Holy crap!
Up until two years ago I didn’t even have a glucometer or strips in my house and I am a type I. It is shameful to admit, but true. I just took a set amount of insulin every AM and PM of Humalog and NPH and that was it. I didn’t even have an endo, my family doc would run an a1c once a year and tell me to “take care of your type II diabetes, lose weight!” Even though he gave me prescriptions for insulin, I never bothered to tell him I was type I. I did this for about 5 years and then I got really, really sick. I thought I was going to die so I went out and bought a One Touch mini and started testing 2 times a day and added more tests a day as I got use to testing again. It was so hard but the alternative of dying didn’t sound good to me. So at 34 I became a born again diabetic. Now I am on the pump, count carbs like a fiend, and I test 12 times a day. I have never felt better in all my life. I did end up with some autoimmune issues and the beginnings of neuropathy but the rest of my body survived that horrible treatment (at least from what we can tell from the tests at this point in time).
So for anyone out there reading this who isn’t testing and is living in diabetes denial, please, please start taking care of yourself and test. It is so much better to test than the alternative!
a success story …congrats…thank you for being an advocate 
Born again diabetic (B.A.D.)–that’s a great phrase!
Kudos!
Dear Gerri.
Look at the discussion I started: " Can bad meters lead to good control" The comparaison between the accucheck and the one touch and lab results are given. It is pointless to do duplicates with the same meter because they agree well. In that case tthe average of the 2 different companies would give a value close to the true one.
I had a Bayer Elite 60 second one that was ALWAYS exactly 5% below the lab results over a wide range 90 to 250, it was a great meter and I would gladly wait 60 seconds to have a reading I could trust again.
It is way worst now I had a reading of 100 when I felt low. What do you do then? Lows are not a problem for me I really feel them below 65. It is a reading of 140 I no longer know what to do with. Because is it really 120 or is it really 160. The amount of insulin I have to inject to correct 120 or 160 is very different.
Dave do you have any comparaison between lab results and your favorite meter?
Dear Laura
Back to back checking with the same meter and same batch of tests strips is useless as the meters repeat themselves well. It is possible to get a bum reading because of sugar on the fingers at $1 a shot it pays to wash hands and wipe in paper towel.
Do you have any comparaisons between the lifescan and lab results?
Dear suzanne.
Remarquable story. Our med people should rot in hell. Thank god for the the supermarket chain Safeway. 11 years ago they sold me a meter and showed me how to use it and I got my A1c down from 11 to 6 % without any medical help. the old meters were super accurate.
Thanks, Anthony. Will check it out.
Just for the record I always compare my meter to the lab. I go about every 2 or 3 weeks because of all my illnesses and they always do a BG reading from the vein. I have them drop a bit in my meter and compare the results. I am never more then 7 points higher or lower. I assume other meters are about the same I just have not used them before. I have been told those are really good results don’t know why I got lucky but so far so good.
Be loved everyone
I’d appreciate other people’s advice about this. When I gathered up my meters to test against lab results, the lab tech insisted that the blood used be a finger prick. She said this was the only way to compare accuracy. I wanted her to do it the way Laura had it done. Wish I could remember the reason she gave. Didn’t make sense to me at the time because blood is blood as long as you’re using blood from the same area to test.
I think it has to do with what solution is in the tube. I have then take it out of the needle thing in my arm. At first they did not want to so I just said I can go to another lab who will do it. They like money so they do it. 
I have done it with finger checks though and then the difference is about 15 points if there is one. Not sure why though would be interesting to find out. I will try next time I go and ask then to explain.
Be loved Gerri
Thanks, Laura. Not sure if I’m remembering this correctly, but I think the lab tech said something about how the blood from the tube hasn’t been exposed to the air. Woud appreciate hearing what you find out. The women who work at the lab are so nice to me, so I didn’t want to make a fuss.
Hi Richard, what’s the name of the “fairly new UK site”, just out of interest. I’m a UK Type 1 you see!!
That might be why they take it from the thing in my arm. As soon as they get the drop on the needle it is exposed to air. Just like when you cut yourself the blood once seen is exposed. When I am in the hospital they also take the BG test from the wherever they draw blood so I am not sure why the issue. They are nice to me I guess I am just direct. They are so used to seeing me we are all pretty direct and open.
It may have to do with a comfort zone.
Be loved
Dear Gerri and Laura.
There is a difference in the blood sugar content between finger prick blood and blood drawn from the vein. But the meters are made for finger prick blood and should be calibrated to give results similar to the veinous one. This is true for the USA and Canada in Europe I am not sure how their meters are calibrated. My old Bayer elite was perfect it gave a reading always 5% below the lab results. you could really do good work to control your diabetes then. Now my 140 I dont know if it is 120 or 160. And if at least they were always low or always high you could correct a bit but I think the deviations are random.
I do not think that exposure to air would affect the glucose. the only issue is with the finger prick is to avoid dilution because of wet hands and to avoid evaporation of the small drop by being as fast as possible.
Not sure why there is a difference between the bloods will try and find out from hemotologist. Could be that the veinous blood sample is centrifuged before analysis and if the volume is not corrected to the initial one it would give higher readings because the cells are removed.
Amazing! I wonder if cost was a factor in this non-monitoring?
Thanks, Anthony. Maybe it’s what you said that meters are not calibrated for venous blood. Thank goodness we don’t have prick veins for testing. Though it makes me then wonder what the difference is there.
Blood for glucose measuring has to be used right away (or prepared properly) because the blood actually starts “eating up” the glucose. Found this out when my dog was having a blood panel & someone screwed up. Test results came back hypoglycemic because it sat around too long.
I stole it from George, the ninjabetic. I can’t take the credit
Hey Dave,
Good to see you kickin around.
John