Improvements in diabetes management!!!
before the days of small, compact…safe looking lancet devices, there was this thing. This is what the doctor used to test my bg with at the hospital when i was Dx’d
This used to be the best thing there was for getting the couple gallons of blood needed to test yourself. Aren’t you glad we don’t have to use those anymore?
I remember those back when I started the nursing program. Everybody was very excited about this new innovation!
Ive never seen this before…Fascinating though!
I remember being thrilled when my Endo gave me that device many years ago, while I was in the Hospital one time. I had complained to her about the small dreaded silver blade(can’t find the photo) that the Nurse’s used to Happily jab into my finger full force. Sometimes it felt like the blade was coming out the other side of my finger. My Endo understood and gave me hers with a full box of lancets. I think I still have it here somewhere. I’d pull it out everytime the Vampires came around. 
Yes, I prefer the newer ones.
When I was diagnosed, I found the safe, “pain free” lancet devices scary to use. I never considered how lucky I was not to be using one of it’s predecessors.
I think it was 1986+. And no you could not stitch someone with it Sarah.
i would assume that this beauty would feel like poking your finger with a steak knife…
No actually, it felt(to me) just slightly more painful than the devices we use now. The lance part was not as fine as they are now, of course. You could adjust the lance for depth by pushing the lance in or out a bit, as you can today. It just looked scary…similar to a guillotine action.
I never used one of these but did get jabbed many times with the little blade before it. brings back bad memories 
That is interesting. Odd that they would use that type. The company that made that Autolet was Ames, I think.
The blades>>>Real Bad memories>>>me too. :[
Yes, I remember that thing. I got one with my first Glucometer back in the early '80s. It’s a fairly intimidating device. But I was so happy with having an electronic blood glucose system that it overshadowed the big finger pricking thingy. I wish I still had it so I could show it to people. Thanks for posting the picture!
I remember this device when it became available. A nurse was explining how simple it was to use and then demonstrated on one of my finger tips. The most remarkable comment she made after “pulling the trigger” and then hearing me yell was “Oh, I guess you should always use the pad with the hole in it when getting the blood sample.” Of course she had not installed it!
I thought she’d struck bone. I chaulk it up to being on the low end of the teaching bell curve.
I also remember having a choice of pads that your finger rested against that were different colors. They were different thicknesses to control how deep the lancet penetrated the skin.
This memory makes me appreciate what’s available to us today.
faint oh wow, i don’t think so… i would rather poke myself with a needles, which i wouldnt recommend it hurts but its a good back up i guess lol.
OMG I soooo remember those!!! It stopped me from checking mine b/c I would always antecipate the pain of the “hangman”!!!Well that’s what I called it anyway! HA!
Yes thats the one!
My mother used it circa 1986 for about 7 years.
It was worse than a mousetrap.
I mean with a mousetrap, as you set it, you hope it ‘didn’t go off in your hands’.
But these things, you actually then had to set the trigger, then like a ‘hammerhead’ it came thundering down and ‘bang’ ‘kpow’, it really did hurt ( I know, I tried it a few times while trying to often optimise the setting of the lancets for my mother; after a lancet change of course).
Bang ! Snap ! Kpow " Ouch ! Eeewww!!
Those are the memories with that thing! We are lucky with any advancement in technologies.
Those were the days.
I think my hospital was under funded a bit cause they used it up until '98 for me. Then they switched to that really small one that they cram onto your finger it doesn’t look as scary but it actually hurts worse… has anyone else offered to use your own clicker to get a blood sample?
I’ve started doing that whenever I’m donating blood or at the endo’s office. Those little single-use bastards are the worst!