Ha…ha…I can relate…it ALWAYS happens when I am driving…my pump starts beeping for something…either “check BG”…High BG…calibration error…sensor end…I swear its always something, and I always check before I start driving…grr…it gets all tangled up in the seatbelt…then I worry because the pump is no longer close to the transmitter for the sensor…its just a complicated mess…always, always when I am driving…its soo annoying…of course, the obvious thing would be to pull over…which I don;t…
True, my Accu-Check IIM counted down about a minute while the giant blood drop changed the strip color (or whatever it was I was waiting for), then you had to wipe the strip with a cotton ball, insert the strip, wait at least another minute. It was almost faster just to use the color chart on the side of the bottle.
Patra. This is true. 900% markup. Pretty sad isn’t it? This is at least for the one touch. There was a post here somewhere regarding this. I am assuming that all the strips cost about a dime to make, but don’t quote me on that.
Yesterday…3 strips wasted. This am…2 already! I think it is done on purpose, those faulty strips…more $ to be made. Those %$#&^ rat %$#(& 's…LOL
I think it must be Planned Obsolesants!! LOL
I started off with a One Touch Basic too… that was the most horrible meter EVER. It took something like 5uL of blood… the most any current meter takes is 1uL, most are much less (freestyle is .3uL).
Nothing like getting up at 3am, coming up with a HUGE blood sample while you’re low… then waiting almost a minute for the results… I’m shocked I didn’t pass out - usually I’d start eating before the test was done because I knew I had to have something and I didn’t want to wait. It’s amazing how far things have come.
I find I have to take the gard off the lancet to get a good prick it hurts a bit more but otherwise one test strip out of 3 would be wasted.
Reading this post led me to finding the two sites listed below. I am getting the feeling that I’m in need of a new meter. Got the One Touch because it was free/endo recommended it to go with my pump. Now I’m thinking I might need something different. I’m having way too many wasted strips. I think I’m going to read up and see what I can get. Even if you aren’t looking into a new glucometer, some of the ones listed on these two sites are cool to look at(you can see some old ones that require a ton of blood).
http://www.mendosa.com/meters.htm
http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_technology/blood_glucose_meters.php
This made me crazy with the One Touch strips and the DexCom CGMS (the older DexCom models will only work with One Touch). The One Touch strips take a lot of blood, or a lot more than the Freestyle, and if you don’t fill the strip almost instantly, it will either error out, or, much more insidiously, sometimes complete the test but give readings which are much higher than you really are, so you can’t trust it and you need to use another one.
The waste of money makes me nuts, but even more, having to draw blood again for the retest. Freestyle meters are vastly better for this reason, IMHO.
I had a OneTouch Ultra until recently and had the same frustrating problems. However, now I use a FreeStyle Lite meter and am SO happy I switched! It won’t start to read the sample until you have added enough blood, and it only takes a really small drop, so no more error messages! You can probably get one free from your endo, and it also has a light that will light up the monitor and/or the test strip area in case you have to test in a dim location. I recommend it 100%!!