[Diabetes-Talk] Need information about accessible glucometers

[Andre Zelvin]

Hi all,
I'm pre-diabetic. I joined this list thinking I wanted to know what accessible equipment people are using so that I'll know what my options are if I need to know in the future. Well, It's very likely as later onset diabetes including needing insulin, is in my family. I could have guessed I wouldn't retain anything I read here if it wasn't immediately applicable.

I wasn't able to get my blood sugar under control following my doctor's recommendation which was just to cut out sugar and eat only whole grains. That was pretty much how I was eating already, eating very little sugar and mostly whole grain products. So,  that did nothing. she then said to eat low carb and I started to do that with very little guidance and I ended up with something close to the Keto diet but without following that diet's guidance on ratios. So, that pretty much worked. I even lost a chunk of weight which wasn't my goal but made the doctor happy.
The problem is it's costly to eat this way and I don't have the money for it. Since I practically went from all to almost nothing as far as carbs go, we came up with the idea I could add some back in, but test my blood sugar along the way so I could get more immediate feedback than waiting for my next appointment. 
so, here I am needing to know. Is there a write-up of what the current options are for a blind person for testing blood glucose? If not can someone give me a run-down? I have an iPhone which I. know is rellevant, and am on Medicare, but don't have prescription coverage, but do have a sliding scale medical center where I get anything that comes from their pharmacy at low cost. So, having no clue what I'm looking at, I know there's the machinery and then there's the strips or whatever supplies are needed, and my goal is to minimize expense, not convenience at this point, although if it becomes a long term thing, convenience will then be an issue. And if there's anything else anyone  thinks I should know, please share. Talk to me expecting that I know nothing.
Thanks for any help,
Andre