Glucose Meters

I have tried a number of meters and ended up with the One Touch Ultra and OneTouch Mini and a deluxe, grandiose, overdramatic One Touch thingy where you can input food, calories, exercise etc.

That's the UltraSmart. All of the OneTouch monitors (Ultra, Ultra 2, UltraSmart and Ultra Mini) use the same strips, so if you have any of those, you'll be able to use the strips on any of them (this is for the person who wrote the original message). I've never used forearm testing, but I believe that at least the Ultra and the Ultra 2 DO have the ability to test on the forearm.

Personally, when I was diagnosed, there was no ability to use alternate site testing, and I never tried it, and still use finger stick testing. For anyone using insulin, it's really the best way to test. When you're suspecting a low BG and need to get an accurate test, the forearm testing is NOT as accurate; it's lagging behind the finger stick and you really need an accurate reading in those cases. For normal testing, for testing that doesn't need to be as in the moment precise, it might be a decent alternative, but I wouldn't trust it as an insulin user.

Oh, I do have, and have used, the UltraSmart (the one you called overdramatic and grandiose -- and it IS, to a certain degree) and I LOVE it, but I've never used all the features -- not because I didn't want to, but because though I set all the features up to be used, I became lazy with it. But it's a fantastic meter.