The below was taken from Jim Huck’s blog.
“So when I tested, I had to pee in a cup, then mix two drops of the
urine and ten drops of water into a test tube. Then, I added the little
blue pill, and believe me, when they said that pill could cause severe
burns, they weren’t kidding. The pill reacted violently with water, so
when you dropped the pill in the test tube, it would immediately
bubble, roil, and boil and heat the liquid to about 200 degrees F.
The liquid would change color. If it was blue, you were negative. If it
was green, you were spilling a small amount of glucose into your urine.
If it turned bright orange, you were most likely peeing honey.”
Now your starting the bad memories! Boy do I remember those clinitest tubes! NOT IN THE BEST WAY THOUGH!
Yeah, I remember the clinitest urine testing. My first five years went without home blood glucose testing.
hello! So nice to create this group!!
now the needles. The very long and big that the nurse used (from september to december 1967) and after the UK products that my parents found just before they found BD.
And some old things:
Wow - I know you wrote a blog about our medical devices we used before - but seeing the BIG pictures above - especially of the needle (I had a stone for sharpening mine believe it or not - Cave Woman I was ) - makes me cringe. Main thing is, we are alive!!!
Yes Danny, that’s what we used to use here in Canada as well for testing how much sugar we had in our urine. I was always excited when it turned blue or turqouise (good colours). Anything in the sunshine area - not good 
I think most of my results were middle of the road in the colour chart most of the time (don’t really remember much, except for the smell of the tablets fizzing - obviously not a memory I hold dear to my sponge brain) .
yest, Ames tubes and Clinitest and Acetest. Five drops of urine and 1O of water if I remember! Am I right?
And Anna do you remember the problem when a girl growed up? I think when I got menstruations we need more drops of water. I call it Prehistoric period or Stone Age period… yes, blue in this age means that there was no sugar but how many in the blood? No one knows…When I look at my glucometers who tell in 5 seconds how low or how high I am. And one of them tells me about ketones… And Anna when there was too much sugar it turned to orange and after to brown.
thank you Danny to create our TuDiabetes Museum!
With the urine testing that’s what I remember.
Yes, it was 5 drops of urine and 10 drops of water for sugar in urine and 1 drop of urine on the tablet for ketones. I remember hating that khaki color result, that meant the second test for ketones. And the navy blue result meant had to have a snack. This takes me back to being 5 again!
I remember the u40 BD needles having a red cap. I only used the U40, there were U80 and U100. In the late 70s/early 80s I switched to U100.This was a great improvement over my father shaping his needle and then boiling the needle and syringe for ten minutes.Progess is great!
Yes Brigitte - my memories are coming back with all the pictures and talk . I just knew that the year I went into DKA (3 days of coma) - I’d been testing my urine once in awhile - but they were always BRIGHT colours - and in the bad zone. The things I did for a year - and I was always getting ill with “flu”. I sometimes think I’m very lucky not to have had bad consequences of what I did.
Yes - progress is great - we now use 32 gauge needles - and I still hear newly diagnosed diabetics gripe about how horrible needles are - and it’s like … WTF!!! I’ll have to tell them to join up to Tudiabetes and check out Danny’s Photo Museum!
When I used to boil up my glass syringe in the distilled water, I had a mate (I lived in a bedsit in England) that would come down to the kitchen wondering if he could pop in a few eggs to boil up for tea! Me thinkest not!! I’m always surprised I actually sterilized things properly and didn’t get infections, as I was always anxious to get off to the pub.
Both pictures were displayed on the CDA’s National website, 50 year Anniversary , 2003 …the questions were part of a quiz.
Thanks Danny for your help getting them here !!
Part of Quiz on CDA’s National website , 50 th Anniversary , 2003 .
PS Thanks Danny for getting the photo here .
I remember this meter. It was the late 70’s and I was pregnanet. I grew up in Miami and I heard about this Dr. that was working with Diabetic pregnanet woman and the glucose monitoring was just kicking in. He was Dr. Jay Skylar with the DRI. There were like 5-6 Diabetic pregnanet woman that came to class every week. We were taught about managing our diabetes while being preganent. The Clinic loaned us the meter, gave us the strips and we had to stay in communication everyday with the nurse.
If I remember the needle would sway back and forth. A drop of blood on the strip, then the blood was washed off with this big bottle of water. The lancet was primitive. I had to uncap and stab! They did not have devices. Also I had to carry a book bag in order to carry all this stuff.
After delivery of my beautiful daughter. I had to give the meter back to DRI. I remember being so frighten at that point, concerned that I would not be able to manage Diabetes the same way as when I was recently taught.
Months later my sister loaned me the money so that I could purchase my own meter. $500! The strips were hard to come by. Only certain pharmacies would carry them…
Just think! If it was not for the simple thing like the Glucose Monitor our life expectancy as a Diabetic would deminish. Those of us that have had diabetes 35-40 years huge changes. Thanks for sharing the photos.
I got to use the actual original Ames “Dextrostix” occasionally although I wasn’t diagnosed until 1982.
When I was started on home bg testing the preferred brand were Chemstrips. But sometimes the pharmacy would run out of those and I would get the Ames Dextrostix because that’s all they could buy. They were fuzzy, had to be washed in water (as opposed to wiped like the chemstrips), and the slightest bit of humidity ruined them.
I can always tell folks who like me learned bg testing in the 80’s… they call all bg tests “chemstrips” 
I remember those red capos too! You guys are bringing back memories I thought I had forgotten! LOL!