When Your Glucometer Fails Get a New One

I’m happy to announce I’ve got a new glucometer.

For the last couple weeks I’ve been having trouble with my glucometer. Checking my blood sugar had become quite annoying– pricking my fingers more than once and going through two or three test strips before getting a reading. A few times it took me five or six tries getting errors (ER 1) on the little screen.

I assumed this had something to do with the test strips I was using. I’ve been using Abbott’s Freestyle ever since I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (I actually had another glucometer for the first few months but quickly switched over).  When I started using the new code free strips with the butterfly tip, I loved them – quicker and needing less blood than before. But then they started to not read my BS at all, frequently showing ER1 and causing me pain and costing me and my insurance company money. I actually started to think maybe my technique was all wrong (over 9 years of diabetes and I don’t know how to check my blood sugar?).

I thought this had something to do with the strip recall I read about although the Freestyle Lite and Freedom Lite were not included in the recalled strips announcement.

Yesterday, annoyed once more at my glucometer after going through 3 test strips and two pricked fingers, I decided to try Jessica’s glucometer (she offered/suggested). Using my own test strips (don’t worry we have a common stash) I tried to check my blood sugar and guess what…? It worked the first time.

So today I went to get my new glucometer and I traded up from the FreeStyle Freedom Lite to the smaller model with backlight, FreeStyle Lite. To me these two features are very important since I carry my glucometer when I run. And if I run at night the light does come in handy, not to mention for middle of the night blood sugar checks!

Michael Aviad

Michael Aviad is co-founder of ASweetLife. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2002. Michael was born in Santa Barbara and grew up in Jerusalem. He studied law and after passing his bar exam went on to get an MBA with a major in finance. Michael worked for many years as an economist. He and his wife Jess, also a type 1 diabetic, have three sons. Michael loves to run and is always training for the next marathon.

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