable offer, small size
Cons: Free cable offer not valid if you got the meter for free

I first read about Therasense’s newest meter, the Freestyle Flash, online before it was available. I couldn’t wait to try it out. It looked so cool. Finally, last November, I was able to get one for free by purchasing 100 strips. It ...

Pros: Small Blood Drop, smaller meter, smaller lancer, Light built in!
Cons: A little awkward, smaller size means a bit harder to get sample aligned with strip.

Our young child was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and must check her blood at least 4 times a day. We started with a OneTouch Ultra meter that I must admit was easy to use and works great. We were given a Freestyle Flash meter on an office ...

Pros: Extremely small case, cute factor, anywhere testing
Cons: light not that wonderful, confirmation beep is necessary

I have been a One Touch glucose meter fan all my life. So when Dad switched to Therasense I was curious of his new meter. I quickly decided that my One Touch Ultra was way better than his Therasense Freestyle. But, when he upgraded to the Therasense ...

Pros: small, convenient, painless, uses minimal blood.
Cons: Lancer doesn't keep setting, mine was defective

I was just diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, so this is the first monitor I've used. As others have stated, I have an issue with the lancer, the setting moves too easily and if you don't check it, you may have it set on a setting you don't like ...

Pros: Compact and requires small blood sample.
Cons: Lance is not as good as some.

I recently had to switch away from a Free Style Flash Meter to a One Touch Ultra. The Free Style is smaller and requires less blood to run a test. I like the lance a little better on the One Touch but have had several Error reading on the One Touch and almost never had an Error reading for the Free Style. It is a shame that insurance companies get to dictate which meter you have to use as if having to test is not bad enough.

Pros: Very small, easy to use, quick results.
Cons: Lancing device will not maintain settings...I've gone through 2 of these now.

I love this little meter. I have this and also a regular Freestyle at work. The regular Freestyle is great too and not that much smaller. I don't really use the light feature. However, I've sent one lancing device back and now the one I got in return is doing the same thing.....even on the lowest setting, it feels like it's going to the bone....ouch! It works find for a while (probably a month or so) then just will not keep it's setting. I'll probably return this lancer too, but I'm just going to give up and buy a separate lancer like the Roche I've read good things about here.

Meter is great though. Don't have any accuracy measurements other than the fact that the Freestyle and Flash meters are pretty close and both are the same range I get at the Dr.'s office, so good enough for me.

-Richard

Pros: Small, Painless, accurate
Cons: None!

Great testing meter. Small AND ACCURATE. In reference to review by firefighter; If you read the literature, it tells you that venous blood(from the arm) has less glucose present than capillary blood(fingertips) so you have to test both and compare before using just the test sites besides the finger. I found mine to be only 40mg/dL lower on my arm than finger, and if you vigorously rub the arm area prior to lancing, you will increase blood flow and decrease the difference in readings--if you have trouble with hypoglycemia or suffer from hypoglycemia unawareness you should use the finger-but this tester is relatively painless even on your finger! I used to hate my Dad's old Accu-Check, it just really hurt-you barely feel this one, no kidding I highly recommend it!

Pros: Small and easy to use. A VERY small sample is all that is required.
Cons: Supplied lancing device is weak and may require you to re-stick to get blood drop.

I am a 46 year old pre-diabetes patient. This meter is the only one recommended and handed out free by my employer's on site health care. It seems to be very accurate and is certainly easy to use. My FNP who is diabetic said she has tested/used all of them and this is the simplest and easiest to use. I had problems with the supplied lancer and my nutritionist gave me another one. Larger, stronger spring, gray and blue, may say Bayer on it. Uses the same lancets. A word of advice. Read all the supplied literature and booklet. The FNP did not show me that the strips should contact the sample at a high angle. I was bringing the strip in contact with the sample parallel to it and getting error messages.

Pros: Small drop of blood
Cons: Readings deceptively low & inaccurate

I'm a 16 year fire fighter EMT IVT and have had diabetes for 5 years. We used this meter because it required a smaller drop of blood. We adjusted insulin based on the meter's readings and discovered -- after a brief hospital stay -- that the readings were consistently almost 100 points lower than lab results. We contacted the company and they refused to honor any refund because it had been more than 30 days. If you have diabetes, you can't risk using this meter. Urge you to call the company and demand a recall of the product since they won't grant refunds. Doctor & emergency room suggest Accucheck or One Touch Ultra as consistently accurate with lab results.

Pros: Fast Small Plenty of time to collect sample It really can be painless
Cons: None so far

Great little meter! It's small, fast, and can test samples from many different sites. I can use smaller blood samples and have up to one minute to load the test strip if I don't get enough during the initial sampling. The included lancet supports testing from different locations. My experience for testing on my forearm is truly painless. I plan on testing the download feature in the near future.

Pros: Small,uses small amounts of blood.
Cons: DOES NOT WORK. NO SUPPORT FROM CO.

Tried calling 888 number on back but got voice mail with no response for over a week now. Changed battery but they die every other day. E4 Was error code I got.
Martin McDonagh
fdnysteuben@earthlink.net
www.fdnyseuben.org

Pros: easy to use; small amount of blood needed. They replace any defective equipment.
Cons: Strips are too expensive

When told to start daily testing I thought I would die from finger pain . Introduced to Free Style Flash at training class and a chance to stick myself in the left arm. That was October 2004 and I still use it daily. No pain from the arm site. Guess I have to use the newer model soon when the strips aren't available. The strips are too damn high though.