[acb-diabetics] Solo V2: Was Re: Introducing myself

[Dorothea Martin]

Hello, Mike,
Your statement about the deplorable situation of home blood glucose 
meters is certainly something I can agree with. The situation of 
talking meters is even worse.
We have the Prodigy Voice, it speaks everything except "Insufficient 
blood," and includes the low reading in the average. And it talks and 
talks, in your purse, pocket and everywhere else.
We have the Solo V2. It has corrected the nonstop talking problems with 
buttons that are not very sensitive, so they don't activate 
inadvertently. It doesn't speak the time of previous readings and only 
speaks the last ten readings. I have a Windows Vista computer and 
haven't been able to install its software without getting an error 
report. Neither the Prodigy Voice nor the Solo V2 is sold in Europe, by 
the way.
There is the SensoCard Plus, made in Ireland. Everything speaks but 
RNIB and Cobolt have discontinued it in favor of--guess what? The Clever Chek.
Now, the Clever Chek, or Clever Choice, as i9t's now called, has its 
setting button in the battery case. All, right, we could put up with 
that, but, it never speaks when there is sufficient blood and the 
testing begins. And The UK has to put up with this? Oh, my God! 
Somebody should open a Prodigy office in Europe.
Then there is the GlukiPlus and its successor, the GlukiDoc, both sold 
by Caretec of Austria. I imagine they work well; everything made by 
Caretec does. And they use Ascensia test strips. But has anyone got 
megabucks? The GlukiPlus costs some 700 euros and the GlukiDoc nearly 
one thousand.
Then we have the Fora V20. The American Foundation for the BGlind says 
that this meter is fully accessible, and a close reading of its 
instruction manual bears this out. But try to find one! Maxi Aids sells 
it for $67, I believe, but try to find one in Europe. It appears to be 
pretty much a copy of the Prodigy Voice with the difference that a 
reading less than 20 milligrams per deciliter is not averaged in.
I guess that blind diabetics in the States should be a bit happy with 
their Prodigy Autocodes (which American Diabetes Wholesale is giving 
away free with 200 test strips), the Prodigy Voice, the Solo V2 and the 
Fora V20, if you want to buy from Maxi Aids. These are all under a 
hundred dollars, even if you don't have insurance. But pity the 
European blind! No good options here.
If anyone knows of options which I haven't found, I would be thrilled 
to be corrected.
Dotty Martin

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