OK, so we all know about the BIG pains-in-the-butt that come with diabetes… the carb counting, the highs, the lows, the insurance company battles, the list goes on.
Then there are the secondary annoyances. The stuff that doesn’t kill us, but still ticks us off on a regular basis. The stuff that should be easy for a manufacturer to fix, if only they tried.
My pet peeve of the day is Glucose Tablet Dust. If I’m out and need to pull a G-Tab from the tube in my pocket, I pop the cap and dump a couple in the palm of my hand. The dust goes all over the place. 0
(More likely than not, I’m wearing black on that day). Later, I refill the little tube from the big container, and get G-Tab dust all over my nightstand.
What are the little D annoyances that constantly bug you? The stuff that could be fixed … easily … if only somebody tried?
(Thanks, Pamaloo, for referencing this in another post and inspiring me to ask the question)
Dead test strips in places you could never imagine. But I doubt this can be fixed by anyone but me. I’m too lazy to carry a spare empty container to stash my used strips.
Regarding the dust…I want a my tabs to pop out like Peez. In fact, put a cute head on the thing. If we have to go low, we might as well have a little fun.
While on the subject…things are getting better, but does everything related to diabetes have to be ugly. Instead of us all replacing those butt-ugly meter bags with better looking ones THAT WE have to $$PURCHASE$$$, why can’t meter companies package them with decent looking bags to start with!!!
I don’t have too much problem with escaping test strips as I have places to put them in every room. What I find everywhere are the little blue things that are on the top of pen needles and the even smaller blue things that cover the needle in my animas insets. My tablecloth and placemats are blue so they virtually disappear and reappear on me!
Certain brands of test strips’ bottles are too small to get your finger in and retrieve a test strip. You have to use up like 10 strips before it’s easy to get one out. Annoying! Also, the belt clip on my Animas Ping pump is awful. Just plain awful. It needs to be spring loaded like the belt clip on the MiniMed. It is so hard to clip on anything, sometimes I just want to throw it across the room.
And I’m SO with you on the glucose tab dust. The worst is when you accidentally breathe it in.
I don’t leave test strips around, but I always get yelled at by Mrs. E when I leave these little clips lying around (the ones that I plug into the infusion set when disconnecting my pump to shower/swim, etc)
I’m undecided about that. The old BD test strip bottle was so small I had to dump half the bottle in the palm of my hand to get one out (-1), but at least it was small (+1). The OneTouch Ultra strips had a large vial (-1) that I could easy fit my finger in (+1). But now I’ve discovered they come with 50 strips instead of 25, so you can’t reach in to take one out (-1). Still, it beats (I think) the old Bayer Glucometer/Ascensia Elite strips which were individually wrapped in foil.
Haha I feel so honored! Besides the dreaded glucose tablet dust that I always choke on, leaky juice boxes that end up soaking my purse or anything nearby are really annoying. I’m not sure why they aren’t made to be more durable, but I guess they were not made for us diabetics in mind. I guess this could be avoided by using bottles but the boxes are much easier to carry around.
The One Touch Ultra Strips bottle can sometimes be really hard to open if it is a new bottle or they are in the kit case weirdly, or when I’m shaky and low. I have managed to spill them all over the place (it’s like a big ole POP of diabetes supply confetti!) in various places when trying to test discretely. But maybe that’s just me…
Totally, the strips that wander everywhere no matter how careful I am, and 2-3very inconsistent readings within 30 secs. I also hate the ugly cases, have replaced every one, they scream ‘medical stuff’.
25 strips per container. I have actually started using an old Tums tube that seals really well. Skinnier and a bit longer, fits in the elastic thingies, and holds 50 strips. I hate wasting all those containers… why can’t they make like a 500 pack that you can use to refill the little containers? Speaking of waste… all the plastic I toss from infusion sets.
Leaky juice boxes… does anyone remember Monojel? It was a bright green sticky, sweet glucose gel that came in a flat foil pouch. You would tear off the end and squeeze the horrible stuff in your mouth if you were low. I remember having it in the mid-1980s. My mother would make me keep it in my sock so it was always with me, but the pouch would inevitably crack and the green stuff would ooze all over. Disgusting!
The downside: Pen needle covers, old test strips, the occasional used band aid… My teenage son leaves these things all over the house. He also carries a package of peanut butter crackers in his backpack and they tend to get crushed and we have to throw them away
The upside: It’s proof that he is actually testing his bs levels and using these things!
I read somewhere recently that those plastic travel soap boxes work great for storing a small juicebox. I have not tried it yet but if I ever remember to buy one I’m going to try.
Agreed. I hate how the one touch strips don’t draw in the blood very well so I have to give a huge sample for it to work and get Er5 half the time and know I just wasted one of my super expensive test stips since my insurance sucks a$$ for syringes and test strips. Grrrrrr.
How about getting a key ring glucose tab carrier - a little box that just fits however many glucose tablets - so that they do not bash around and become dusty. Light weight and easy to carry on your keys. Or, put some cotton wool at the top of the tube you use to press the tabs down and prevent them turning to dust!
Another thing would be to use gel or liquid glucose instead - it tastes better and also works quicker!
My pet peeve is where test strips end up! I have found them in really strange places and not where I think I have got rid of them! And I hate the way that needles are so fiddly to put back together when you have used them, with 2 caps! I have problems with doing things fiddly and I am always dropping things, or cannot put them together!
Yes! How about a Pez dispenser like Bug74 suggested for test strips. Would be helpful if they popped out one at time & this would keep them drier also.
I absolutely agree with you on the Animas Ping belt clip. It’s not only a bad design but it had to have been an easily foreseeable defect and they chose to do nothing to make it better. Didn’t they do any user tests on this stuff??! If they don’t get a better clip next time out then I’ll be shopping elsewhere.
The other thing about the Ping system is the One Touch remote scroll speed. When you want to deliver insulin through the remote you inevitably scroll way past then correct way under and then slowly single step to dial up the needed dose. I stopped using the Ping remote in part due that scroll problem. Another failure of their user testing program. I understood these problems within weeks of starting to use the system. I don’t get the corporate decision to go soft on user testing.
In fact I think they should hire a few hundred of us!
Did you ever try to open a Dex4 glucose 50 tab bottle when your blood sugar was like in the 40s? With eyesight, dexterity, and cognitive focus skating on thin ice; it’s not a pretty picture. It’s a twist of irony that only a T1 could fully appreciate. Emergency glucose – so close yet so far away!
