| I'm astonished you've never been told to self-test - the first thing they did when they bundled me off to hospital was to get the Accutrend out and since then I've been testing 5-7 times a day every day.
As for buying a bg monitor - you'll actually probably find it cheaper buying one from your chemists - they're usually no more than about £20, and they'll be able to tell you exactly what you need on prescription to use it.
I use the Accutrend Active - takes 5 seconds to do a reading, the stabber's got variable needle depth so it's pretty much pain-free, and it's really tiny (smaller than most mobile phones). | 
