Has this ever happened to anyone? After asking if something is unsweetened, aka, has no added sugar in it, and are told that no, it hasn’t been sweetened, and so you take a big gulp of it, only to learn two seconds later that yep, there’s 7Up and apple juice in there! Are you kidding me? How is that NOT sweetened? I wrote a blog post on it. Here’s the link: http://princessofpavement.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/mrs-raspberrys-definition/
I get slammed with caffeine now and then – I can NOT have caffeine as it sends my heart into the whirly-gigs: thumpata whumpata bump.
Every once in a while a barista or waitress accidentally or on purpose gives me the real thing.
Whomp. Whomp. Whomp.
What can you do? Just do your best, deal with it and move on. Or stay home, wrapped in cotton batting.
Sigh.
I once had a glass of “Diet Coke” at a pub with friends. I didn’t eat anything. When I arrived I’d been 6.6 (119 mg/dl), and when I left two hours later I was 23.1 (416 mg/dl).
There is NO WAY that drink was diet! Still not sure why the heck I didn’t notice that it tasted different, as usually regular Coke tastes totally nasty to me.
Yeah, but over time, I’ve learned NOT to take a big gulp. I take a little sip.
That’s not error-free. Sometimes I’m not paying attention or, yeah, my taste buds are off.
That’s why I only have diet drinks if they come in a can/bottle to the table, or if I can get them myself from the soda fountain.
I have heard that some people carry around urine test strips with them for this purpose.
I started on urine test strips 30+ years ago before home bg testing was available. So I used to have a stock for testing soda… but that was super duper long ago!
If I wanted to buy glucose-in-urine test strips today… what do I ask for? I tried asking for “Testape” at pharmacies but none of them knew what I was asking about. I suspect that’s a brand name from my childhood and doesn’t exist anymore.
Diastix…
or Keto Diastix = Ketones and Glucose
Thats the brand names I know of …
Many pharmacists will give you a look or have to order them.
When I was first diagnosed in 1994, you used to be able to buy Testape in drugstores. It looked like a small scotch tape dispenser, but it was actually a yellow tape something like ketostix. You tore some off and dipped it in your drink - the darker green it turned, the more sugar in the drink. I used to use it to test fountain diet cokes, and caught a mistake more than once. If anyone knows where to find them, please post!!
And yeah - it’s amazing how non-dibetics seem to think that juice and liquid sugar “don’t count”. I love Giada de Laurentiis on the Food Network, but I wish she’d stop adding sugar syrup to drinks made with juice. They must be jaw-achingly sweet - ugh.
Katie,
That is another advantage to having a CGM. I had a regular soda given to me in a restaurant (I can’t taste the difference) and immediately my blood sugar starting going up. My son was with me so I had him taste my drink and he said it was regular. But it saved me from drinking the whole thing. I always ask the server when they deliver it if it’s diet and you’d be surprised how many times they say “oh no, it’s regular, I’ll go get you diet”. I also carry Keto-Diastix now too.
Linda
I can usually tell and just get a new one. I have drank so much Diet Coke that the real thing sort of jumps out of the glass @ me.
Jean – thank you for the term “whirly-gigs” – it is now going to be a vital part of my vocabulary. 
My husband is my official drink tester. It’s just one of may dubious honors that comes with being married to me. When I’m not with him and don’t have a stand in drink tester handy – I stay away from anything other than water or things I can buy sealed in a bottle.
Went to McDonald’s and requested a diet Dr. Pepper (yeah McDonald’s!!!.. you are about the only restaurant that serves anything other than Diet Coke.). One hour later looked at my Dexcom and I was at 180 with two up errors. That was no Diet Dr.Pepper. I’m just more careful now making sure I verify that I get diet.
I did restaurant work when I was in my 20’s and found out that when they are attaching the hoses from a new tank of soda to the dispenser, they’re not always real careful to be sure that the hoses are connected where they should be for diet or regular. Sticking to water or iced tea in a restaurant or a stadium is a good idea. (I can’t tell the taste difference easily, either).
I buy Keto-Diastix strips so that they have a dual function. I use them for testing fountain soda when I think it tastes “funny” and then use them for testing ketones when I’m high and think it might be related to a pump problem.
What I think is interesting is that the few times I test my urine for “sugar” just for the heck of it, I very rarely test positive even if my BG is way up in the 200’s. So when people say that you always “spill sugar” when your BG is above 160 or 180, that just ain’t necessarily so. I have to be really high for a long time before I start showing positive on the Diastix.
I started with Keto-Diastix when I was diagnosed in 1976. I never used Clinitest or TesTape. My memories of those days is that most of the time I tested positive and a lot of the time got the “dreaded” dark brown. I’m sure that my BG’s ran incredibly high most of the time. When I see newbies freak out about an occasional 200 or 250 and become convinced that they’ll lost their leg tomorrow or go blind, they just don’t know how lucky they are that they have a clue what their BG is. And in general I’m sure that most Type 1’s who test at all have much better BG numbers than most of us did in the 1970’s.
I get mine from Edgepark along with the rest of my supplies.
Since I don’t drink either Reg or Diet soda, I usually drink water with double lemon and have an unsweetened lemonade. Or you could add artificial sweetener if you like it sweet. I don’t.
I also carry a supply of diastix to test for soda. It seems hard to tell the difference between diet and regular soda with fountain drinks,especially. Sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes not, but testing with diastix has saved me many times. I can’t tell you the number of times before I caught on to using diastix that I wondered why my blood sugar leaped up when I ate out and ate nothing to make it leap sky-high. What’s amazing is how quickly restaurants will replace soda with no questions asked when you tell them it’s not diet. Seems to me it’s done more than you want to know - and they know it, too. One time a waiter even came to tell me they had checked the cord connections and found it was to the wrong drink.
You can use your meter strips to test also.
I would say it is an honor, period.
I have a few designated ‘carb assistants’ whose role is to help me finish carb on my plate. That way I get to have a small taste of tasty carb without my BG going crazy. People are very happy to help finish up French fries!
I love fish and chips but can only have them when I am eating with a carb assistant. However the other day I found a place that does children’s portions. I asked if I could order one and they said no problem. It was a perfect size and I was thrilled with my PP numbers.