So, bad batch the first time around?
Or bad blood? We haven’t ruled out your blood as the culprit 
Oh boy, you could get some major parental discipline mileage out of that one. Misbehaving? She has to take the 1986-era meter with her to that b-day party where the cute boy is gonna be that she’s been talking about.
And the barbaric 10 gauge lancing device that goes with it.
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No man, that thing was awesome!
It was the first meter I had, and it was so small. You had a choice between a credit card style, or a pen. The pen totally rocked. It was smaller than anything you can find today. It was like a James Bond gadget, because it really just looked like a pen. “Oh no, Mr. Blofeld, this isn’t a pen! It’s a blood glucose meter. The name is Bond. James Bond.”
Medisense Exactech was the name. It took 30 seconds to perform a test, which is kind of funny now.
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So with the new batch of strips I’ve been testing exhaustively and comparing every time to the truetest that I know and love. The true metrix are now reading reasonably consistently but 15-20 puts higher than the truetest… this is consistent with my long standing belief that the truetest read a bit low… so I’m feeling better about using them going forward assuming that their initial quality control problem is indeed ironed out. That aside-- my only complaint is that if you don’t get enough blood on them they nearly instantly give an error message and waste a strip instead of having a bit of a delay to add more blood-- I could probably learn to adapt to this-- and at $42.99 for 300 if they keep reading true they will be a good option. Will update again if they pose any more concerns
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Okay, this is really bad. Here we are 30 years later, and the meters have gotten BIGGER?!?!??!?
I want one of those pen meters. That thing is AWESOME!!! imagine individually wrapped and sealed strips (to keep them dark and away from oxygen), kinda like band-aid packaging. You could throw 5 or so in your pocket with your pen.
Did the pen have a lance built-in too?
Aaaahhh!!! This was my first meter, too!!! It was 1991 (when I was diagnosed), but it was the same meter, the credit-card one. It really was smaller and lighter than most meters today.
Incidentally, @Dave26, if you want foil-wrapped strips today, you can get them with the Precision Neo meter—which is also an incredibly thin meter that weighs almost nothing (I actually think it’s the modern version of the ExacTech, since that meter had virtually the same foil-wrapped strip design). The only reason I’m not using it as my main meter (it’s my emergency backup meter) is that the screen lacks a backlight, which is a deal-breaker for me. But it’s an e-ink pseudo-touchscreen display, so otherwise awesome. And, if all that weren’t enough, the meter can measure blood ketones with special ketone strips, too (this is also why it’s my backup meter: who wants to mess with urine ketone strips when you’re out and about and your blood sugar is 20 mmol/L!).
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[quote=“Jen, post:27, topic:56016, full:true”]
Incidentally, @Dave26, if you want foil-wrapped strips today, you can get them with the Precision Neo meter—which is also an incredibly thin meter that weighs almost nothing (I actually think it’s the modern version of the ExacTech, since that meter had virtually the same foil-wrapped strip design). [/quote]
https://www.myfreestyle.com/sites/all/themes/free_style/images/precesion_neo_meter_main.png
Awesome, Jen! And only $20 for the meter, the strips are pretty cheap too (50 run $25-30 various online sources).
I’m going to get one simply for the convenience of those flat, individually-wrapped strips and the thin meter. With the new Insulet Dash system coming out soon, I’ll be pitching my current PDM and getting the new one, which doesn’t have a meter integrated.
@Sam19, have you looked at this system and strips? I know the new Truemetrix system is working now, but this looks like a decent inexpensive alternative.
I already have so much crap in my pockets already that I am loathe to carry around a bottle of test strips too. This is a very nice alternative.
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The meters may have gotten bigger, but the lancets have certainly gotten smaller. Here’s a picture I took of an old 1991 lancet (blue) alongside a 2007 (OneTouch, I believe) lancet (white). Sorry for the crappy 2007-era picture resolution! I’m pretty sure I have another 1991 lancet sitting around somewhere in my diabetes stuff. If I could find it, I’d take the cap off so that I could do a 1991 and 2017 lancet gauge comparison.
And yet, they can get Loony Tunes characters on Band-Aids, but can’t seem to put pictures on the sides of lancets like, oh, donuts, whole-bag-o-lays, stuff like that.
Well, one company did come out with those rainbow lancets. Bayer, I think it was. And Abbott does put butterflies on their test strips… All other companies settle for their boring logos.
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It is insane that everything got so much bigger than the wonderful Exactech. Part to the reason is the battery. Most testers these days use the 2032 battery that you have to replace. The Exactech had a non-replaceable built-in battery. Every few years it would give you a low battery message, and you would get a FREE replacement meter from the company! It was brilliant. They make the money off the strips, not the meter.
The other thing they did, which is different than now, is that part of the power came from the strip. The tester battery lasted so long because it only needed to power the display, not the whole test, if that makes sense.
The Exactech had no light - I agree with Jen, that is a deal-breaker now. And 30 second count for tests seems bad now in comparison. But the individually wrapped strips were so cool. Waterproof and everything.
Dave26, the pen tester did not have a lancet, but I did make a lancet holder that was a pen cap that would fit over the top of it.
And people, those lancets you are using! Noooooo! Those are not easily recapped! Use the BD lancet. You can recap then and the CAP STAYS ON!
Trust me on the BD lancet. Try them! Those are the best (BD on the left, that’s the one you want!).
And if I recall, it only remembered ten tests with a date stamp only (no time). And the blood sample was something like 5-10 µL—most meters today require 0.3 to 0.6 µL. And I think you weren’t supposed to touch the strips with anything other than blood—finger oils and such could mess them up, and the blood was supposed to cover the entire target area on the test strip. I remember it being something of an ordeal figuring out how I (as a legally blind kid) could get blood exactly in the middle of that test pad without smearing it everywhere and without touching the strip with my fingers. The blood-sucking test strips came out when I was in high school, and I thought they were the coolest thing. Overall, though, it was a great meter.
And since it was the only meter in town, you didn’t really know how accurate it was! There was nothing to compare it to!
$25-30 for 50 strips is out of the question for me. The ones I buy run $13-15 per 100
That’s $.50 to .60 ea vs .13 to .15