Personal Blood testing.

[hayabusa]

I often travel to Turkey every year and have tried my mobile Blood tests in Turkey, and they have been giving me very high reading.

Then I was stalking to someone, and they said it could be due to the temperature in Turkey, so I tried to put my test machine in a polythene bag and then in a fridge, but still get the wrong results. When I use the same machine back in UK, it works again, so do not know how to do my tests.

I want to try to buy the test equipment in Turkey, but do not know what it's called, or if you need a Turkish Doctor to prescribe this, or if I can get this over the counter in a pharmacist ?.....

There must be expats with Diabetes who will be doing regular blood test, so any advise guidance is welcomed.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[immac]

I monitor mine occasionally just to check no problems are developing. Renewed my unit last month and in price checking found that all the machines here are the same as those in UK, and prices the same too.
If you buy one here the instructions will be in Turkish but you can get English from their Web sites.

Some examples of machines and strips:

Accu-chek Active ?eker Ölçüm Seti GittiGidiyor'da 137533502

Ascens?a Contour ?eker Ölçüm Cihaz? GittiGidiyor'da 96956973

Select Kan ?ekeri Ölçüm Çubuklar? Strip GittiGidiyor'da 155309579

Bayer Kan ?eker Ölçüm Cihaz? Seti+50 Strip GittiGidiyor'da 154001649

All testers come with strips in the pack.

Try the chemists, take your UK machine in and if they don´t speak English they will soon work it out.

Diabetes kits will be around 60TL with a small pack of strips. Pack of strips around 40TL.

Ian

 

[Maisie]

Hubby is diabetic. We never found this problem with his machine in Turkey. Is your machine an old one? Ours is Accu-Chek. They have just sent us a new one, called Accu-Chek Mobile, beause it looks like a mobile 'phone. Our original had an automatic drum in it with 17 tests (by strip) each. This new one has a cassette with 50 tests in it and - no strips! Great!

It does operate like a mobile with menus and stuff, which we will probably never use.

To be absolutely honest, hubby's tests when in Turkey were much better than here in the UK. We decided that the temperature was affecting this, but in his case for the better. We found that his insulin needs decreased dramatically.

He is on a pen regime where he only takes insulin if his test dictates this. Eat, take insulin. No eating, then no insulin. He has had this pen for many, many years now. It was a suggestion from an Harley Street specialist who hubby got sent to in an endeavour to try and get his erratic diabetes under control. I must say that this regime, as opposed to regular amounts being injected and then having to be "fed", or treated, worked for him for quite a few years. All gone out the window now though. We are back to the seesaw readings.

He has been diabetic now for 39 years (following a bad car accident), and is classed as a long term diabetic. As such, the advice that he is now being given is crap. It didn't work before and isn't working now. Our GP said that as long as hubby is "happy" with the way things are, without side effects, then he might as well just carry on.

Occasionally, someone new at the hospital clinic decides they can solve this. They put him through all sorts of things, none of which work. These people seem to fade away into the background then.

Anyway, can't advise you about your machine. Unless it is an old one without the technology that is in current machines. Moan to whoever you got it from and see what they say.

Good luck.

Maisie

 

[villabaris1]

As I was diagnosed here in Turkey and am on SGK I get my machine free, the testing strips at 80% discount and all my medication free - but you must have a medical report from your hospital doctor which is renewable every 2 years.

The machine that was prescribed for me was the IME-DC (you can see it here on the diabetes.co.uk site along with many others). It is German made and excellent.

Worth remembering of course that the readings here are on a different measuring scale to the UK but the machine switches from one to the other at the touch of a button.
The UK standard is mmol/L and the US standard (also used in Turkey and other countries) is mg/dL.

An example is if you had a reading of 6 in the UK it would show as 108.0 on Turkish blood tests (quick conversion is UK reading x 18.

 

[Sally-Ann]

Hiya, I'm a Type 1 diabetic and get through about 6 or 8 test strips per day so living here in Turkey permanently it is VERY expensive to buy supplies on top of the ridiculous cost of insulin.
I use the "Code Free" machine which I bought from the UK on Ebay. I buy the test strips also on Ebay and it works out at less than half the price of buying Accu Check or any of the other big names. If you spend some time in the UK you can have the strips delivered there for free ( I sometimes have friends bring them for me in bulk). I regularly have them sent to me in Turkey though and have never had any problems with the post.
The machine is superb, I've probably had it three years or so now and I have no complaints at all. It only needs the tiniest blood drop and it's so simple to use. Just stick the strip in and it's ready to go.
So, buying a machine to keep in Turkey is a great idea but I wouldn't buy one here as the machine and the strips will both be more costly. Get a spare in the UK and bring it over. The code free machine never seems to suffer with the heat and I carry upto 50 strips at a time so I guess they could have been out of the fridge for upto a week by the time they get used and have NEVER given me an incorrect reading.