I think part of the reason is the old R/NPH exchange-diet sliding-scale regimen. There was only so much you could do with that stuff to fine-tune in response to your BG readings, so there wasn’t as much point in testing continuously. I think I was an a.m./p.m. tester back then pretty much. Actually I blew off the testing a lot of the time, except for the last two weeks leading up to an appointment.
I was a terrible kid. I would hardly ever test, but when I did, I saved the test strips with good (or at least desirable) results. The meters back then just read the color the test strip changed to, and you could just keep reusing the same strip over and over. If I wanted a treat, I would put my “low” strip in, get a predictably low reading, and justifiably indulge.
Before a doctor’s appointment I would do as many tests with those saved strips as I could turn out. Luckily it didn’t have date/time saved yet.
I didn’t know much about why I should actually take care of myself then, I only knew I had to game the system if I wanted to be a normal kid and look like I was playing along.
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What year and brand was that? I don’t recall any strips for BG testing that were reusable.
I recall testing urine in testtube, and added water and tablet to get urine glucose check.
Later, the bg strips with 2 pads, needed huge blood drop, apply wait 1 min, wipe then wait another minute then compare to colors on bottle (1980s).
I was diagnosed in '89. It was the original Lifescan OneTouch.
The strips weren’t ACTUALLY reusable. Rather, the meter didn’t yet have have the ability to register a used test strip like modern ones do. I would just start the meter without any strip in place, then slide an old used one in place as a childish manner to deceive the record. I wasn’t actually testing my current blood sugar, just trying to put the numbers I wanted in the memory bank in case someone paged through the saved data.
Wow, I never thought of that!
But when doing paper logs, and visual reads, I may have fudged a few!! In those days no A1C tests to back it up.
Neither do I. Re color-matching I remember the Chemstrips, which were pre-meter: you stuck you blood sample on, waited a while, then matched to the colors on the container, but they weren’t re-usable. You scissored them the long way to get two for the price of one:
Yep, I did that too !
When meter can out, I also got a “merlin” which somehow stored meter results. Can’t remember if it was wired to send or manual entry. Don’t think it was very popular. And there was one meter the size of a fountain pen. But best oldie is the guillotine lancet device.
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I had every one of those. I had the chem strips where u had to put the blood and time it then wipe the blood off and time it again. My glucometer required the same ridiculous wiping. Then when the exactech came out we didn’t need to wipe anymore.
it actually looked like a pen but display was so small you couldn’t read it. I’ve had so many different meters that they blur together now. I’m looking at getting a dexg6. I had the first gen of Dexcom and I had to connect a cable to my meter to calibrate it every 6 hours. Omg.
Currently on enlite Mm pump sensors but I’m thinking a g6 and tslim is going to be my next system. 10 years from now we will laugh again at the the technology
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Was that the 3 day STS sensor?
I started with medtronic sof-sensors first, and was much happier when I switched to Dexcom Seven and no more messing with ISIG factors.