Blood

This is my blood glucose testing kit:

And my other blood glucose testing kit. And my other blood glucose testing kit.

You are probably wondering why I have three blood glucose testing kits. That's a very good question, and I'm still a little unclear myself as to how this happened.

First, a quick explanation of the kit itself. As part of my gestational diabetes management plan, I have to measure my blood glucose levels 6 times a day: once before every meal, and again 2 hours after each meal. This helps me to see whether my meal plan (more on that later, if I get around to it) is helping my blood sugar levels to stay in check, and if not, it helps me link blood sugar spikes to particular foods so that I can adjust my meal plan accordingly.

The little monitor that looks a little like a pedometer is the glucose reader. The plastic cylinder contains test strips that you insert into the base of the pedometer right before a reading. The plastic blue and gray device is the finger pricker, which shoots a tiny needle out and quickly retracts it at the push of a button in order to draw a drop of blood, that can then be sucked up by the test strip and read by the monitor. And the colorful plastic bits are the needles, which you replace every few days. It all fits nicely into the little black zippered case (as does the book [not shown] in which I record my glucose levels).

It's really not so bad once you get used to it. I've (mostly) figured out how to prick my finger so it draws enough blood on the first try, and it only hurts a little. In fact, I sort of look forward to my blood testing and the "what will my glucose levels be this time?" anticipation (especially since so far I have only spiked once, and that was just barely).

The kit comes with test strips, but it's only a sample-size package of 10. So the nurse wrote a prescription for more test strips, which I picked up from the Provo Smith's, which is apparently the most recent pharmacy I'd designated in my records. I ran out of the sample package after 8 pricks because I was still learning how to draw enough blood from these fingers of mine, which apparently don't like to give up blood easily, and wasted 2 strips on unsuccessful finger pricks. So on Wednesday when I went to take my reading before dinner, I opened up the new package, inserted one into my monitor, and got an error message. I tried another one with the same result, and quickly realized that I'd been given the wrong kind of test strips.

At that point I was dying of hunger, but I wasn't supposed to eat until I took a reading. The Provo Smith's was at least a 15 minute drive away, and so I loaded Jin into the car and drove up the road to the much closer Orem Smith's in the hope that they could still help me out. I showed them the old strips and the new strips and they confirmed that I did indeed have the wrong type of strip (for the Contour model, rather than the Contour EZ model), and they hemmed and hawed and told me I would probably have to go back to the Provo Smith's, and I said, "I'm supposed to be taking my reading right now," and "I guess maybe one missed reading will be okay?" Which maybe it would have been, but the pharmacist said, "Here. Just take one of these," and handed me a new monitor in an unopened package. "It has ten sample strips in it, so that should get you through until you can get to Provo."

He didn't charge me for the box, or even get my insurance info, or even scan anything. He just handed it to me, and all of a sudden I had 2 blood glucose monitors, one of which I needed only for the little sample-size container of test strips.

The next day I stopped at the Provo Smith's after work to get the issue resolved. Once again I showed them my test strips, and the original container, and they confirmed exactly what the Orem Smith's had confirmed, but they seemed even more baffled about what to do than the Orem Smith's pharmacy. This surprised me, because I thought the hemming and hawing the day before had to do with the fact that I hadn't picked up my prescription at that particular pharmacy. In the end, I had three people working on my case, typing on the computer, shuffling through drawers and shelves. Finally the head pharmacist said, "Well, I'll just give you a regular Contour monitor. That should work with the strips you have, and you'll have a 0% copay."

Apparently giving me a new monitor that would work with the strips was an easier fix than giving me strips that would work with my monitor! And thus I walked out of the store with monitor #3. Folks, they are giving away blood glucose monitors like candy.* Free candy. If you're interested.

I've saved this part for last in case any of you are squeamish about blood. Brian made a Vine video** of me testing my blood sugar, so you can see the whole process (condensed down to 6 seconds, which is about how long it takes the monitor to read your blood sugar after it sucks up your blood). Enjoy! (Or scroll up so that you don't have to look at my blood on a continuous loop as you read this. Unless it's not actually embedded, because I've been having trouble getting it to work, in which case if you're interested you can just click on the link here: https://vine.co/v/bpEdI3TO13W.)





* Which, of course, I can't really eat right now anyway...

** Vine is basically visual Twitter. Instead of 140 characters of text, you get 6 seconds of video. Brian was assigned Vine for a presentation in his Social Media class, and has been experimenting with it for the past week.